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I - 77 1 service, we integrate this with other
students called 2 orientation guides, students that show
willingness to 3 minister to others with team leaders,
students who show 4 willingness to minister and have
leadership responsibility. 5 And we take unacceptable peer pressure
and throw it out the 6 window and substitute peer pressure
with peer pressure to 7 save children. And by example these children are restored, 8 hopefully restored to society
believing in Christ, saved with 9 strong academic background, an
unacredited but Christian 10 school academic background. And this is the philosophy of 11 Mountain Park, and it is the
background into that philosophy 12 that Jordan came and was moved to
Florida where he stayed 13 till he walked away on March the 15th. 14
There will be no evidence that we are a business 15 enterprise or that we engage in any
commerce. There is no 16 evidence that any of the defendants
except Bob Wills, Sue 17 Wills and Sam have any right to hire,
fire, set wages or do 18 anything that people who are employers
are. This isn't 19 employment. This is education.
It's education with your 20 mind, with your spirit, and with your
hands. So that if you 21 keep your commitment to Mountain Park
or you keep your 22 commitment to Palm Lane, after a year
you have a realistic 23 chance to be a restored human with a
faith in God and an 24 ability to work in society fully
educated. And that's what 25 the evidence will be.
I - 78 1
There is no employment here. He
wasn't employed by 2 anybody. Nobody employed him. Nobody is an employer as 3 relates to Jordan. This is an integrated part of a system 4 designed by the Wills to save
children. When you hear the 5 evidence you'll know that Bo Gerhardt
didn't slam Jordan 6 Blair up against anything. Violent conduct begets violent 7 conduct. It's against the rules. It's against Christian 8 example. It didn't happen. 9
And neither did we work this boy in employment.
We 10 didn't produce any goods for
employment. Did the boy do 11 work?
Absolutely did chores in the morning, did work in the 12 afternoon to restore himself. The only tragedy here is he 13 didn't stay long enough for it to
take. Thank you. 14
THE COURT: Ladies and gentlemen of the
jury, we'll 15 take our luncheon recess at this time. Recall the admonition 16 with regard to no discussion of the
case and so forth and so 17 on.
Have a pleasant lunch. Why don't you
look at returning 18 to your jury room at 2:15 p.m. Have a pleasant lunch. 19
(Court in recess from 12:58 p.m. until 2:13 p.m.) 20
(The following proceedings were held outside the 21 hearing of the jury:) 22
THE COURT: Good afternoon. I understand you all 23 had something you wanted to talk to me
about? 24
MR. STILLEY: Yes, Your Honor. On the defendants' 25 exhibits in light of the rulings this
morning, I'm moving to
I - 79 1 require the defendants to strike
anything in their pleadings 2 about Mr. Blair's alleged pornography
or impression of credit 3 cards or anything of that nature. Other than that I don't 4 have any objection to this Exhibit B. But based on the 5 Court's rulings, I think this
information should be kept out 6 for a number of reasons including
excessive prejudice. 7
THE COURT: Mr. Briggs. 8
MR. BRIGGS: Your Honor, Defendants'
Exhibit A I put 9 up on the ELMO. We're specifically referring to the first 10 page of A. And what Mr. Stilley is concerned about is about 11 a third of the way down the page, I'll
highlight it for the 12 Court.
This is previously prepared, it's a form that 13 defendant sends to the parents who are
considering enrolling 14 their children in Mountain Park. Since the purpose is to 15 minister to troubled youth, one of the
things that Mountain 16 Park wants to find out is what the
parents are concerned 17 about.
There are several preset things; alcohol, drugs, 18 sexual activity. 19
THE COURT: Why are we concerned about
it though? 20 MR. BRIGGS: Your Honor, I don't think we're 21 concerned about it at all. We aren't offering this or we 22 wouldn't offer this to prove the truth
of the matter whether 23 Mr. Blair was engaging in pornography,
depression of stolen 24 credit card or anything else. The only reason we might refer 25 to this exhibit would be specifically
to identify what was
I - 80 1
presented to Mountain Park, what Pastor Gerhardt had as an 2 understanding that the parents
believed Jordan was troubled. 3 That's the basis, not to prove that he
necessarily was or to 4 establish that he necessarily was. So we aren't offering it 5 to prove -- 6
THE COURT: Fine. That's excluded.
What else? 7
MR. STILLEY: Your Honor, I didn't see
Drew Parrish 8 here.
Is Drew Parrish here? 9
MR. BRIGGS: No, he's not here yet. 10
MR. STILLEY: Your Honor, I'd move for
default 11 judgment against Drew Parrish for
failure to show up. 12
THE COURT: Denied. 13
MR. STILLEY: Okay. Thank you. 14
THE COURT: Anything else? 15
MR. STILLEY: That's all, Judge. Thank you. 16
MR. OLIVER: Could I have a minute? I need to 17 figure out a way to get this redacted. I'll figure it out. 18
THE COURT: Fine. Let's bring the jury on. 19
(The following proceedings continued within the 20 hearing of the jury:) 21
THE COURT: Good afternoon, ladies and
gentlemen of 22 the jury. Okay. We
ready to proceed? 23
MR. STILLEY: Yes, Your Honor. 24
THE COURT: Call your first witness. 25
MR. STILLEY: Betty Sue Wills.
I - 81 1
BETTY SUE WILLS, 2 Having been first duly sworn, was
examined and testified as 3 follows: 4
DIRECT EXAMINATION 5 BY MR. STILLEY: 6 Q.
Please state your name. 7 A.
Betty Sue Wills. 8 Q.
Where do you live? 9 A.
