Perjury Charges Possible in Dover Trial

The Patriot News is reporting that two of the board members who denied their religious intentions in getting intelligent design taught and failed to disclose the sources of funds they used to purchase the controversial textbook Of Pandas and People are now being investigated for perjury.

U.S. Middle District Attorney Thomas A. Marino said yesterday that decision will take time because there is “a lot of reading to do” to determine if the statements rise to the level of a crime.

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During the trial, after questioning by Jones and lawyers, Bonsell and Buckingham acknowledged that Buckingham raised money for the books in his church, then wrote a check for $850 to Bonsell’s father, who bought the texts and donated them to the school district. Neither man disclosed the transaction in their deposition.

“The inescapable truth is that both Bonsell and Buckingham lied at their Jan. 3, 2005, depositions about their knowledge of the source of the donation for Pandas. … ,” Jones said in his ruling. “This mendacity was a clear and deliberate attempt to hide the source of the donations by [Bonsell and Buckingham] to further ensure that Dover students received a creationist alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution.”