A great friend of our Lord Jesus Christ and His precious preborn babies was pummeled at a Denver grocery store while seeking signatures for the Personhood Amendment.  Many of you know Everett Stadig, the Abraham Lincoln look alike who is as gentle and kind a man that I know.  God has given him a tremendous platform in Denver to share the Gospel of Christ and the plight of preborn babies via a very incredible sequence of events.  ~ Flip

Attack on a Pro- Lifers Leads to the Arrest of a Serial Rapist

Everett Stadig is a Christian prolife activist and an Abe Lincoln look alike.  Because of his witness for Jesus and his uncanny resemblance to Abraham Lincoln he is well recognized by everyone in the Stapleton area.  He is also well known by Denver police officers because he is at the Planned Parenthood abortion mill in Stapleton daily where Denver police routinely interact with the prolifers.

June 30, 2012 during the final push to gather signatures for Colorado’s Personhood amendment, 69 Year old Stadig was collecting signatures outside the Stapleton King Soopers when he was attacked and thrown off his bike to the ground by a vulgar, angry man in the parking lot.   There was a witness at the scene that saw the attack and recorded the assailant’s license plate number and gave it to the police.  Everett was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he underwent surgery for a broken hip.

The police report did not identify Everett, it said that an elderly man fell in the King Soopers parking lot.  It said nothing about an altercation, confrontation or attack which was very disturbing to Everett who was lying in a hospital bed with months of rehab ahead of him.  With the help of prolifers and two pro bono lawyers pressure was applied and the Denver police department began to investigate the crime.

Eventuallly, William Costello was arrested for the attack on Everett Stadig.  “Katie’s Law” allows law enforcement to procure DNA samples after a felony arrest.  That DNA linked William Costello to three rapes that he was charged with on November 16, 2012.

Lynn Kimbrough with the district attorney’s office stated, “William Costello, 47, has been charged with two counts of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of sexual assault on a child, three counts of sexual assault, and two counts of impersonating a peace officer.  Costello was arrested and charged in July 2012 with assault on an at-risk adult following a confrontation between Costello and a man collecting petition signatures.  “Costello’s DNA was taken at the time of his arrest pursuant to Katie’s Law, and was then linked to three unsolved sexual assault cases occurring in 2008, 2010, and 2011.”

Costello is alleged to have raped a 13 year old girl, in March 2008, a 22 year old woman in 2010 and a 49 year old woman in 2011.

According to Mr. Stadig he was attacked because he collecting personhood signatures.  “In a telephone interview from his hospital bed, Stadig told LifeSiteNews that the man was “in his mid-thirties and looked about six foot tall.” He refused to sign, and began to swear and shout at Stadig.  “He was yelling ‘I’m pro-choice!’”  Stadig recalled, adding that he used “most foul language.”

Stadig explained that being ‘pro-choice’ meant pro-abortion, and again urged him to sign. At first the man walked away, but returned half a minute later, still swearing and yelling.  “He said ‘you don’t have a right to be here!’” Stadig related, “and I said ‘I do have a right to be here, this is a Colorado Petition Drive’. Then he grabbed my petition pad, and with the same movement threw me to ground, and I was hurt so bad I couldn’t get up.”

Seems Mr. Costello has a dog in the fight for personhood.   Where is a rapist going to get rid of the evidence of his crime without the abortionist?

In this news report Denver District Attorney, Mitchell R. Morrissey said that this crime is one of the most “significant offenses that we’ve had”.  He also said that without Katie’s law the cases would have gone unsolved.

Everett Stadig said that without the dogged perseverance of pro-lifers, Attorney Rebecca Messall and Attorney Barry Arrington the case may never have been investigated.  He just may be right.  In light of the fact that the original police report stated that an elderly man fell in the King Sooper’s parking lot despite an eye witness account of the attack. Also nothing was done to pursue his assailant until law enforcement officers were contacted by Everett’s lawyers.

Since Mr. Stadig is a well-known local Christian pro-life activist, could it be that police wrote him off as a nuisance because of a preexisting prejudice against Christian pro-lifers?    That remains to be seen.

Everett can be heard just a day after his surgery in an interview on the Bob Enyart Live radio show.

Here are some pictures of him in the hospital: