Westboro Baptist church member Gabriel Phelps-Roper, 10, and his sister Grace Phelps-Roper, 13, protest at the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder in Westminster, Md. in this March 10, 2006, file photo.Albert Snyder lost his son Matthew in Iraq.Marine dad wins funeral protesters lawsuitBy Alex Dominguez - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Nov 1, 2007 6:37:18 EDT
BALTIMORE — The father of a fallen Marine was awarded nearly $11 million Wednesday in damages by a jury that found leaders of a fundamentalist church had invaded the family’s privacy and inflicted emotional distress when they picketed the Marine’s funeral.
The jury awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages, $6 million for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress to the Marine’s father, Albert Snyder of York, Pa.
Snyder sued the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified monetary damages after members staged a demonstration at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.
The defense said it planned to appeal and one of the church’s leaders, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said the members would continue their pickets of military funerals.
“Absolutely, don’t you understand this was an act in futility,” Phelps-Roper said.
Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “God hates fags.”
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