Elected through Terror

Untitled Part 30

Spring 1985 came and activity at/from the Rajneesh increased.

The court house had an alarm system with security buzzers set up in each office. They all terminated in the Sheriff's Office. They had been installed after some of the Rajneesh had been creating scenes in these various offices.

This was the Spring of 1985, I didn't know of any other county courthouse, in the state, that had a similar alarm system in them. Of course they are more prevalent now, almost all have something similar.

We received a buzz from the County Judges office one morning. A Sergeant and I quickly went upstairs to find three (maybe four) Rajneesh in the secretary's office. The office was about 6 feet by 15, or so; long and narrow.

They were loudly proclaiming they had a records request and they wanted it right now. The secretary was in distress as they were yelling at her and the County Judge.

They were loud and pushy. Right after we came into the office we watched the County Judge go to a filing cabinet and say he thought the information was right here.

As he opened the drawer a Rajneesh tried to shove him aside so she could go through the drawer.

As I mentioned before, I knew the laws concerning most public administrative actions as well as criminal law.

I told the Judge to close the drawer and go into his office. He looked at me, and complied. The person who had been trying to get into the file drawer tried to go into that office.

The Sergeant grabbed her arm and kept her from going in. She started yelling police brutality. The Judge closed the door.

I told her to knock it off and then turned to the secretary.

I asked her if she had the written request, she did.

Was it understandable? Yes.

Can you have it ready by tomorrow morning? Yes.

(While public records are available to the public, it doesn't have to be ready 'right now.' The department has a right to do it when they have time, or when they can have someone come in to find and if necessary make copies of the requested documents.)

I then told her to tell the Rajneesh she has all she needs and will have it available tomorrow. (All this was in front of them, of course.)

She told them.

I then told her to tell them their business was finished and they needed to leave.

They started throwing a fit. This is a public office, they have a right to be there, they want the information RIGHT NOW.

I told them that either they leave, RIGHT NOW, or I was going to arrest them for Criminal Trespass. After a few seconds, during which they realized I was serious, they decided to leave.

The secretary was grateful. I went into the Judge's office and talked with him.

The Judge is a well-respected and well-loved wheat farmer. He treats everyone the same and tries to be helpful wherever he can. I will talk about him, later.

I understood and appreciated his position. However, I recommended that he use the hallway going from the lobby of the court house to his offices as a waiting room.

He didn't want to do that, he understood though, that if he didn't then he was going to have more incidents like this. He also understood that he had to treat everyone in the county the same – even his good friends and neighbors would have to wait to be allowed into the offices.

This truly distressed him, he wanted to treat the Rajneesh like any other citizen, but they wouldn't let him.

While I was talking to him one of the Rajneesh came back to the office and told me that their attorney wanted to talk with me.

In the lobby of the court house was a pay phone and she had called back to the ranch.

While under no obligation, I chose to talk with the person, I was interested in what she would say.

I went to the phone and the lawyer started threatening me; telling me I couldn't kick her people out, what we were doing was illegal and they would file charges, etc.

After listing to her diatribe for a minute or so, I asked, "Are you a criminal attorney?" She didn't answer.

Knowing by her response, she wasn't, I asked her again, "Are you a criminal attorney?" Again she didn't answer.

I said, "I would strongly suggest you contact a criminal attorney because if any of them go back into that office they will be arrested and you can come up and bail them out of the jail."

There was a pause on the other end, and then she asked to speak to the leader of that group.

I stood back and watched. After a couple minutes she hung up, gave me a dirty look and they all stomped off.

The judge did as I suggested. The other offices either already had a set up where the public couldn't pass without permission, or soon installed something.

We never again had an incident of that kind, in any of the offices in the court house.