Piecemakers critic files counter suit

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- A man being sued for harassment by a local religious sect

filed a counter suit Friday, claiming the group is abusing the legal

system.

Costa Mesa resident Thomas Halliburton, 26, and his lawyer, Joseph

Donahue, claim the Piecemakers are using the courts to silence anyone who

speaks out against the organization.

“They are definitely abusing the system by suing me,” Halliburton said.

“The cross-complaint is to hold them responsible for using the courts for

their own purposes. They can’t just file a lawsuit every time someone

voices the truth or an opinion.”

But Marie Kolasinski, the unofficial leader of the Piecemakers, said she

is not concerned about the Halliburton’s lawsuit. She said it will not

deter group members from their purpose: seeing Halliburton in jail.

“I don’t care how they cross-complain, Tommy is going to have to answer

for what he did,” Kolasinski said. “He’s going to have to be accountable

for what he’s done.”

The Piecemakers, also known as the Body of Christ Fellowship, are a group

of 31 adults who live communally in six Mesa Verde homes. They discard

the traditional family structure and abstain from sex, viewing each other

instead as brothers and sisters.

The organization -- of which Halliburton’s mother, Donna, has been a

member for the last 20 years -- sued Halliburton after he picketed in

front of the Piecemakers’ store on Adams Avenue in Costa Mesa and sent

e-mails to the organization and its customers who visit the Piecemakers’

Web site.

The Piecemakers allege Halliburton threatened their members and

frightened and drove away their customers.

The complaint that Donahue filed Friday outlined many of Halliburton’s

allegations about the group, which he describes as a cult , including

members giving up all their possessions, the use of group humiliation

tactics, and members being subjected to emotional and spiritual abuse.

Kolasinski scoffed at the allegations, saying, “I don’t ask people to do

anything. We walk the way Christ walked.”

Both parties have said their main objective is to see the lawsuits end.

For Halliburton, the hope of seeing his mother out of the organization is

lost, he said.

“It does no good,” he said. “I guess being that it’s Mother’s Day, it’s

kind of ironic.”