RIDERS BACK IN ACTION--Oakland Pigs Caught Setting Up Local Priest!

THE RIDERS ARE BACK IN BUSINESS!

The Pigs that raided the Church & Set Up the Priest Do Not Represent Oakland And Must Be Defied By Any Means Necessary!

The Pigs went as far as to set up the Priest with some dope and a crack pipe. Even those charges back fired upon the Oakland Pigs.

Father Weeks & St.Patricks Abbey Can Use A Donation Or A Few Bucks If Anyone Can Spare It To Help Him Find New Housing.

It would be revolutionary move of resistance to defy the OAKLAND PIGS and offer a little charity to help out Father Weeks during this time of crisis.

Father Donald Weeks May Be Reached At 510/533-1231.

St.Patricks Abbey
3700 E. 12th St.
Oakland Ca.
(Corner of E.12th St. & 37thAve)

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Repost From Trib Article

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2097873,00.html

Article Last Updated: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 3:37:11 AM PST

Attorney John Burris listens as Father Donald Weeks talks about the dismissal of criminal charges against him.(Nick Lammers/staff)
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Sex charges dropped against priest

Deputy D.A. won't prosecute the Rev. Weeks, pointing to evidence that accuser was 18

By Glenn Chapman, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- Sex crime charges against an Oakland priest who heads his own religious order were dropped Tues-

day in a move a defense attorney said affirms the cleric's innocence and condemns local police.

The Rev. Donald Weeks thanked "God and John Burris," after an Alameda County Superior Court judge dismissed the case against him at the request of Deputy District Attorney Tim Wellman.

Burris, Weeks' attorney, said his client had been targeted because he gave refuge to paroled sexual predator Cary Verse for three days in March, at his Fruitvale District abbey.

The decision to back off prosecution was based in evidence that the "John Doe" who claimed he was 16 years old when Weeks began giving him oral sex at a 73rd Avenue abbey would have been past his 18th birthday by the time Weeks moved to that address.

"I'm so glad it's over with," Weeks said. "My abbey, my ministry, has been destroyed and the church desecrated by the Oakland Police Department."

The 60-year-old priest likened himself to the character Job in The Bible, and said he and the few remaining monks must work to resurrect St. Patrick Abbey. The parolees and recovering drug addicts housed at the abbey, in exchange for monthly stipends of $320 each, have been driven away by fear of police, Weeks said.

Burris vowed to ask a judge to declare Weeks "factually innocent" and have court records erased. The attorney said he will sue on Weeks' behalf if possible.

"What would you expect from a man who makes his living suing the police department?" Oakland police Deputy Chief Michael Holland countered rhetorically when reached for comment. "We are convinced that there is fire where the smoke is at, and we will continue to pursue this investigation."

Holland rejected a public demand by Burris that the officers involved in the investigation be punished.

"If I had significant doubts about the allegations, I would drop the investigation," Holland said. "We are going to proceed, because I think we are right. I don't take that lightly."

Holland declined to discuss the impetus for or results of a sealed search warrant executed at St. Patrick Abbey on Friday. Hubert Bowen, a brother at the abbey, said police raided the building about 1 p.m. and searched for hours, not disclosing what they were seeking.

When asked if he thought City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente's crusade to oust Verse from the East 12th Street abbey figured into the arrest of Weeks, Burris said there was a connection.

"If you connect the dots, you see there was no problem before Cary Verse arrived," Burris said. "This was egregious, outrageous misuse of police power and, maybe, political power. Once Weeks offered Verse a place to stay, all hell broke loose."

De La Fuente unabashedly confirmed that he was determined to get Verse out of Oakland. The council president, who represents Oakland's Fruitvale district, said publicity regarding the issue prompted calls from tipsters who he referred to police.

Once building code violations were noticed at the abbey, the city had a responsibility to act, De La Fuente said. Weeks has "a history" of renting substandard buildings, taking in parolees for a fee, then stiffing property owners for hefty sums of rent, according to De La Fuente.

"This guy is a parasite," De La Fuente said. "There is nothing special about this guy ... After referring callers to the police department, I washed my hands of it."

Among those callers was 50-year-old Phil Dominic, a former Marine and biker who told of kicking Weeks from Oakland raves in the early 1990s because he appeared to be trying to take advantage of young men stoned on alcohol and Ecstasy.

"I know what a chicken hawk is, and he was definitely a chicken hawk," said Dominic, who worked security at the underground events. "The first time I saw Weeks I asked him to leave, the second time I made him leave, and the third time I literally kicked him in the butt to get him out."

A man who once worked as a bookkeeper at the abbey reportedly came forward to say Weeks had spoken to him about being involved with "John Doe" when the boy was underage. Police spent days tracking down the purported victim, who backed the information, Holland said.

The 26-year-old told police he was certain of his age at the time because his interaction with Weeks began a few months before his grandmother died, according to Holland. A check of the grandmother's death certificate showed she died a decade ago.

Weeks and John Doe both reportedly told investigators of sexual encounters at a 73rd Avenue address Weeks lived in after moving to Oakland in 1996, after the young man's 18th birthday. The contradiction raised doubts as to whether Wellman could prove the case "beyond a reasonable doubt," as required at criminal trial. The probable cause required to make an arrest is a lower standard.

The man claiming to be a victim in the case has a history of crime, sexual promiscuity and drug use that indicate his word is not to be trusted without strong corroboration, Burris said. The former abbey member who gave police the tip bore a grudge because Weeks had stripped him of treasurer duties, the priest said.

Weeks described himself Tuesday as the top ranking official, called "Abbot Ordinary," of his Old Catholic Church order. Weeks said five other abbeys, most overseas, belong to the order, which broke from the Roman Catholic Church more than 200 years ago.

Priests who know of Weeks through his involvement in Internet dialogues and his Web site reportedly refer to him as the "Teflon Dom" in the spirit of the legendary Mafia don given a similar moniker for dodging prosecution. Benedictine monks sometimes refer to themselves with the Latin derived "Dom" instead of "father."

Burris maintained that he had provided "incontrovertible" evidence that Weeks was innocent and that instead of searching for the truth, police were in "a rush to convict and destroy."

Weeks said his "job is to forgive" and he took in parolees and drug additcts to raise money the way monks elsewhere sell wine or nuts.

"I don't know if I can rebuild; we are broke, we're homeless," Weeks said, noting he wants to move away from Oakland. "The police violated the sanctity of our church, threw relics on the floor and even stepped on host a priest blessed for communion."

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