Page from saved article from the old Dejanews group:
By 1999 the party organs of Nichiren Shoshu were busy trying to discredit Officer Sprinkle. Their biggest piece of "evidence" was a document that alleged that Officer Sprinkle hadn't even been an officer at the time. Subsequent testimony rebutted this evidence and explained that while Officer Sprinkle had indeed been "called up" for active duty as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he had been released from the active part of that active duty by the time of the incident and indeed that is why he was working at night (moonlighting for extra cash).
Police, Municipal, and Federal Records Prove Allegations Groundless! "Cop on the Scene" Not An Active-Duty Officer at Time of Alleged Incident
Sokagakkai has repeatedly� published media reports� claiming that High Priest Nikken Shonin was helped by a local member called Hiroe Clow after being detained by police following an altercation with prostitutes. This is alleged to have occurred on March 20. 1963, while the then Study Department chief was in the United States on the first trip by Nichiren Shoshu priests to conduct gojukai initiation ceremonies overseas.� Sokagakkai further had Ronald C. Sprinkle testify that, among other details, he clearly recalled Mrs. Clow's face despite the passage of over 30 years. Sprinkle, who claimed to be a police officer who was present at the scene of the incident, appeared in Tokyo District Court in conjunction with a defamation suit in which Daisaku Ikeda and Sokagakkai are joint defendants.
The reports sent to the Hokkeko thus maintained:
Former Seattle Police Offcer Sprinkle's Great Lie
The� most� recent� of Nichiren� Shoshu's� investigations� uncovered� numerous pieces� of evidence conclusively proving that Sprinkle had been called into military service with the U.S. Air Force and was not an active-dutv member of the Seattle Police Department at the time of the alleged incident. The Seattle police Personnel Department and Pension Board both retain records showing that Sprinkle was on leave from the department between 30 October 1962 and 5 May 1963 for six months of military service. It was also discovered, from Seattle Police Department Property Room records, that Sprinkle had turned in his police badge and service revolver during that period. Docuznents kept by the City of Seattle further substantiate that Sprinkle was not an active-duty officer in March 1963, and an investigation of American militaiy records also uncovered documents showing that Sprinkle had been called into military service and was undergoing basic training at that time. These records singly, collectively, and definitely prove that Ronald Sprinkle could not have been on active duty with the Seattle Police Department in March 1963 because be was serving in the military at the time.
Please note, this evidence was submitted "late" and turned out to hinge on the fact that Officer Sprinkle was indeed still officially in the military at the time of the incident. Officer Sprinkle counter testified that while he was still in the Military he was also stationed near Seattle and was able and willing to work nights, and had indeed been working that night. Some wags speculate that this whole testimony was submitted in order to allow "believers" to discount the eventual loss of the case and the overwhelming nature of the evidence that indeed the head of the study department in 1963 had had a night on the town. It must have felt good to be able to discount the entire thing as the work of "evil persons."
The Hokkeko maintained further:
Ikeda-Sokagakkai's Grand Conspiracy Out in Clear Daylight
This evidence proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Sprinkle's court testimony was totally false, the words of a person who was not a the scene of any incident. Clow also testified in court that she recognized Sprinkle immediately when the two met for the first time in 30 years, which indicates clearly that her testimony is likewise false. Her claim to have recognized a person who could not have been at the scene of the incident is just as groundless as the allegation of the incident itself. The Ikeda-Sokagakkai's grand conspiracy has now been exposed for what it is: a pure fabrication for which Hiroe Clow and Ronald Sprinkle were used as pawns in a spine-chilling attempt to entrap and ruin the High Priest. Nichiren Shoshu submitted the decisive evidence described above to Tokyo District Court today, August 6. In exposing and strongly reproving the ignoble, machiavellian machinations of Daisaku Ikeda and the Sokagakkai, Nichiren Shoshu is committed to showing real-world proof of the power of its faith by winning a victory for truth and justice.
As I noted, despite the banner and the "evidence" Nikken still lost the case. The court just didn't believe the testimony he gave and did believe the testimony of the officers who remembered arresting a priest on the streets of Seattle back in 1963. It's not a big deal, and it never would have come up if the priests hadn't insisted that they never did anything worth criticizing at the same time that they were criticizing the Gakkai. What these press releases were printed for was for the ordinary members who were being told that Nikken was the living embodiement of the Dai-Gohonzon and that their faith was useless unless it was connected to them.
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