Rules challenged as violating 'principles of free expression'
Posted: January 30, 2010
12:10 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
 Roseville, Calif., shopping mall |
Arguments have moved to the appellate court level in a California
case in which a man talking to two willing strangers in a shopping mall
was arrested because the subject of the conversation was God.
The case developed several years ago when a youth pastor was arrested at the Galleria Mall in Roseville, Calif., for having a conversation about religion with two other people.
Matthew Snatchko, who works
with youth at his church, was interrupted in the middle of a
conversation by a security guard. A second guard joined the
confrontation and told Snatchko he was being placed under citizen's
arrest for "trespassing."
The pastor said he agreed to leave but instead, the guards
grabbed him, roughly shoved him against a storefront window and
handcuffed him tightly enough to draw blood. Snatchko later was taken
to the police station where he was booked on charges of battery and
trespassing.
A short time later the charges were dropped, but officials with the Pacific Justice Institute decided to pursue a case against the mall over the impact of the policy on free speech.