In
Phillips v. Monson, (Westminster Magistrate's Court, March 20, 2014), a British magistrate's court set aside two summonses for fraud that were issued by the court last month ordering the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to appear to answer to charges that seven specified teachings of the Mormon church violated Britain's Fraud Act 2006. The summons were issued on the complaint of a private citizen-- a former member of the Mormon church who runs a website critical of the church. (See
prior posting.) In yesterday's decision, the court concluded that the essential elements of a fraud violation were not set forth in the information presented. The magistrate judge went on to find:
It is obvious that this proposed prosecution attacks the doctrine and beliefs of the Mormon Church, and is aimed at those beliefs rather than any wrong-doing of Mr. Monson personally. The purpose is to use criminal proceedings to expose the false (it is said) facts on which the church is based.
.... To convict, a jury would need to be sure that the religious teachings of the Mormon Church are untrue or misleading.... No judge in a secular court in England and Wales would allow that issue to be put to a jury. It is non-justiciable.
I am satisfied that the process of the court is being manipulated to provide a high-profile forum to attack the religious beliefs of others. It is an abuse of the process of the court.
BBC News and
Deseret News report on the decision.
[Thanks to Austin Smith for the lead.]
