Posted on 07/12/2005 5:54:57 PM PDT by conservatrice
ALBANY, N.Y. — A prosecutor dropped all charges Tuesday against a small town mayor who could have faced up to a year in jail for marrying gay couples on the steps of the village hall.
New Paltz Mayor Jason West (search), then 26, was among the first public officials in the nation to marry same-sex couples, following San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (search) in February 2004.
He had been charged with 24 misdemeanor counts of violating the state's domestic relations law after marrying about two dozen gay couples in ceremonies that drew national attention to the village of about 13,000 residents 75 miles north of New York City.
Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said Tuesday he dropped the charges because he believed a trial would be unnecessary and divisive.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
ping
West called the decision a "complete vindication" and said the district attorney had been "wasting taxpayer money for 18 months."
Gay weddings swept the country starting in San Francisco in early 2004, when Newsom flung open the city's wedding registry to gay couples. While officials in other locations were ordered to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, Massachusetts' highest court ruled that same-sex couples were able to tie the knot in that state.
West has maintained he was upholding the gay couples' constitutional rights to equal protection — and thus his oath of office — by allowing them to wed.
Something ALL of us need to remember: the real reason this "gay marriage" debacle was stopped is that it was a case of officials ignoring the law and thumbing their nose at the State. The idea was floated (and much of it started here on FR, I believe), that if the gay activists could ignore the law at will and not be punished for it, then 2nd Amendment believers could do the same. People began to seriously float the idea they should find a small town in CA, and have the mayor start issuing firearms licenses for "assault weapons". THAT scared the big boys! It wasn't until then that Arhnold and the other Rinos began to take this flauting of the law seriously.
How can you hang a man without a trial ?
It is both necessary and it should be divisive.
If you break the law in the name of a conservative cause, God help you!!
Whenever a liberal talks up the rule of law to me, I laugh in their face and start pointing out numerous examples that prove otherwise.
Kinda mean too, I expect. He should just drop all his pending trials. I mean, it would be so nice.
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