Two members of local temple sue 5 officers

MARY FLOOD
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Oct. 24, 2009

The Houston branch of the fez-wearing fraternity known for driving tiny circus cars and supporting area Shriners children’s hospitals, is embroiled in a court dispute where the societal honorifics of “potentate,” “high priest” and “illustrious sir” are dropped in favor of plain “plaintiff” and “defendant.”

Two longtime members of the Arabia Shrine Temple in Houston have sued five officers of the group alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, violation of due process, breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy and other charges.

The basic complaint is that the current leaders of the philanthropic Freemasons brotherhood are not following internal rules or state law when it comes to transparency in expenditures of some of the $15 million-plus obtained in the sale of their former temple at 2900 N. Braeswood. The Meyerland-area facility sold in 2007.

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Sandy Frost - Aug 6, 2009

Former Judge Ronald Tills is being sentenced tomorrow for pleading guilty to violating the Mann Act. He was caught with two others in a FBI human trafficking sting for taking illegal alien prostitutes to weekend meetings of the Royal Order of Jesters so their Master Mason brothers could have sex.

The Jesters, like their parent organizations, the Shriners and Masons, are nonprofit groups, so it’s like partying with prostitutes at taxpayer expense.

In his defense, pre-sentencing memoranda and letters of support have been submitted and are available on the United States federal court record system AKA PACER.

A few things bear discussion here but let’s first review what happened.

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(WTKR-TV) A Shriner - known for his charitable work with children - is now accused of having a thousand graphic images and video of child porn.

Ray Highsmith is in federal custody, accused of downloading the illegal files off a website and saving them on a home computer.

An ear to ear grin topped with a red-fez. That is how most people at Khedive Shrine Temple would likely remember Ray Highsmith, their potentate, or leader, in 1995 and an active Shriner since.

Court documents uncovered by News Channel-3 reveal a different side to the 68-year-old, one that suggests that in his time away from helping burnt children as a Shriner he collected pornographic pictures of children at home.

Through billing records, federal agents say they found out that Highsmith had a membership to a child pornography website and that he later admitted to having two memberships.

When investigators seized his computers, they say they found even more proof - a thousand- pornographic pictures and seven videos. Some of them portraying sadomasochism.

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… so sayeth Noble Robert D. Roslund, COMMANDER 2008-09, Florida Shrine Legions of Honor Association.

Screen capture from the video:

Salih Niyazi Dedebaba and his dervishes

“[The Bektashi] are even said to be affiliated to some of the French Masonic Lodges. One thing is certain; the order now consists almost exclusively of gentlemen of education, belonging to the Liberal, or Young Turk party.”

- Richard Davey, The Sultan and His Subjects [1897] (Gorgias Press LLC, 2001), p. 65.

I’m not that familiar with the Bektashi Order, but it turns out that this politico-mystical secret society - directly or indirectly - was the inspiration behind the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

Freemasons Dr. Walter M. Fleming, 33°, and William J. Florence, 32°, founded the Shriners in 1870. And in recounting the origins of their Order, Florence and Fleming corroborate the above statement by Richard Davey.

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This is not about those faithful Shriners who get up at zero dawn thirty to put on their clown makeup and drive to the hospital to put a smile on the face of burned and crippled children. This is not about those hardworking Shriners who spend their Saturdays building porches or putting on a fish fry or marching proudly in parades. The focus of this investigation has been on non profit transparency, disclosure and accountability and those who abuse their positions of public trust for private gain.

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