Couple sue over raid on organic food co-op
In the suit filed Wednesday in Lorain County Common Pleas Court, John and Jacqueline Stowers, who operate Manna Storehouse on state Route 303, are seeking a court ruling to prevent future incidents like the one they allege was carried out Dec. 1 by state and local officials and lawmen during which the couple and their 10 children were held in their home for six hours while officials conducted a search for business records and food.
“We are asking for injunctive relief to prevent future raids like this against others, which amounted to an unreasonable search,” according to Maurice A. Thompson of the Buckeye Institute’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law in Columbus, who is representing the couple.
The suit also seeks a ruling to declare unconstitutional a state law governing licensing of retail food establishments “as it applies to the Stowers,” Thompson said Wednesday from the center’s
Both Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Scott Serazin and Thompson said there have been no reports of anyone becoming ill from consuming meat or other products that came from the food co-op.
“The health department manufactured this case on their own,” Thompson said. “There were never any complaints made.”
Capt. Richard Resendez of the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office previously denied online reports of a SWAT team being part of the search of the Stowers’ property, and guns being held to the family’s heads.
While agreeing with those statements, Thompson maintained that “SWAT-like tactics were employed,” including guns being drawn by “specific police officers, who forced their way into the family’s house” and proceeded to confine the family “to one room, where they were required to stay for six hours while the entire house was combed over,” he said.
The search yielded boxes of beef, lamb and turkey meat, along with cell phones and computers, said Serazin, who previously stated that the Stowers claimed they were exempt from having to be licensed. The Manna Storehouse could face charges of operating without a license, a third-degree misdemeanor.
Thompson maintains the family never engaged in retail sales of food of any kind, but instead dealt solely with roughly 100 co-op members, who paid for delivery of shared meats, much of which was provided by Amish farmers, according to Thompson.
The only time money changed hands with anyone other than a co-op member was when an undercover state agriculture agent insisted on paying for a dozen eggs after the family refused to make him a member because of conflicting information he provided, Thompson said.
“That is the only evidence of any retail business taking place,” he said.
The case was assigned to Common Pleas Judge James Burge.
Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.
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