PLAINTIFF'S MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO SUMMARY JUDGMENT

ABORTION INDUSTRY IN MELBOURNE, FLORIDA
LAWSUITS
RANEY V AWARE WOMAN
DOCKET / CHRONOLOGICAL FILE
PLAINTIFF'S MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO SUMMARY JUDGMENT

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
ORLANDO DIVISION

MEREDITH T. RANEY, JR.,
Plaintiff,
v.
AWARE WOMAN CENTER
FOR CHOICE, INC., a Florida corporation,
EDWARD W. WINDLE, JR., and
PATRICIA B. WINDLE
Defendants.

CASE NO.: 97-1197-CV-ORL-19B

PLAINTIFF'S MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Plaintiff Meredith T. Raney, Jr., by counsel, opposes Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment. Summary judgment is inappropriate for several reasons.

I. DEFENDANTS' FIFTEEN MINUTES OF (DE)FAME(ATION).

First, Defendants' memorandum utterly fails to provide any basis for granting this dispositive motion. Instead, Defendants have allowed their disagreement with and unveiled animosity toward Plaintiff to supplant logic. Specifically, Defendants' counsel resorts to defamation calling Plaintiff a "trained clinic harasser" (p.3) a "stalker[], obstructionist[], and career domestic terrorist[]" (p.9). Counsels' vitriol is not only separately actionable; it is inappropriately inserted in Defendants' memorandum and is irrelevant to the relief they currently request.

Second, Defendants blatantly mischaracterize the facts. While Defendants' make the bald assertion that there are no genuine issues of material fact in dispute, such is not the case. Indeed, Defendants go on to assert that Plaintiff "is no legitimate health care counselor. . . [and] is utterly devoid of even the remotest healthcare qualifications." (p.2) and has "never been near a counseling course." (p.3). Meredith T. Raney, Jr. asserts that he is a legitimate counselor, is qualified to address the area in which he speaks, and has, indeed completed a counseling course. See Affidavit of Meredith T. Raney, Jr. attached and marked as Exhibit A. The jury should decide this factual issue. Clearly, summary judgment is not appropriate; therefore, Defendants' motion should be denied.

Defendants' counsel would have their reproach replace reason, asserting that Meredith Raney "has almost no other life or cause" other than to obstruct and protest "on behalf of fetuses." (p.3) This simply does not provide any basis for the relief requested. Meredith Raney alleges that he is engaged in counseling activity protected by 18 U.S.C. §248 (FACE), in a location covered by FACE, and that Defendants used force and the threat of force to interfere with Plaintiff and to intimidate him from providing counseling services in the future. Obviously, Defendants deny these facts. Also obviously, this case should be decided by a jury and not disposed of by summary judgment.

II. MEREDITH RANEY HAS NOT COME TO BURY THE INJUNCTION BUT TO PRAISE IT.

Apparently, counsel for Defendants misapprehend Plaintiff's lawsuit. To paraphrase, Plaintiff does not come to bury the injunction, but to be protected by it. Yet Defendants seem to believe that the current lawsuit is a thinly veiled attempt to have this Court revisit a previously litigated and decided issue. Nothing could be further from the truth - except maybe counsel for Defendants.

Plaintiff did not cite McKusick v. City of Melbourne, 96 F.3d 478 (11th Cir. 1996), because that case is irrelevant. Plaintiff also confesses that there are innumerable cases that have not been cited for the same reason. McKusick dealt with a type of activity not protected by FACE. McKusick did not even allege a FACE violation.

CONCLUSION

Defendants' have failed at each and every level to provide any basis for granting summary judgment against Plaintiff. First, there are several genuine issues of material fact still in dispute. Second, Defendants' legal arguments bear no relevance to the theory propounded by Plaintiff. Third, Defendants have once again failed to heed the advice of this Court, ignoring the language of the Order issued on December 3, 1997.

For these reasons, Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment should be denied.

Respectively submitted,
Christopher F. Sapp <signed>
Post Office Box 1012
Lehigh Acres, Florida 33970
(941)369-3922
Florida Bar Number 0097923
Attorney for Meredith T. Raney, Jr.

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I HEREBY CERTIFY that a true and correct copy of the foregoing has been furnished by hand to Vincent G. Torpy, 930 S. Harbor City Blvd., Suite 505, Melbourne, Florida 32901 this 23rd day of June, 1998.

Christopher F. Sapp <signed>
Attorney