Father of slain Marine wins case against foul Phelps family
By Michelle Malkin • October 31, 2007 04:12 PM
I pointed you last week to the legal case of Albert Synder, who took the foul Phelps family to court over their reprehensible protests of fallen military heroes. Snyder claimed invasion of privacy and emotional harm from the radical haters’ demonstration at his son’s funeral. Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder died in Anbar province in a vehicle accident last year. The verdict is just in from the Baltimore Sun:
Albert Snyder of York, Pa., the father of a Westminster Marine who was killed in Iraq, today won his case in a Baltimore federal court against members of Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church who protested at his son’s funeral last year.
The jury of five women and four men awarded Snyder $2.9 million in compensatory damages. The amount of punitive damages to be awarded has not yet been decided. The jury deliberated for about two hours yesterday and much of today.
Snyder was the first in the nation to attempt to hold members of Westboro Baptist Church legally liable for their shock protests at military funerals after the church protested the military’s inclusion of gays at the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, a 2003 Westminster High School graduate who died March 3, 2006, in a vehicle accident in Anbar province.
In June 2006, Snyder sued the tight-knit fundamentalist Christian church and three of its members individually. The father argued that Westboro’s demonstrations exacerbated his pain and suffering in March 2006 while he mourned the death of his only son.
Specifically, he charged that they violated his privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional harm and engaged in a conspiracy to carry out their activities. The jury decided in Snyder’s favor on every count.
The Synder website has legal documents from the case here. Send him a note of congratulations and thanks here.
Michelle Malkin » Breaking: Father of slain Marine wins case against foul Phelps family