Expulsion Used to Discredit a Dedicated Freemason
Below are documents
and a write-up from a brother out of Florida, Worshipful Bro. David J. Lettelier.
His expulsion was an
effort to diminish the brother’s testimony in a civil lawsuit. He reported on
possible abuses of a DeMolay father to the Grand Lodge because he wanted
to protect future children from molestation by a “well-respected” leader in
Florida Freemasonry. At least sixteen boys fell victim. This
continues to show the abusive, and sometimes perverse, attitudes perpetuated
from Grand Lodges in the United States.
The Grand Lodge system, particularly in the South, is one of the greatest
failures of American Masonry. Instead of upholding strong virtues, the
system has become one of abuse, fraud, perversion, and evil-doing. The leaders
developed methods to abuse the protective Masonic landmarks for their own
purposes, forever smearing the good name of Freemasonry.
Grand Lodges that have incorporated (and most have), are no longer purely
private organizations, but have entered the civil realm, and are now subject to
civil authority and to the rules of incorporation in their state. They can
no longer legally violate the civil rights of their members, nor commit
injustices with impunity. Civil courts will rule upon their practices because
they’ve removed themselves from the exclusive private world, and become public
entities. ~ MasonicLeaks.com
The Abuse of Power by The Grand Lodge of Florida
By Worshipful Brother David J.
Lettelier
My expulsion couldn’t have happened at a better time. The year before I
served as the Worshipful
Master of Northside Lodge No. 283, in St. Petersburg, Florida, where I was
confronted by the petty politics of those jealous of my accomplishments. I
was also
Curator of the
Florida Masonic Museum at the Masonic Home in St. Petersburg, and was ready
to spread my wings and move on to other Masonic projects.
The Internet was still new to me in 1998, but I quickly saw its educational
value and tried to persuade the Deputy Grand Master and incoming Grand Master,
Jacque Couture, to display the museum collections online, thereby making them
accessible to people all over the world. Grand Master Couture had already
recognized my work on behalf of Masonry,
and appointed me to the General Services
Panel at the Masonic Home, as well as the
Masonic Renewal Committee, and the
Penal Affairs Committee.
The website, to which I’d hoped to dedicate my time, however, was not to be.
Grand Master Couture claimed that the $19.95 per month web hosting fee would be
a strain on Grand Lodge finances, so it quickly became evident that I personally
had to fund the new museum/library venture on my own. It became
the Phoenixmasonry Masonic Museum and Library.
Within days, I was sent a certified letter from the Grand Master, terminating my
appointment as Curator of the Florida Masonic Museum. A few weeks after
that, Northside Lodge charged me with un-Masonic conduct, and Grand Master Couture appointed a
committee to investigate those charges. See
Page 1 and
Page 2.
This committee determined the charges were unfounded.
I protested being discharged as Curator of the Florida Masonic Museum,
after Grand Master Couture accused me of selling Masonic artifacts that didn’t
belong to me. The truth was that 90%
of the collection at the Masonic Home museum was personally owned by me and I
had every right to buy, sell or trade those items as I saw fit, to improve the quality of
the display. That fact was understood by
Past Grand Master Samuel Cowan
(Page 1)
(Page 2), who envisioned
the Masonic Home Museum, made me its Curator and dedicated it in 1997. After a thorough
investigation by Past Grand
Master David Eschrich, of the Grand Lodge Jurisprudence Committee, it was
recommended that I be reinstated as Curator. No one else was qualified, or
wanted to do the work involved.
Second, I had to respond to Northside Lodge about their charges of un-Masonic conduct. It was alleged that I lied on my petition
(Page 1)
(Page 2) to gain
admission to Freemasonry, but the timing was certainly questionable, as I’d been
a perpetual member in good
standing for nine years. I’d been through the chairs, served as Worshipful
Master, and was currently serving on three Grand Lodge committees.
The un-Masonic conduct charge was untrue, and many respected Masons supplied
letters who investigated my petition when I joined. Please read the
letters from Past Grand Master
Samuel Cowan (Page 1)
(Page 2), Right
Worshipful Louis Drake (Page
1) (Page 2), Right
Worshipful Paul Leathers,
Worshipful Charles Jatko,
and my father, James R.
Lettelier.
I did have a criminal conviction in my past, but I served my probation
honorably, and my civil rights were restored
(Page 1)
(Page 2)
(Page 3) before I ever
applied for membership at Northside Lodge. The Masonic Digest of Florida is very
specific about having civil rights restored before becoming a Freemason.
See Chapter 31.03 here.
Grand Master Couture succeeded in pushing the un-Masonic conduct charge from the
lodge level to a Grand Lodge Tribunal, after violating every Masonic Law of due
process. Penal Code Section
44.25, states: “Charges shall be in writing and conform to the following:
…(d) Each charge shall specify…the name or names of witnesses having knowledge
of such action and upon whose testimony the accuser or accusers will rely upon
at trial of the accused.” The charges filed on October 3, 1998, failed to
specify the names of any witnesses of the alleged violation of Penal Code
44.07, and were legally insufficient.
Additionally, Penal Code Section
44.34(c) states: “The accused shall have the right to be present at the time
of the reading of the charges and the answer but shall retire from the Lodge
immediately thereafter and shall not be permitted to be present at the time of
discussion or voting.” On the night my charges were read, October 19, 1998, the
then sitting Worshipful Master Marshall Rackley ordered me not to attend.
