There’s been a flurry of court activity involving the Christian Orthodox monk Father Andrew Bushell of Marblehead and his legal battles against the town, including a new federal lawsuit that claims Marblehead and the Department of Justice colluded to block Bushell from “engaging in protected religious activity within Marblehead’s borders.”
(Read several court documents related to the case at the bottom of this article.)
Father Bushell stands in the Pleasant Street space he hopes to turn into a monastic shrine and brewery. CURRENT PHOTO
The FBI raided Bushell’s residence on Conant Road on Oct. 13, 2022, and arrested him on charges of misusing federal COVID relief funds. The Department of Justice later dropped the charges “in the interests of justice,” according to a DOJ statement.
The new lawsuit against the town and DOJ claims, “Based on their animus for Plaintiffs’ religious operation, on information and belief, Marblehead officials made false reports to the Federal Bureau of Investigations that Father Andrew was not a real monk and none of the organizational Defendants were legitimate religious organizations…. These insidious lies achieved their goals.”
Bushell is one of several plaintiffs in the case, alongside entities with which he is affiliated, including St. Paul’s Foundation; the Shrine of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Patron of Sailors, Brewers and Repentant Thieves; and Marblehead Brewing Co. LLC. Bushell is suing in his individual capacity and as protos of St. Paul’s Foundation and father guardian of the Shrine of St. Nicholas.
Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer told the Current he hadn’t been served the Oct. 10 complaint officially but did forward a copy of it provided by a media outlet to the town’s attorney. Jon Blair, who only recently became the Light Department’s general manager, declined to comment.
The case has been assigned to Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley.
In a separate, previously filed federal lawsuit, attorneys for the religious nonprofit corporation Egypt House filed an emergency motion in U.S. District Court to prevent the release of photos taken inside its Conant Street residence during a July 23 visit by Marblehead Board of Assessors Chair John Kelley, Assistant Assessor Todd Laramie and others.
The photos are set to be entered into the public record at a Nov. 12 Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board hearing.
When that happens, the photos “will become immediately available to media outlets including the Marblehead Current, already used by Defendants to great effect in manipulating the public views about Egypt House and the Orthodox Catholic faithful in a hostile manner,” Egypt House alleges.
A hearing on the emergency motion is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 3 in the Boston courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy.
Egypt House claims the residence has a religious use and is therefore exempt from property taxes.
In that lawsuit, Egypt House accuses the town of violating the Constitution and federal laws and seeks a permanent injunction preventing town officials from “continuing their pattern of religious discrimination and constitutional violations.” The suit also seeks an order immediately recognizing Egypt House as tax-exempt, retroactive to 2022, and money damages.
Pleasant Street shrine, brewery
Bushell has been trying to open a monastic shrine and brewery, called St. Nicholas, at 120 and 124 Pleasant St. The buildings are currently boarded up.
“First, the Marblehead Building Commissioner embarked on a mission to solicit assistance from other agencies in denying a building permit to St. Nicholas,” the Oct. 10 complaint states. “Second, Marblehead arbitrarily and capriciously rejected St. Nicholas’ compliant electrical service designs for years, preventing St. Nicholas from opening to the public. Third, the Marblehead Board of Assessors has created one hurdle after another to bar St. Nicholas from recognition of tax exemption status.”
In the complaint, St. Paul’s claims that the town has worked with other religious organizations, specifically Star of the Sea, to grant permits, including for food service.
The complaint also alludes to another pending proceeding pitting St. Paul’s and the town against one another, this one before the state’s Board of Electricians’ Appeals, over what St. Paul’s characterizes as the town’s “baseless denial of electrical design.”
St. Paul’s prevailed in a previous petition to the board, according to the complaint.
The buildings at 120 and 124 Pleasant St. are boarded up.
Civil case settled
In September, Bushell settled a case filed in Essex Superior Court involving Mary Wipperman of Florida. Wipperman, whose son had done an apprenticeship with the monk at Marblehead Salt Company, accused him of inducing her to invest $180,000 in the brewery and failing to live up to his end of the contract.
“The parties reached a resolution,” Wipperman’s attorney Daniel Pasquarello told the Current. He declined to provide specifics of the settlement.
Here are the court documents mentioned in this article:
