Constitutional Law

La. judge: State can probe church's finances

By By The Associated Press

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. — A state district judge rejected arguments Feb. 10 on behalf of a West Feliciana Parish police juror asserting that the state lacks authority to investigate a tax-exempt church?s finances.

Attorneys for Juror John Cobb, 52, asked 20th Judicial District Judge William G. Carmichael to throw out an indictment charging Cobb with three counts of felony theft.

Cobb and six others, including his wife, are accused of diverting insurance money from a defunct Clinton nonprofit organization and Cobb?s church, Union Bethel Family Church at Weyanoke.

Attorneys Angela Lockett and Michael T. Bell said in a motion to throw out the indictment that the state?s investigation of Cobb?s position and actions within the church ?was a burden on his sacred belief of separation of church and state.?

They also argued that the church is tax-exempt under the Internal Revenue Service Code and that the authority to examine its records and those of its members lies with the federal courts.

?The state has no jurisdiction over a church? But the feds do?? Carmichael asked.

District Attorney Sam D?Aquilla said he agrees that the state does not have jurisdiction over a church?s religious activities but said the state ?has jurisdiction over the people who run a church.?

D?Aquilla said the church was not accused of a crime but several of its members are.

The judge said federal courts have jurisdiction over IRS investigations.

?This is not an IRS investigation,? he said.

Carmichael also denied a motion to prohibit prosecutors from using church financial records obtained from a St. Francisville bank and Cobb?s records from a credit union as evidence in the case.

Lockett and Bell argued that Trooper Lance Kennedy of the State Police Criminal Investigation Division used the wrong provision of state law to subpoena the records in West Feliciana and East Baton Rouge parishes.

The subpoenas were prepared by assistant district attorneys and approved by judges in the two parishes, but Cobb?s motion said State Police, and not the 20th Judicial District Attorney?s Office, was conducting the investigation.

The judge ruled that at the request of D?Aquilla, Kennedy was investigating allegations that church funds were misused.

Carmichael further held that the subpoenas were properly prepared.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on February 13, 2011 (boomark / email).