Dad’s Place, a church in Bryan, Ohio, has been battling with the city since last winter to provide shelter to homeless persons in the area.
Now, the pastor, Chris Avell, has been found guilty in municipal court of a criminal charge related to a fire code violation, fined $200, and given a 60-day suspended sentence.
The sentence is stayed pending an appeal by Avell, who is represented by First Liberty, a nonprofit law firm that defends religious liberty, and two other law firms.
“No pastor in America, including Pastor Chris Avell, should be pronounced guilty for providing temporary shelter to those in desperate need,” Ryan Gardner, counsel for First Liberty, said in a press statement. “Only government officials could say with a straight face that people are safer in the sub-zero temperatures on the street than inside the warmth of a church.”
According to First Liberty, the Bryan city officials are demanding that Dad’s Place install an expensive fire suppression system even though it does not place similar requirements on all of its motels, most of its apartment complexes, and even a senior living facility.
Earlier this month, a panel of judges for the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Sixth District, made a decision that allowed Dad’s Place to continue offering temporary shelter at its church building pending its appeal.
The church had appealed a temporary injunction issued by Ohio Judge J.T. Stelzer that prevented the church from offering its building for use by homeless persons in the city.
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Stelzer said in his decision that the city’s desire to protect public safety and the church’s argument for religious freedom should not be at odds. “Dad’s Place and its pastor, Christopher Avell, are putting the very people they are trying to help and comfort at significant risk of injury or death,” he said.
However, the appellate court wrote in its decision, “[A]ppellants have asserted a reasonable question of law—whether the enforcement of the fire code would violate their constitutional rights—that would result in a reversal of the trial court’s ordering a preliminary injunction if found well-taken.”
“We are grateful to the court for recognizing the weighty issues of Constitutional law and temporarily pausing the city’s aggressive campaign against Dad’s Place,” First Liberty Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys said about the appellate court’s stay of the injunction. “America is better with people like Pastor Chris Avell and Dad’s Place, who compassionately open their doors to people who have nowhere else to go, keeping them from freezing on the snowy sidewalks.”
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