Teens Convicted!

By Arthur R. Vinsel, Daily Pilot Staff, The Daily Pilot, California

April 1, 1969, North America

Trials are over but tribulations continue today, after 14 Teens for Christ crusaders were convicted by two juries of violations during a recent Costa Mesa School demonstration against “Godless modern society.”

[Prosecutors] rested their cases on Maundy Thursday in Harbor District Judicial Court and firm but gentle juries returned guilty verdicts.

The Rev. Dave Berg and his flock headquartered at the Gospel Light Club, 110 Main St., Huntington Beach, plans to leave for Arizona soon, fearing the storied California doomsday earthquake.

They will reverse their exodus temporarily if the state whose people judged them Thursday in two separate courtrooms, based on degree of charges lodged, remains intact.

“We’ll be back to court if California is still here,” Miss Donnelly said today.

“I knew in my mind they’d say guilty, but I knew in my heart we were still innocent,” Miss Donnelly said today with a hint of forgiveness for 10 women and eight men who perhaps knew not what they did.