California Catholic Daily

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Published: August 15, 2008

“She lacked a peddler's permit”

Nun ticketed for selling statuettes of Blessed Virgin outside San Jose parish wants her name cleared

A young nun who was ticketed by San Jose police on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe for selling little statues of the Blessed Virgin to raise money for a soup kitchen wants the charges against her expunged, the San Jose Mercury News reported yesterday.

In a column by writer Scott Herhold, the Mercury News recounted the story of Notre Dame Sister Marie Linie Marot, 28, who wants Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr to issue a "finding of factual innocence" regarding charges lodged against her as a result of a Dec. 12, 2007 incident outside Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Jose.

Sister Marie, Herhold reported, “was accused of an unusual offense: selling statuettes of the Virgin Mary on the sidewalk. The cops said she lacked a peddler's permit and refused instructions to close up.”

According to a police report, “cops were directed by their sergeant about 5 p.m. on Dec. 12 to clear the street vendors from sidewalks near the church, which is at San Antonio Road and Preservation Drive,” Herhold wrote. “Neighbors had complained the day before about traffic. Using Spanish on a public address system, they told the vendors to disperse and followed it up with personal warnings. Sister Marie and another nun stayed. The cops say they were still there two hours later.”

When the case came to court in May, San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle dismissed the charges. “No jury or judge was going to convict a nun of a misdemeanor for selling statues of the Virgin, particularly not on the feast day of the Virgin de Guadalupe,” wrote Herhold.

But Sister Marie is not satisfied with just having the charges dismissed – she wants the record of the charges completely erased, which requires a “finding of factual innocence.” Reported Herhold, “The attorney for the order, Todd Moreno, said the cops had not given her adequate warning -- she speaks French -- and that Sister Marie had stopped selling statuettes when she was cited. Moreno says the cops wouldn't let her call her mother superior for instructions.”

Sister Marie’s request for a factual finding of innocence is still wending its way through the legal system, said the Mercury News. If such a finding were issued by the DA, however, it could open the way for a lawsuit against the police department – something Moreno told the newspaper the nun has no intentions of doing.

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