Offer of new home for Mojave cross goes unanswered
Liberty Institute has yet to hear from person responsible for memorial's theft
Two weeks after it offered a home for the Mojave cross on private land, Liberty Institute has yet to hear from the person who took the cross from its original location at the Mojave National Preserve last month.
In a letter to the editor, Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of Liberty Institute, which defended the cross’s existence at the preserve, asked that the memorial be taken to Joshua Springs Calvary Church in Yucca Valley. Shackelford’s letter, printed June 1 in the Desert Dispatch, was in response to an anonymous letter sent to the newspaper May 11 through a third party from the person allegedly responsible for the cross’s theft.
In that letter, the person stated he would surrender the cross only if a place can be found for it on private land. But so far, the cross hasn’t shown up at the church and Liberty Institute representatives say they haven’t heard from the person who took the cross. The person responsible for the cross’s theft also hasn’t attempted to contact the Desert Dispatch since Shackelford’s letter was printed.
“We’re hopeful that someone will (deliver) the memorial to the church,” said Jennifer Grisham, director of media affairs for Liberty Institute. “We are still offering the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the guilty person.”
Since someone took the cross from its perch atop Sunrise Rock off Cima Road at the preserve, Liberty Legal has offered a $125,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible. The cross — erected in 1998 to replace a World War I memorial — was stolen between May 9 and May 10. Someone erected a new cross May 20, but preserve officials, saying it couldn’t stay, quickly dismantled it.
Liberty Institute has represented the Veterans of Foreign Wars pro-bono in the Salazar v. Buono lawsuit, which challenged the cross’s existence on federal land because it violated the Establishment Clause. In 2003, Congress enacted a land agreement that would have allowed the VFW to care for the land the cross sat on. After several appeals the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the cross could stay, but a lower court would have to rule on the land agreement.
On June 2, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case to the U.S. District Court, said Linda Slater, spokesperson for the Mojave National Preserve.
On June 12, Liberty Legal sent a letter to President Obama on behalf of the VFW to restore the cross to its original location, Grisham said.
Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com
