Attorney Sanctioned for Abusing Judicial Process in Jews for Jesus Case
After trying several times to sue Jews for Jesus for allegedly peddling "fraud," an attorney was sanctioned by a Florida judge and ordered to pay over $45,000 in legal costs and fees.
Attorney Barry Silver has 30 days to pay Jews for Jesus and its attorney, Liberty Counsel, $45,273.90 after Circuit Court Judge Edward Fine ruled Thursday that Silver wrongly tried to use a lawsuit to defame the Jewish evangelical group.
"Barry Silver has tried to frame this lawsuit as [an argument] against Christianity in general and Jews for Jesus in particular. The court has rightly imposed sanctions against this abuse of the judicial process," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University's School of Law.
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According to Staver, Silver abused his position by filing three lawsuits, starting in 2003, to denounce Jews for Jesus for declaring Delray Beach resident Edith Rapp as a Jewish believer.
The lawsuit followed the publication of a Jews for Jesus newsletter. Bruce Rapp stated in the newsletter that his stepmother, Edith Rapp, had "prayed the sinner's prayer" and was a Jewish believer. Edith Rapp said the claim was false and sued to get a retraction and an apology.
Silver, also the rabbi of the L'Dor Va-Dor reform synagogue Boynton Beach, Fla., was incensed by the newsletters claims and filed a $1 million lawsuit on Edith Rapp's behalf claiming defamation.
"The attorney filed this complaint against Jews for Jesus and we filed a motion to dismiss. The judge granted the motion to dismiss. He filed it again. We filed another motion. The judge granted it. He filed a third time, raising the same frivolous arguments and complaints and the judge granted it a third time," Staver explained.
Court documents show that each time Silver condemned Jews for Jesus, he alleged that the ministry "uses many false assertions and deception in order to try and induce members of the Jewish faith to abandon the beliefs of their heritage yet believe that they are still Jews."
Explaining the problem with Silver's arguments, Staver said, "What the attorney did was, in his complaints, instead of raising legal arguments, he used the complaint as a vehicle to wage a polemic against Christianity in general and Jews for Jesus in particular."
After the 2003 dismissal, Silver rationalized his lawsuit to the Jewish Daily Forward saying, "It's not just that they are claiming she is a Christian, but they are saying she belongs to a particular sect whose goal is the elimination of Judaism."
In the documents, Silver describes the newsletter article as a fabricated story Bruce Rapp made up to get back at his stepmother for banishing him from his dying father's side. According to the documents, Bruce Rapp wanted his father to accept Christ on his deathbed.
"I was devastated that he would do this to me," the stepmother told the Forward. "We told him when he tried to influence us that we were not interested."
Judge Catherine Brunson threw out the 2003 lawsuit saying it was not defamation to call someone a Christian.
After Silver's third attempt, another judge ruled to sanction him for lawyer fees.
Despite both Silver and Edith Rapp being offended by Bruce Rapp's actions, Staver stated, "[Silver] has an obligation as an officer of the court not to abuse the system."
