The raid was performed by 6 police officers who inspected every inch of the studio for over an hour including the attached parsonage and storage areas. The warrant specified it was for photos of tattoos and piercings on genitals. Along with the portfolio clearly labeled "Adult" body piercings (there were no loose photos), they seized all of the artist portfolios and tattoo art "flash" books, which are essential sales tools for a tattoo studio. They also took drawings & paintings that were hanging in the different artists work areas.
The police first alleged that a book containing [clinical] photographs of genital piercings was handed from behind the front counter to two 14 year old girls in the day or two after Christmas 2007. The accused was initially Dr. Lowrey himself.
The story later changed to 6 minors (3 boys/3 girls) not being given the book to look at but rather viewing it as it sat on a bookshelf in the public reception area, (All sales materials are closely monitored to prevent theft) later changing to 4 minors who supposedly viewed the book together on one unspecified day during the two months before Christmas, later telling the Deseret News that the incident occurred between the last week of November and the first week of December.
This made the teenagers original claims of Dr. Lowrey’s involvement invalid as he was in Michigan during that period of time. So, Detective Falslev re-interviewed the teens and presented them with a photograph of the whole Happy Valley Tattoo staff and they “re-remembered” claiming that it was then assistant manager Shandi Child, a 24 year old young woman who was sitting behind the counter with her 22 year old red haired husband - though the police originally were quite specific that the man involved was old, white hair, white beard.
By Law, minors are allowed in the studio, (plus of course the studio shares space with the other services of the ministry which are available for minors) but it is studio policy that minors must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, both as a courtesy to families who would disapprove and to avoid congestion of minors bugging staff for services they cannot receive.
This policy has always been posted on both front studio doors and traffic is very limited in the fall. It is rare that minors enter the studio at all and when they do they generally are promptly invited to return with their parents.
Staff members only recall one group of (5 or 6) unaccompanied minors all fall, who did not look books at all, but demanded service without a parent for one girl who had received a lip piercing the previous April with her mother's consent.
She now wanted a second lip piercing and when denied, wanted the piercer to meet her at a local Albertsons Grocery and do the piercing in the bathroom. When that request was also denied, the teens wanted to purchase a needle and jewelry so they could do the piercing themselves at home. When that request was denied, the kids threw a fit and were told to leave.
This appears to be the group of 6 kids the police refer to - they refuse to tell us exactly who or when but we perform few services for minors and keep good records - and this is the only one that appears to fit what little they have told us.
Dr. Lowrey not only contends that the child had access to the photo albums which were previously kept in a public area while she was in the company of her mother, having from April to December to advise her friends of it's content, but also could access similar photos by the thousands in the many online piercing galleries that do not screen for minor access and that as all staff members are pictured online on the studio website http://tat2me.com and were all featured in cable television advertising that ran all fall 2007, it would not be hard for people who had never even been in the studio to make such positive identifications of staff members or of typical genital piercings.
To help make their case, the police are suggesting the book might have been left open on the counter, but it is a strictly enforced staff policy to straighten all portfolios relatively constantly, this book in particular intentionally stored at the bottom of the stack at the very end of the counter, never to anyones recollection ever having been left open on the counter by clients or staff.
The teenagers were in violation of studio policy and while neither teenagers nor studio violated any laws, the teens attempted to induce staff to violate law and the police are using the non-incident to persecute and illegally prosecute staff members when they were going out of their way to protect the interests of the community.
This was not the first dealings this studio has had with the American Fork Police.
On January 14, 2008 Dr. Lowrey was served a summons to appear in court February 22, 2008 on charges of Unlawful Tattooing of a Minor (2 counts) from an incident last May 2007 where two 17 year old boys by fraud and deceit, obtained tattoos in spite of providing ID that showed they were a few weeks (3/6) on the wrong side of their 18th birthdays.
Dr. Lowrey was in Detroit, Michigan at the time of the incident but is being charged as the Owner of the studio and he contends that this current charge is simply in retaliation for his support for his staff in this matter. He was warned by Detective Falslev at the conclusion of the city’s investigation in January claiming that if he didn’t fire Shandi these charges might be opened up again.
Dr. Lowrey contends that the boys tricked (scammed) the receptionist and the police reports reflect that they lied several times in writing on the release form and according to police, both boys were convicted of communications fraud in this incident.
Now, due to Dr. Lowrey's protest over the further victimization of his assistant manager over the new charges of display to a minor, the city has elected to charge Dr. Lowrey in the incident from the previous May even though they told him during the January raid that they had closed that case.
He claims the newly hired receptionist [still in her first week] was violated a second time when she was charged by the government (last June) and that the police investigation proves that she was deceived into providing prohibited services and then bullied by the police into admitting guilt where she was actually the victim.
Dr. Lowrey also claims the ministry was violated when police resisted his request to respond to and refused to investigate or charge with assault an adult female who threw a cell phone at another assistant manager when she could not get the service she desired in the time frame she wanted.
This is simply an effort by local government to prosecute the victims of these crimes in an effort drive the church and it's spiritual tattoo and piercing services out of town simply because the personal & religious beliefs of the Mayor, Chief of Police, City Attorney, etc. disapprove of such practices. (Lt. Falslev has said several times he has wanted to get a tattoo from us)
Rather than tell local parents that their children need to respect their neighbors and obey posted restrictions regarding entry to the studio and receipt of services without parents or legal guardians the police prefer to fabricate groundless violations against the church.
Since our church was founded in 1985 and during the 20 years we have been providing body art services we have NEVER had a single complaint filed against us - until we moved to American Fork last year. American Fork officially says out one side of their mouth that we are good and honorable people, and out the other that we are dangerous to minors. It's not that hard to figure out!
All available details including police reports & court documents connected to these events are hosted at - http://drlowrey.wordpress.com/
Happy Valley Tattoo Massacre'
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