Alyssa Anderson
PLS 300 (2): Introduction to Law and Civil Procedure

Eilers v. Coy
2 F. Supp. 1093 (D. Minn. 1984)

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MacLAUGHLIN, District Judge.

The plaintiff in this case, William Eilers, has moved the Court to enter a directed verdict against the defendants on his claims that the defendants falsely imprisoned him.

The evidence in this case has established the following facts. The plaintiff William Eilers was abducted from outside a clinic in Winona, MN in the early afternoon of Monday, August 16, 1982 by his parents and relatives and by the defendant deprogrammers who had been hired by the parents of the plaintiff. The plaintiff was 24 years old.

At the time of the abduction, Bill Eilers was a member of the religious group Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is ample evidence that this group is an authoritarian religious fellowship directed with an iron hand by Brother Rama Behera. There is also evidence that Bill Eilers’ personality, and to some extent his appearance, changed substantially after he became a member of the group. These changes were clearly of great concern to members of the plaintiff’s family. However, other than as they may have affected the intent of the parents (in the actions they took), the beliefs and practices of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ should not be, and are not, on trial on this case.

While leaving the Winona Clinic on August 16, 1982 the plaintiff (who was on crutches at the time due to an earlier fall) was grabbed from behind by two or more security men, forced into a waiting van and driven to the Tau Center in Winona, MN. Forcibly resisting, he was varied by four men to a room on the top floor of the dormitory-style building. The windows of this room were boarded over with plywood (as were the windows in his bathroom and in the hallway of the floor). The telephone in the