UPDATE, 11/12/09 – Naples’ Fox 4 News picked up the story

UPDATE, 11/12/09 – Instapundit.com linked to the story.  Politico.com lists Instapundit as one of the five best-read national conservative blogs,  averaging over 425,000 page views/day.

UPDATE, 11/13/09 – another Fox 4 News segment

UPDATE, 12/1/09 – The Editor and Publisher of The Wanderer, Al Matt Jr., issued a statement.

More on the banning and threatened arrest of Ave Maria Town resident and The Wanderer reporter Marielena Montesino de Stuart:  (Click below for more…)

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Naples Daily News today (excerpts; full text):

“As a publicly announced meeting on quasi-public property, a court might well find that it’s improper to bar her and that it’s an unreasonable restriction on her constitutional rights,” said Raymond Bass, a civil trial lawyer in Naples.

de Stuart’s new statement:

America’s oldest Catholic newspaper, The Wanderer, assigned me to cover Ave Maria.  Of the articles I have written for The Wanderer, only four have been about Ave Maria University.  Yet, the University, of which Nick Healy is the President, banned me from Tom Golisano’s press conference on November 5th, and from the entire campus– allegedly for being disruptive at a public meeting held by the town’s Stewardship Committee.  Stewardship Committee meetings have nothing to do with Ave Maria University.

The hubris and lack of credibility in that excuse of President Healy is evident.

Ave Maria University’s heavy handedness in not only banning me from the press conference, but also from the entire campus with County Sheriff deputies, shows how frightened they are of conservative and pro-life Catholics learning who “Tom” Golisano is — a man who ran for governor three times on a pro-choice platform and gave $1 million last year for Barack Obama’s coronation in Denver.

Nick Healy cannot credibly claim anything about the events of the Stewardship Committee meeting. I was not disruptive — I simply asked questions regarding a report issued by the Auditor General of Florida, as well as other issues regarding the Ave Maria Stewardship Community District.  Asking questions is the job of a free press and of taxpayers.  That made them uncomfortable.  Mr. Healy was not there.  The minutes of the meeting and the audio recording have not been released.  Mr. Healy never spoke to me.

My ban from campus clearly demonstrates that individuals affiliated with Ave Maria University and the Stewardship Committee are privately meeting to develop a coordinated plan to chill my free speech and my freedom to move about the town of Ave Maria–movement which is limited now to a very restricted area —as the town is, essentially, intertwined with the university.

My husband and I own a home in the town of Ave Maria, where we have resided with our young children since 2007.  This is our permanent and only residence.

Who would want to buy or own a property in the town of Ave Maria, when developers and government (one and the same here) appear to be conspiring with some affiliated with Ave Maria University?

Marielena Montesino de Stuart
Reporter for The Wanderer

Of the many good points made, this is the most interesting:  How would Healy at AMU have any information about of her interactions with the government Stewardship Committee (less than 48 hours earlier) if someone from that Committee, or someone acting as an intermediary, did not privately meet with AMU’s Healy to convey that information?

The time line:

• Tuesday, Nov. 3 – Stewardship Committee meeting
• Wednesday, Nov. 4, morning – Stuart, identified as a representative of The Wanderer, is officially granted access to the Golisano event by AMU PR

• Thursday, Nov. 5, morning – Less than 2 hours before the Golisano press conference, Stuart is told that AMU is withdrawing her access to the event.  Further, she is banned indefinitely from campus property without any stated exclusions (i.e. library, chapels, oratory).

Related Articles:

• Who is Tom Golisano? – Ave Maria’s New Face
• Monaghan Security: Resident is Banned from Campus but “Permitted Access” to Chapel
• Ave Maria Donor: “… I’m pro-choice.”
• Ave Maria’s $4 Million Donor Gave $1 Million for Obama Coronation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 10:04 am and is filed under Golisano, Town, University. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.