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The family of an Omaha sailor killed in Iraq said Monday that Sarpy County “dropped the ball” in compromising with a Westboro Baptist Church leader.
The county reached a tentative deal with the church leader, Shirley Phelps-Roper, and charges against her will likely be dismissed.
She is charged with negligent child abuse and disturbing the peace in connection with a protest in Bellevue three years ago. Her trial did not start Monday as scheduled because her attorney and Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov were negotiating an agreement.
The courthouse was packed with Phelps-Roper's family, witnesses and media, including a documentary crew.
Polikov was expected to drop the charges in exchange for Phelps-Roper dropping a civil suit she filed against him and two other Sarpy County attorneys.
Phelps-Roper filed that lawsuit Aug. 9, seeking damages for allegedly restricting her First Amendment rights.
As part of the deal, Phelps-Roper also would remove Sarpy County from a pending federal case.
“I am so disappointed in Sarpy County,” said Connie Chaney, mother of Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jeffrey Chaney, 35, who was killed in Iraq in July 2007. “I thought that Sarpy County would stand up to them.”
Connie Chaney and her son, Randy Chaney, both wearing T-shirts honoring Jeffrey Chaney, said they attended the hearing to support the troops. Connie Chaney said Phelps-Roper and other members of the church in Topeka, Kan., protested at her son's visitation in Omaha in 2007.
The Chaneys were hoping the judge would at least set limitations to the group's protesting and not allow children to be involved.
“It seems like it's a money thing,” Randy Chaney said of the potential agreement. “Sarpy County was scared away by lawsuits.”
Polikov would not comment after Monday's court proceedings because Douglas County Judge Joseph Caniglia, who is handling the case, ordered that all attorneys involved not discuss the case with media until the agreement is finalized.
Caniglia is handling the case because all of the Sarpy County Court judges recused themselves after Phelps-Roper tried to sue one of them.
“The deal is ‘You stop prosecuting us for our religion, and we'll stop suing you for prosecuting us for our religion,'” Phelps-Roper said Monday. “All we want is for (Sarpy County) to obey the law.”
The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the month. Phelps-Roper's attorney, Bassel El-Kasaby, said he contacted Polikov on Friday.
“I never want to lose the opportunity to compromise,” El-Kasaby said. “It avoids liability for the county, and it closes the chapter.”
In the Sarpy County courtroom Monday morning, Polikov told Caniglia “we're almost there” in finalizing an agreement.
The charges stemmed from a protest in June 2007 at the funeral of a Bellevue soldier, during which Phelps-Roper's 10-year-old son stood on an American flag. Phelps-Roper was arrested, and police took her two flags.
Deputy Sarpy County Attorney Nicole Hutter has said that prosecutors think Phelps-Roper “placed her child in a situation that could be dangerous and disturbed the peace of individuals in the community.”
Members of the Topeka, Kan., church protest at the funerals of U.S. service members because they believe the deaths are God's retribution for the nation's tolerance of homosexuals.
County prosecutors last month dropped charges of flag mutilation and contributing to the delinquency of a minor against Phelps-Roper because a federal judge had ruled that the state's flag mutilation law is unconstitutional.
If convicted of the child-abuse and disturbing the peace charges, she could have faced up to 15 months in jail. She said she's never been convicted of a crime related to the thousands of protests she's taken part in nationwide.
Phelps-Roper's two flags confiscated by authorities after her arrest were given back to her Monday. As she walked out of the courthouse, she grabbed one of them and dragged it along the sidewalk and parking lot as she walked to her van.
Not far away, at least a dozen military supporters held flags high in the air and waved to drivers near 84th Street and Nebraska Highway 370.
One woman's jaw dropped as Phelps-Roper passed by, pulling the flag behind her. Another man shouted, “You are horrible.” A Sarpy County Sheriff's deputy tried to calm the crowd.
Phelps-Roper kept walking.
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