Accuser tells the truth!

Yesterday, a herd of elephants created an unexpected delay in my busy morning, but instead of becoming frustrated about all of the obstacles which have been placed in our path recently, I was strangely at peace. I was on my way to the Kern County District Attorney's office to provide the prosecutor (Deputy District Attorney Chris Hinkle) with photographs which we intend to present as evidence during our upcoming trial.

When the elephants finally passed by, I finally was able to go to the building where the District Attorney's office is located. A receptionist offered to give my papers to Hinkle, but I thought it best to give them to him personally. So I braced myself for a hostile encounter with the prosecutor (like I had experienced the previous day).

But Hinkle burst out of the door with a huge smile, acting like he was genuinely glad to see me. He briefly glanced at the papers I was giving him, and then he sat down next to me as he explained his good news. (For a moment I thought, "why is he so happy? Did he come up with some new 'evidence' against us?")

Johnny Stanley

"Yesterday I spoke to the security guard, Johnny Stanley," Hinkle began. "Stanley told me that he has never seen you or Terri step on their property. The police report is wrong!"

We knew all along that if Johnny Stanley told the truth, we could not be found guilty of trespassing. He had recently taunted Terri for being "too chicken to step on the property." But would he tell the truth in court? Our past experience with him gave us great cause for doubt.

After all, this is the same Johnny Stanley who threw our teddy bears in the trash, accusing them of "trespassing," the same guard who called Terri's prayer a "terrorist threat," the same one who tried to prevent a girl from walking in the abortion chamber's parking lot when all she wanted to do was to show us her baby who was saved from abortion.

We had identified various witnesses who could testify to the truth if Johnny lied, but the devil was throwing so many problems at our witnesses that we wondered if we would be able to get any of them on the witness stand.

Prosecutor Hinkle went on to explain that if he could just resolve one more issue, the charges would go away. He needed to verify that one of our witnesses, a property owner who has given us permission to be on his property, has legal access to the alley. Hinkle had noticed that this property owner's parking lot has a sign directing all traffic through the same alley, so Hinkle sounded sincerely optimistic that this issue could be resolved in our favor. "Hopefully, we can just dismiss this on Monday morning," Hinkle concluded.

The prosecutor went on to express concern about the fact that "Johnny Stanley says that Terri has been assaulted out there many times."

"That's true," I said, telling him about a recent situation where an irate woman came onto the property of our LifeHouse pregnancy help center (which is across the street from the abortion chamber), and began throwing white crosses at Terri. The white crosses had been placed on our lawn in memory of the children who are killed each week in Bakersfield's abortion chamber.

I went on to tell Hinkle that Terri had told the assailant to get off of our property because she was trespassing, and that we had provided the police with a videotape of the incident which clearly showed the woman assault Terri.  "But the District Attorney refused to prosecute the case," I explained.

Deputy District Attorney Hinkle had no response.

As we appear to be approaching the end of this particular battle, we are always mindful of the fact this has been primarily a spiritual battle, and that you have played a key role as you have upheld us in prayer. Have any of you prayed specifically that our accusers would be prevented from lying about us?  If so, I hope you will rejoice with us at how quickly God answered your prayers!

When God is on our side (or, more appropriately, when we are on God's side), not even a herd of elephants can stand in our way. (By the way, if you think I'm kidding about that herd of elephants thing, the whole story is available in today's Bakersfield Californian.)

Thank you again for standing with us. Please continue to intercede until this victory is final.

In Christ's service for those who cannot speak for themselves,

Tim Palmquist

> > Next trial report (7/12/05)