1/14/08

Happy Valley Tattoo Massacre' (Part 3)

The Happy Valley Tattoo Massacre’
Overview
On January 3rd, 2008, the American Fork, Utah Police Department served a search and seizure warrant on Happy Valley Tattoo & Piercing, a service division of Whole Life Ministries on a complaint that the ministry had displayed photographs of pierced genitals to two minors.
The raid required 6 police officers who inspected every inch of the studio for over an hour including adjacent parsonage and storage areas.
Artist portfolios, tattoo art "flash" books, drawings and paintings were seized though not described in the warrant.
The police have engaged in and ongoing assault of harassment and intimidation against several staff members repeatedly threatening them with prison and unnecessarily interfering with their opportunity to offer services.
Photographs of genital piercings, at the heart of the present dispute, kept in a separate photo album clearly marked in big red letters as "Adult" body piercings, fit the description on the Utah Attorney Generals website as material not obscene or pornographic, but rather are of sociological value to minors and though restricted by the ministry to adults only, according to the definition of the Utah AG, are appropriate to be viewed by anyone of any age as would a National Geographic Magazine which is an example the AG uses.
The charge first detailed that the alleged inappropriate display was by the giving over the counter a book of photographs to two 14 year old girls in the day or two after Christmas 2007, the story later changing to 6 minors (3 boys/3 girls) not being given the book to look at but rather viewing it as it sat on a bookshelf in the public reception area on one unspecified day sometime during the two months before Christmas, later changing to 4 minors on one unspecified day during the two months before Christmas.
Minors are prohibited from entering the studio without parents or legal guardians as posted on both front studio doors (until Jan 6, 2008 – now posted once) and traffic is very limited this time of year (all fall).

Staff members do not recall 2 minors asking to see or looking at such materials and do only recall one group of minors around Halloween who did not look at any books but demanded service without a parent to consent for one girl who had received a lip piercing the previous April with her mother's consent.

She now wanted a second lip piercing and when denied, wanted the piercer to meet her at a local Albertson's Grocery and do the piercing in the bathroom.
When that request was also denied, the teens wanted to purchase a needle and jewelry so they could do the piercing themselves at home.
When that request was denied, the kids threw a fit and had to be told to leave.

This appears to be the group of 6 kids the police refer to.

The teens at first identified Dr. Lowrey as one of the two persons who supposedly handed them the book to look at, but as he was 1,000 miles away from Sept to late Dec, the police instead chose to disregard the identification of old, white hair and white beard and substitute a student at the studio who was 22 years old at the time.

The child had access to the photo albums which were previously kept in a public area while she was in the company of her mother, having from April to December to advise her friends of it's content.
She also could access similar photos by the thousands in the many online piercing galleries that do not screen for minor access and thus could easily describe typical genital piercings even if she had not had access to the studio’s piercing book.
As all staff members are pictured online on the studio website http://tat2me.com and were all prominently featured in cable television advertising that ran from September through November 2007, it would not be hard for people who had never even been in the studio to make positive identifications of staff members.

The children were in violation of studio policy and while neither children nor studio violated any actual laws, the children did attempt to induce our staff to violate the law and the police are using the incident backwards to persecute and illegally prosecute staff members when they actually were going out of their way to protect the interests of the community in general and the parents of these (can I say snot nosed brats?) in particular.

Today, Dr. Lowrey was served a summons to appear in court in American Fork, February 22, 2008 on charges of Unlawful Tattooing of a Minor (2 counts) from an incident last May 2007 where two 17 year old boys by fraud and deceit, obtained tattoos in spite of providing ID that showed they were a few weeks (3/6) on the wrong side of their birthdays.

Dr. Lowrey was in
Detroit, Michigan at the time of the incident but is being charged as the Owner of the studio  though the studio is owned by a church and only managed by him,  and he contends that this current charge is simply harassment in retaliation for his sticking up for his staff and the law.

Police reports prove that the boys tricked (scammed) the receptionist and declared themselves to be adults of legal age to receive services several times in writing on the studio release form.
Both boys were charged with communications fraud to which they plead guilty and paid a fine.

The receptionist was violated by the government when she was charged, as she was a victim and the police investigation proves that she was not complicit and was deceived into providing prohibited services she would under normal conditions refuse.
The receptionist, both artists and Dr. Lowrey are thus exonerated by state law Utah State Code 76-10-2201-(4), which law is adopted intact by American Fork City as the City Ordinance.
Since this is the law that the American Fork Police are attempting to prosecute under, I would think they would read clause (4) as well as 1,2,3 & 5 especially as clause 4 specifically invalidates 1-3 & 5 as regards this incident.

American Fork has already falsely charged, prosecuted and convicted (by intimidating her into pleading guilty when she was a victim not an offender) the receptionist and now is engaging in more false prosecution.
The American Fork Police have repeatedly claimed that they decided to not prosecute Dr. Lowrey and the two artists on these charges, but when Dr. Lowrey advised Lt. Falslev of his intention to not fire his Assistant Manager (since she did every thing right and nothing wrong) and to advise her to demand a jury trial if she was charged as Lt. Falslev kept threatening, the Lt. began to threaten Dr. Lowrey with a renewal of interest in the previous charges, indicating that if Dr. Lowrey did not scapegoat his staff member (suggesting firing her would be sufficient, in addition to their charging her) that Dr. Lowrey and the artists could be charged on the old issues and in fact could be expecting charges in the next few days.
On January 14, 2008, due to Dr. Lowrey's protest over the further victimization of his assistant manager (Shandi Child) over the new charges of display to a minor, the city has elected to resurrect their investigation and charge Dr. Lowrey in the incident from the previous May where his innocence has already been proved by the American Fork Police and the Court in their own investigation and charges against the boys.

Dr. Lowrey also claims his and his staff’s rights were violated over an incident occurring between these two incidents, when police refused to charge with assault an adult female who threw a cell phone at another assistant manager when she could not get the service she desired in the time frame she wanted.

This is simply an effort by local government to practice religion against religion discrimination by charging the victims of these crimes in an effort drive the church and it's spiritual tattoo and piercing services out of town because the predominant religion disapproves of such practices and the “member mafia” assumes the prerogative to drive out by any means including illegal means and invented charges, anyone who believes differently than them.

Rather than tell local parents that their children need to obey posted restrictions on their entry to the studio without parents or legal guardians or to receive services without parents or guardians the police prefer to fabricate unsupportable violations against the church in an effort to harass and intimidate us until we move out of town, which is the solution they repeatedly and snidely suggest.

The ACLU is considering taking on the case and the FBI is launching an investigation as are the Utah Attorney General and the Utah POST.
(State Police Officer Training Department)
Previous posts on this blog detail these events.

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