This past week a federal Minnesota grand jury handed up a 19-page superseding indictment naming 30 additional defendants in the Cities Church riot of January 18. I have uploaded a PDF of the superseding indictment to Scribd and embededded it below. The full roster of defendants now numbers 39, including ringleader Nekima Levy Armstrong and reporter/promoter Don Renaldo Lemon. The superseding indictment charges the same two counts as the original indictment.
ABC News covered the superseding indictment in a story with good photographs here. Cities Church counsel Doug Wardlow posted a statement that comports with the allegation of the indictment. Wardlow’s statement includes this paragraph:
The invasion of Cities Church was a planned, coordinated effort to disrupt a worship service and interfere with religious exercise that placed congregants, including children, in fear for their lives. The First Amendment does not give anyone—regardless of profession, prominence, or politics—license to storm a church and intimidate, threaten, and terrorize families and children worshipping inside.
It appears that the case is being run by lawyers under the supervision of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. From the initials on the indictment, I take it that the case has been assigned to Judge Laura Provinzino and Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko among a federal bench in open revolt against the Department of Justice, including the Office of the United States Attorney. In Minnesota federal district court, by the way, juries are drawn from an area that extends far beyond the Twin Cities. Although the judge may be the problem in prosecuting a case like this, jurors should not.
Students of ancient history may recall that Magistrate Judge Micko has already held probable cause was lacking to charge three of the original participants in the riot (including Lemon), a problem that was ultimately resolved by submission of the case to a grand jury. One can only hope against hope that AAG Dhillon’s team can get a fair shake from Judge Provinzino and Magistrate Judge Micko in the case.
