Editor's Note: The Sentinel hosted a fundraiser for the legal defense of Michael Cassidy which has been reopened as his defense costs are expected to increase.
Michael Cassidy, a Christian and former military officer, faces hate crime charges as a result of his decision to tear down and behead a Satanic altar erected in the Iowa Capitol.
Members of the Satanic Temple of Iowa received permission in the weeks before Christmas to install the exhibit, which included a statue depicting the idol Baphomet holding a pentacle and surrounded by candles, on the first floor of the Iowa Capitol near displays of the Nativity. Cassidy pushed over and decapitated the statue, as first reported by The Sentinel last month, before he discarded the head in a trash can and turned himself into police.
Prosecutors for the Polk County Attorney’s Office said in a statement that Cassidy has been charged with “third-degree criminal mischief in violation of individual rights” under Iowa hate crime statutes since he had “made statements to law enforcement and the public indicating he destroyed the property because of the victim’s religion.” Cassidy thus faces five years in prison.
Davis Younts, an attorney and retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who represents Cassidy, said in a comment to The Sentinel that he hopes prosecutors will reconsider. “It is deeply disappointing that my client is being targeted with this type of charge,” Younts said. “His actions were motivated by his religious faith and not targeted at any specific organization or person.”
Members of the Satanic Temple assert that they would have to spend between $750 and $1,500 to replace or repair the destroyed altar, rendering the crime an aggravated misdemeanor.
Cassidy, a former Navy pilot who ran for Congress in the state of Mississippi, previously said in an exclusive statement to The Sentinel that he destroyed the shrine in order to “awaken Christians to the anti-Christian acts promoted by our government.”
“The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment,” Cassidy remarked to The Sentinel. “Anti-Christian values have steadily been mainstreamed more and more in recent decades, and Christians have largely acted like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water.”
The initial appearance of the altar provoked debate regarding the legal status of Satanism as a protected religious group, especially considering that the group which created the display does not maintain sincerely held religious beliefs. Many conservatives asserted that the additional hate crime charges against Cassidy mark a targeted denouncement of his Christian convictions.
