What you are about to read is perhaps the most discriminatory and skewed case by the State of Montana (meaning the Attorney General’s Office) ever committed. The case involves five innocent missionaries who were walking through Madison County, MT last November.

These unassuming evangelists traveled from North Carolina and made their way to Madison County, MT, where they were assaulted, arrested, ridiculed, demeaned, and lied about. This “band of missionaries” consisted of four adults and one child (age 12) who (along with the adults) was also handcuffed with guns pointed at him, the child was then put into custody with CPS, and was even forced to go to the property of the perpetrator who had just beat on his father.

The Attorney General (Austin Knudsen) assigned his Assistant Attorney General (Thorin Geist) to assist Madison County Attorney (David Buchler) who (along with Geist) is the prosecuting attorney for Bradley Terrell (who plays the victim in this case but is really the assailant).

Excerpts below have been extracted from the most recent ‘Motion to Dismiss’ filed by the Defendants’ Attorneys John Pierce and Alexander L. Roots. (At the end of this article you will be able to read the full ‘Motion’ in its entirety).

The point of this article is to share with you the truth about this case involving five missionaries and a group of people who marred the truth on November 12th in Madison County (including law enforcement).

Let us begin.

“Defendants Jesse M. Boyd, et al., by and through their counsel of record, move to dismiss
on grounds of selective enforcement and prosecution. Counsel submits, upon investigation, that
this is the most extreme case of selective prosecution motivated by religious discrimination in the history of Montana.”

“Under the plain language of Montana statutes,4 the investigators were required to even-handedly collect all all evidence; yet the officers began mocking and joking about the Christian missionaries.”

“Immediately upon arriving, officers pointed their weapons directly at the Christian
missionaries and ordered them to throw their keys out into the snow and to kneel in the snow.
This was despite the fact that the Christian missionaries had themselves called 9-1-1 to report
being in fear for their safety.”

Officers (see below)

E. Did not separate other participants, pat them down, or handcuff them despite
evidence that they had been the aggressors and pointed weapons at the Christian
missionaries;

F. Did not search any of the vehicles belonging to the non-missionaries;

G. Listened as the non-missionaries gave conflicting accounts, and then allowed the
non-missionaries to correct each other’s accounts as officers watched, so that the
officers and “victims” could best present their case for prosecuting the Christian
missionaries;

H. Recognized that all four Christian missionaries gave corroborating justified-use of-force accounts,5 but directed officers to turn off all bodycams while officers crafted a prosecution plan against the Christian missionaries.6

I. Were caught on camera scheming to create knowingly false charges against at
least some of the missionaries to justify taking every adult Christian missionary
into custody7 Even in the absence of serious bodily injury, the officers conspired
to charge the Christian missionaries each with felony assault,8 and to justify
taking the minor child to CPS;9

J. Placed the minor son of one Christian missionary into a police vehicle and kept
him alone for approximately 30 or more minutes, in violation of Madison
County published policy;10

K. Repeatedly (3 times, actually) invited “victim” Brad Terrell to take an
ambulance ride to a hospital in order to maximize the false case against the
Christian missionaries. (Terrell, with merely a bloody nose, refused three times;
but the officers finally called an ambulance anyway.) 11

The Attorney General’s Office has done unusual things. Normally in a “non capital offense” case county attorneys handle cases, however in this case the DOJ came to their aid.

Madison County Attorney David Buchler “argued that the very nature of defendants traveling Christian missionary work made them dangerous transients.”

This case “is selectively driven by religious discrimination, bias, and persecution.” When you read the ‘Motion’ in full you will read instance after instance where Christianity is mocked, the missionaries are mocked and likewise in this case every attempt is being thwarted to mention Christ, the Bible, God, and even the work of these missionaries is being affected as the prosecution files motion after motion.

“Religious intolerance among Madison County, State Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Ennis City police investigators and the ‘State Department of Justice’ is evident throughout this case.”

Furthermore, the ‘Motion’ reveals,

III. DISCUSSION
a. The District Court should dismiss the State’s action with prejudice because the prosecution has engaged in selective prosecution through religious discrimination.

“The evidence overwhelmingly supports a finding that the prosecution in this matter had a
discriminatory purpose because it was based on intolerance of Christian missionaries.”

In addition,

“Prosecutors have chosen to bring charges against a group of Christian missionaries, while
failing to apply equal protection of the laws to the alleged ‘victim’ (Bradley Terrell and at least two (2) witnesses (Crabtree and Ferguson) who are (at least) equally culpable under Montana law. The prosecution has further failed to pursue any ethics violations against the law enforcement personnel or launch an investigation into their misconduct, and are instead prosecuting the actual victims of a hate crime.”

Likewise,

ii. The one-sidedness, intensity and aggressiveness of the State’s
investigation and prosecution of these Christian missionaries has
engendered harassment and intimidation of defendants and defense
attorneys and staff.

“The State’s prosecution has engendered Christian-hating cheerleaders; who are publicly
supporting the prosecution with more religious intolerance. Faith-hating stalkers are now sending the legal defense team threats. At least one is a death threat against JPL client advocate EL
(“Lambert”), (based on the well-known aphorism that curiosity killed the cat). Note that EL uses
a cartoon kitten image as her Facebook and Twitter profile pictures. Note that this death threat
was sent during a period when EL was doing basic background research on Terrell and anti-Christian stalker Robert Baty, including research into their public profiles, business reviews, property tax records and other public source of information.”

“The State’s religious persecution has left defendants and defense counsel with few
options for protecting their personal safety.”

To summarize,

This case is about selective prosecution, religious discrimination, unequal treatment concerning the defendants vs the (real “assailant playing victim” and other perpetrators) and unethical and illegal conduct of law enforcement. It is a highly unusual case in its over the top ‘zealous’ nature and one involving threats and serious threats including those involving death.

To read (and we highly encourage you to do so) the entire ‘Motion to Dismiss’ CLICK HERE. (To listen to Jesse Boyd and Eric Trent being interviewed click here).

Continue to check back with Montana 1st News as the story develops.

“Pray without ceasing.”