A LESBIAN, who was ordered last year by a court to undergo hospital therapy for her drug addiction, wound up instead in the clutches of an evangelical couple, who were allegedly paid $600 by Bartow County Sheriff’s Department to “cure” her of her homosexuality.

Amanda Booker is now suing the police. A lawsuit filed earlier this month by Booker’s attorney, Anthony Perrotta, claims that the Sheriff’s Department considered it:

Normal procedure â€¦ toÂ punish homosexuals and persons holding different religious beliefs.

The lawsuit also alleges:

At all times relevant to this action, it was the normal procedure, practice and custom of Defendants Bartow County, [County Commissioner Clarence] Brown, and [Sheriff] Clark Milsap to harass homosexuals taken into custody, to mandate that homosexuals taken into custody refrain from living as homosexuals, and to forbid them from maintaining any homosexual relationships.

In April, 2010, Booker’s family requested she be given therapy for her drug addiction. A court order commanded the Sheriff’s Department to take her to Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital in Rome, Georgia.

She suffered seizures on the way, however, and was taken instead to Cartersville Medical Centre. It was there, Booker alleges, that police officers prevented her from contacting her female partner and made:

Numerous threats concerning her lesbian relationship.

From there, Booker was taken to stay in a private home for a week and then to The Mercy House, run by evangelical couple Chris and Donna McDowell, who claim the ability to turn people into:

New creatures for Christ.

The couple handed a fee of $600, paid out of public funds to:

Convert Ms Booker from being a lesbian.

Booker was arrested a few days later after she made a getaway from The Mercy House and returned to her mother’s home.

Sheriff Milsap has responded by saying the charges were:

The most absurd thing I’ve ever heard in my life.

Brown, meanwhile, has declined to comment.

Perrotta says his priority is to get Amanda Booker out of Pulaski State Prison, GA, where she has been held since October, 2010, on charges that include damaging a police vehicle â€” an incident that occurred during her arrest, which the lawsuit portrays as aggressive, humiliating and without warrant.

Hat tip: Alan

