Eliot Kalman did what they say he did. Methodically and with purpose, he pressed handmade, 8 1/2-by-11 stickers onto the glass of the church directory affixed to the front of the Athens County Courthouse. Atop all of those names of local places of worship, he placed the text of the First Amendment. But he was stopped, arrested on the morning of Oct. 28. A court constable watching a surveillance monitor caught Kalman posting yet another sticker and hauled him in on a criminal mischief charge.

Eliot Kalman did what they say he did.

Methodically and with purpose, he pressed handmade, 8 1/2-by-11 stickers onto the glass of the church directory affixed to the front of the Athens County Courthouse. Atop all of those names of local places of worship, he placed the text of the First Amendment.

�I didn�t do this in any surreptitious or furtive way,� said Kalman, 69, of Athens. �I wasn�t trying to be sneaky � although I didn�t want to be stopped from doing what I was doing.�

But he was stopped, arrested on the morning of Oct. 28. A court constable watching a surveillance monitor caught Kalman posting yet another sticker and hauled him in on a criminal mischief charge.

Kalman, who pleaded not guilty, appeared in court yesterday, where his pretrial hearing was continued until Nov. 24. He plans to fight the misdemeanor charge.

�I am an honorable citizen,� said Kalman, who is Jewish and whose fervent belief in the separation of church and state can be found in his copious letters to the local newspaper. �I want to see the government treat everybody in a proper way and ... not to ingratiate themselves with the religious authorities in any entity.�

The First Amendment battle has played out at courthouses and public schools across the country, though the fight usually concerns the posting of the Ten Commandments or, say, the hanging of a painting of Jesus. Kalman�s objection concerns a directory that, those in charge of it say, is open to all denominations.

The decades-old directory, maintained by a trio of women who make up the Athens Christian Education Committee, contains listings for several Christian churches as well as the Jewish Hillel at Ohio University and the school�s Muslim student group.

�We added the homeless shelter. We added every denomination,� said Ann Trout, a committee member and the county clerk of courts.

About a year ago, the women updated the directory, replacing faded names and eliminating long-gone churches. New glass and a frame cost nearly $300, money the association raised itself, Trout said. �It costs the county nothing.�

The directory has not been immune to controversy, though. Over the years, a few others have raised objections to it, Trout said. County records show letters opposing the board were sent to commissioners as far back as 1992, when the directory was being replaced. Kalman�s name also appears on letters from 1992, when he was chairman of the local ACLU chapter.

�We have received comments on both sides of the issue,� Lenny Elliason, president of the county board of commissioners, said in an email, noting that the directory was put on the courthouse �long before any of us came into office.�

He said the commissioners plan to discuss the issue with the county prosecutor.

�We believe that it is for secular information for the community and do not maintain control of the information,� he wrote.

Kalman, meanwhile, plans to press forward. He said he�s not comfortable playing the role of adversary, though he�s done it often.

But he thinks that the charge against him violated his freedom of speech. And the outdoor display has long bothered him, almost since he arrived in Athens in 1976.

�I probably would have gotten around to doing this if the church directory was the sole transgression against the First Amendment of the Constitution,� he said. �But there were plenty of other issues of that sort that took my time.�

lkurtzman@dispatch.com

@LoriKurtzman