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very reassuring, very encouraging, and I think the Judge was moved.
In his final comments, he even made one comment that was directed
toward those who were in the gallery. And so I think he was himself
even very impressed.
But there are several points that I would like to bring out that he
stated as far as where we are in terms of the Receivership that came
upon the Church around 8:40 on Wednesday morning. The Judge stated
that there has been no ruling or confirmation of any misconduct in the
Church by anyone, by any defendant that is named. He said that
in
the
next hearing, on Wednesday, facts will be presented -- that is, if any
exist -- and then a judgment will be made accordingly. This will occur
this coming Wednesday, the tenth.
There is also an order to permit the Attorney General to investigate.
Of course I think that most of you understand that the Attorney General
does have the legal stewardship of all charities' funds and that is
certainly the vested responsibility of the Attorney General of the State.�
And, of course, we have never resisted that particular official duty
directly. But now it has worked out that way in the sense that we were
resisting the Receivership, so it did work
to that end as far as the
records were concerned. But that was not our concern. It was never our
concern�to bar the auditors from the records, or whomever, from the
Attorney General's office who needed to see those records. That was
never our intent.
Also another point: The control of the Church and its entire organiz �
tion, and its assets, are back with the Church. Again, I think that is
very important because under the terms of the Receivership, or at least
the way they were conducting themselves under that Receivership, we had
no rights to anything. The appointed Receiver was totally and completely
in charge of everything. And that was stated. So that is not conjecture.
Another point: The Receiver has no right, at least now under the terms
of the court, to hire, nor fire, nor right to interfere� regular
conduct of business. So our "business" can go on as it has been, at
least until it was interrupted on Wednesday morning, and we can go on
with our normal course of business, paying our bills, receiving income,
depositing those funds in the bank, writing checks upon those funds
printing the gospel, buying radio and television time, and making
payment of all of the other things that are in the normal course of
business anctt;Qf,course, employee's checks which all who are employees
are certainlff!Aterested in.
Another poirl , : all records which previously were removed by plaintiff's
attorney or tlatAttorney General must be returned forthwith because
then that brings everybody back to square one where everyone /the
plaintiffs and the defense7 has access to whatever records are avail
able, and where no one has any advantage in that respect /as the state
had up to that point by their absolute control and our exclusio�.
Point six: and probably one of the more important ones which undergirds
and is an umbrella over, all of these others: The church is back under
the control of Mr. Herbert Armstrong. Now he never relinquished it,
but believe me brethren, they considered it so. And by "they" I mean
the Attorney's plaintiffs and the Receiver, the retired Judge Wiesman.
They did definitely consider this so because I was there.