Thursday, July 3, 2008 – Miami Florida:  Attorney David Aelion, who gained international media attention in 1997 after the murder of Gianni Versace, filed a Petition For A Writ Of Mandamus And/Or Declaratory Relief today at the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County against the City of Coral Gables on behalf of the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye.

On June 8, 2007, followers of the Lukumi Tradition were exercising their Constitutional right to engage in a sacred Santeria ceremony at a private residence in the City of Coral Gables when what can be best described as a most unusual and unprecedented response to a 911 call, nineteen (19) City of Coral Gables Police Department units and twenty-three (23) police officers responded to the home without justifiable cause or warning.  With much disregard to the 1993 historical and constitutional federal court ruling protecting Lukumi’s Freedom of Religion, the 23 City of Coral Gables police officers entered the home with guns drawn and pointed at the ceremony participants--which included elderly and children--desecrated the ceremonial site, and detained the participants for several hours outside the home.

Since these intrusive and unconstitutional events of June 8th, 2007 infringing on Lukumi’s Freedom of Religion, the Church of Babalu Aye and its President Ernesto Pichardo had been requesting records relative to that incident from the City of Coral Gables, but had received no cooperation or response to both personal visits and written requests. When nearly a year later, there was no response from the City of Coral Gables to the numerous records requests, The Church of Babalu Aye was left with no choice but to engage counsel, and it retained David Aelion.

Pursuant to the Florida Public Records Act, Mr. Aelion submitted a records request to the City of Coral Gables on May 15, 2008.  As stated on the petition, as of the date of the petition filing, the City of Coral Gables’ actions in attempting to comply with the public records request has been grossly inadequate and recklessly deficient, and may be tantamount to an obvious disregard to follow the rule of law.

“This is a matter of great public importance. The City of Coral Gables has a duty to produce all the documents and/or items we requested, and they have failed to do so. It is seemingly spiritually guided and a good time for public awareness and reflection that on the same week fireworks are ready to blast in celebration of the independence of this great nation, we still find ourselves, two-hundred and thirty-two years later, having to defend our basic constitutional 1st Amendment right of Freedom of Religion. Federal laws, constitutional and basic human rights were ignored and challenged by the City of Coral Gables on June 8th, 2007 and now they are ignoring state laws of public records. Is the City of Coral Gables above both state and federal law? We will find out in court” stated Aelion.

            David Aelion is a 1995 Nova Law School graduate and a current Religious Studies Masters Degree Candidate at Florida International University. A successful entrepreneur, Aelion often defends the indigent, taking on pro-bono cases of moral, spiritual and human interests, such as this.  He is a deeply spiritual man whose practice of law is primarily guided by his passion and respect for human rights, the general welfare of humanity, and his solid family linage, which includes historical religious, legal and political figures.