On November 16, 1998, without any notification to me, the Lodge took a third vote on
whether to pursue charges, and by so doing, violated my right of due process,
failing to notify me of the vote, and
denying me of the right to be present for the reading of the charges and my
answer. See the letter of protest from my attorney, Alan Rosenthal
(Page 1)
(Page 2)
Finally, my expulsion from the fraternity was in violation of
Penal Code Section 44.56, which
specifically states: “Expulsion is the severest penalty for the punishment of
offenses known to the
plan of Freemasonry and it drives its subject from the circle of the Mystic
Brotherhood. It is, therefore, properly applied only to the gravest offenses
known to Masonic Law. It may properly be inflicted upon a provoking repetition
of an offense for which a Brother has been suspended, or for the violation of
the Mystic Covenant of Secrecy, or for the violation of any injunction of the
moral
law which exhibits an intolerable degree of moral depravity.”
I was not found guilty of a provoking any repetition of an offense for which I’d
been suspended, nor a violation of the Mystic Covenant of Secrecy, nor for
violating the moral law which exhibits an
intolerable degree of moral depravity (emphasis added). I was found guilty under
Penal Code Section 44.07, of “obtaining a Degree or Degrees of Freemasonry by
fraud, untrue statements or
representations, or by knowingly concealing and withholding information relevant
and material to eligibility for such Degrees.” According to Florida Masonic law,
the maximum penalty for that
violation is a suspension, and my expulsion was not in accord with the law.
I believe that the expulsion was imposed in an attempt destroy my credibility,
as I was to testify on behalf of the DeMolay boys who’d been molested.
During the year that all this took place, I served on
Grand Master Couture’s Penal Affairs
Committee, in Zone 6, District 21. It was my duty to report problems
in my Masonic district, and I did report the incident of John Shirley giving
alcohol to
DeMolay boys, and taking pornographic pictures of them at a Masonic youth camp.
After my trial lodge filed its charges, on December 18, 1998, the St. Petersburg
Times (now The Tampa Bay Times) published an article about
a Mason from a nearby lodge, who was caught molesting DeMolay boys while serving
as their Chapter “Dad.”
I was a member of the Grand Master’s District Publicity and Public Relations
Committee, and on December 22, 1998, a reporter from the St. Petersburg Times,
asked me what I knew, and when I
knew it. I told the St. Pete Times (Now the Tampa Bay Times), the same thing I’d told Couture months before, but
when the reporter called Grand Master Couture to confirm it,
Couture claimed that I was lying
(see attached article).
On December 23, 1998 (the very next day), the St. Petersburg Times confirmed I’d
been telling the truth,
(Page 1)
(Page 2)
and that the Grand Lodge of Florida, as well as DeMolay leaders at the State and
National level, knew very well about John Shirley’s reported abuse, yet did nothing.
It’s a traditional view in Freemasonry that you keep everything in house
no matter what the issue is; you don’t sully the name of the fraternity with
problems. The leadership of Florida wanted
their pedophile problems “hush, hush” and to sweep them under the rug very much
like the Catholic Church had done years earlier. They knew that if
such horrors became public, it would destroy the fraternity’s good name and
cause the
membership to decline.
The worst thing about the molestation of these innocent boys by John Shirley came when
the abuse was made public…the Grand Lodge of Florida and DeMolay International
circled the wagons and treated the victims like filth. The boys believed in
Freemasonry through DeMolay. No assistance was given for the needed help
and counseling. As a result, St. Petersburg Chapter of DeMolay, a once
thriving Chapter of one hundred or more fine young men is now defunct.
The former DeMolay “Dad,” John Shirley, was convicted in Criminal Court and sentenced to multiple
life terms in the Florida Department of Corrections for molesting sixteen boys.
I received a letter from the
Department of Corrections on September
28, 2010, informing me that John Shirley had passed away. The victims and
their parents sued DeMolay International,
(Page 1)
(Page 2) and settled their
lawsuits for many millions of dollars using
deposition testimony given by
me.
I have since moved on and joined a Co-Masonic
European Obedience and I couldn't be happier... I no longer do I feel like I'm
moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic in an out-dated organization that
devours its young.
From time to time, people ask me: “Why are you so loyal to Freemasonry, and why
do you keep working so hard to promote the Craft, after being tinged with
expulsion?” I simply reply that I
wasn’t expelled by Freemasonry, rather by men of questionable character who
claim to be Freemasons, but have no real concept of the principles Freemasonry
teaches, or what it’s truly all
about.” It goes back to one of the most familiar lines in Masonic ritual,
"My life you can take, my integrity never." I was never willing to
lie and cover up the moral depravity and sins of John Shirley, Past Grand Master
Jacque Couture or the Grand Lodge of F. & A.M. of Florida.
It would be a great success to see many of these Grand Masters and Grand Lodge systems reigned in on
these and many other abusive policies and
reestablished as providers and protectors of true Masonic principles.
Respectfully Submitted,
David J. Lettelier
"Always let PRUDENCE direct you, TEMPERANCE chasten you, FORTITUDE support you, and JUSTICE be the guide in all your actions."
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