Wins $11 Mill. Suit Against Anti-Gay Church

BALTIMORE, MD -- A jury Wednesday awarded Albert Snyder $11 million in a case he brought against the Westboro Baptist Church after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

The fundamentalist church of Rev. Fred Phelps has been picketing the funerals of gay men for many years and also military funerals after the war in Iraq started, saying the war is a punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.

Snyder sued the church and three of its members individually, claiming the demonstrations exacerbated his pain and suffering in March 2006 while he mourned the death of his only son. Specifically, he charged that they violated his privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional harm and engaged in a conspiracy to carry out their activities, MSNBC.com reports.

The church and three of its leaders — Phelps and his two daughters, Phelps-Roper and Rebekah Phelps-Davis, 46 — were found liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress. The federal jury awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages, $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress.

"My son fought for freedom of speech. My son did not fight for freedom of hate speech," Snyder said in an interview Thursday. "Everybody's under the impression that the First Amendment gives them the right to do anything, say anything — anywhere at any time. Along with the First Amendment also comes responsibility."

The defense said it planned to appeal, and one of the defendants, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said the members would continue to picket military funerals. "Absolutely; don't you understand this was an act in futility?" Phelps-Roper said.

The group is confident the award will be overturned on appeal. "Oh, it will take about five minutes to get that thing reversed," Rev. Fred Phelps said.

The defense attorney said that the assets of the church and the three defendants is less than a million dollars but one of Snyder's attorneys, Sean Summers, said he would tirelessly seek payment of the award.

"We will chase them forever if it takes that long," Summers said.