Fort Meyers, Florida. 10
Q. And where do you work? 11 A.
At Palm Lane in Mountain Park. 12 Q.
What is the full legal name of Mountain Park? 13 A.
Mountain Park Baptist Church and Mountain Park Boarding 14 Academy. 15 Q.
Is that a formal organization or that just a doing 16 business as name? 17 A.
It's an organization. 18 Q.
Is it a corporation? 19 A.
No, sir. 20 Q.
Is it a partnership? 21 A.
No, sir. 22 Q.
Is it a sole proprietorship? 23 A.
It's a church and a boarding academy. 24 Q.
Okay. What is the organizational
structure of the -- 25 of Mountain Park?
I - 82 1 A.
What is the structure? 2 Q.
Right. Who owns -- let me put it like
this. Who owns 3 the property that is used by this
organization? 4 A.
Mountain Park Baptist Church. 5 Q.
Okay. Is there a legal entity called
Mountain Park 6 Baptist Church? 7 A.
It's a Mountain Park Baptist Church, yes, sir. 8 Q.
But that's not a corporation? 9 A.
No, sir, it's not a corporation. 10 Q.
Whose name -- whose name is on the deed of the property 11 that the operation is on? 12 A.
Mountain Park Baptist Church. 13 Q.
Okay. So it's not in the name of any
particular 14 individual? 15 A.
No, sir. 16 Q.
Okay, all right. If the operation were
to dissolve and 17 cease operations, who would get the -- 18
MR. OLIVER: Objection, Your Honor,
where we going? 19 It's a church, not a 501c3
corporation. He's asking for 20 legal conclusions. 21
THE COURT: In the earlier ruling we
were looking at 22 if there is an employer/employee
relationship. We're trying 23 to -- I gave him some leeway to find
out who would be the 24 employer. That's where we are with this. 25
MR. OLIVER: Well, for the record, Your
Honor, then
I - 83 1 I object to inquiring tax status or
tax ramifications, which 2 is all this is. 3
THE COURT: Well, maybe you all can
reach an 4 agreement and make everybody happy. 5
MR. OLIVER: Your Honor, we offered to
stipulate 6 it's an unincorporated voluntary
association organized as an 7 independent fundamental Baptist
church. 8
THE COURT: Come on up. 9
(The following proceedings were held at the bench 10 and outside the hearing of the jury:) 11
THE COURT: What I'm referring to and
so I was 12 talking about earlier is if, in fact,
there was a 13 determination that there was an
employee/employer 14 relationship, who would be the
employer. 15
MR. OLIVER: And with that regard,
Judge, I don't 16 mind Mr. Stilley inquiring into who
makes the decisions, who 17 had -- the criteria set out by the
courts are clear it's who 18 hires and fires and sets salaries, not
who gets the money if 19 the church dissolves. 20
MR. STILLEY: I want to know who has
the assets on 21 that. 22
MR. OLIVER: The assets -- well, that's
premature. 23 There's no judgment. There are no punitive damages in the 24 FLSA case. 25
THE COURT: I'm looking at allowing him
to have some
I - 84 1 broad inquiry in terms of who the
employer is. Now, one does 2 not have to admit that one is an
employer. But, I mean, for 3 ownership purposes or whatever else,
it could make it very, 4 very simple if you all would reach
some kind of agreement. 5 Otherwise we're going to have to go
through all this. 6
MR. OLIVER: I stated in opening
statement 7 unequivocally that Pastor Wills, Betty
Wills, and Sam 8 Gerhardt were the decision makers. They are the ones that 9 hire, fire, and set salaries. And that is the criteria, the 10 sole criteria under the pattern
instructions definition of 11 who an employer is, the person who
acts in the interest of 12 the employer and that's somebody who
has power to fire, hire. 13
THE COURT: You all need to reach a
stipulation to 14 tell this jury so there is no question
about this. 15
MR. STILLEY: I think it would be in
everybody's 16 advantage for them to just stipulate
that all these 17 individuals are employers. 18
MR. OLIVER: We aren't. 19
THE COURT: They are not going to
stipulate that -- 20
MR. OLIVER: I don't agree that anybody is an 21 employer. But the people who had decision making are Pastor 22 Wills, Betty Wills, and Sam Gerhardt,
that's pretty 23 straightforward. 24
MR. STILLEY: I'm going to be looking
at who is 25 deriving the benefit from this, who
gets the money from it.
I - 85 1 And I think that's where you have to
go down to see who is, 2 in fact, the employer. Because you don't have a formal 3 organization, you don't have a
corporation. I think we can 4 tell from this witness already they
don't have any formal 5 organization at all. It's just a name that they do business 6 by, and it's the individuals doing the
business. And I want 7 to know which individuals are getting
the money and how much. 8 I think that that tells us who the
equitable owner of this 9 business is. 10
THE COURT: Part of my problem is this
with any 11 company, people can be making
decisions, but that doesn't 12 make them the owners of the company. Just because somebody 13 at Ralston or Anheuser-Busch, they
make decisions, they don't 14 own the company. So even though we may have some people 15 making decisions, that doesn't mean
they are necessarily the 16 employers. They could be, could not be. 17
So, I mean, there could be a stipulation that you're 18 not admitting, nobody is admitting
that they are, in fact you 19 challenge the fact that they are
employers. But if there is 20 anyone to be classified in such a
status, it would be these 21 people, then we're through with all
this. 22
MR. OLIVER: It would be these people,
Pastor Wills, 23 Sam Gerhardt, and Betty Sue Wills. 24
THE COURT: What about that? We have to tell the 25 jury this so we can end this, so we can have that as a fact |
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