Showing posts with label Hosanna Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hosanna Church. Show all posts

23 Oct 2008

Ex-pastor gets concurrent life terms in child sex case

The Advocate - Louisiana
October 22, 2008

by Debra Lemoine | Advocate Florida parishes bureau

AMITE — A former pastor will serve four concurrent life sentences for raping his two sons, both of whom pleaded with the judge not to imprison their father for life during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing in the 21st Judicial District Court in Amite.

Louis D. Lamonica, 49, of Hammond, was convicted on Sept. 5 of four counts of aggravated rape for abusing his two sons when they were age 11 or younger.

Lamonica is the second of the seven members of the now-defunct Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula to be convicted of rape for their roles in an alleged child sex ring involving three children. Investigators have alleged that some of the acts were part of occult rituals.

Lamonica’s sons, now 18 and 22 years of age, were the two victims Lamonica was tried for raping. They testified at his trial that they had lied when they told authorities in 2005 that their father had abused them.

In court Tuesday, Lamonica exchanged smiles with family members, including his mother, aunt and younger son. His younger son read a statement written by the elder son into the court record during Lamonica’s sentencing.

“My dad was innocent and yet he was still convicted,” Lamonica’s son said. “Now through the error of this court, my dad has been taken from me, and I beg for the mercy of this court not to take my dad away for the rest of my life.”

Lamonica was sentenced six weeks after a trial that lasted for nearly two weeks before being recessed for five days for the preparation and aftermath of Hurricane Gustav. The trial resumed on Sept. 4, and the jury deliberated for eight hours, finally reaching its decision at 1:45 a.m. on Sept. 5.

Like Lamonica’s sons, his attorney, Michael Thiel, reiterated on Tuesday that the former pastor is innocent and had confessed to authorities and in writing that he raped his sons because a so-called prophet at the Hosanna Church controlled him.

Thiel also added that juries have a predisposition to believe child rape charges. That predisposition, coupled with the extensive pre-trial publicity surrounding the arrests in May 2005 and the conviction of Hosanna member Austin “Trey” Bernard III in December 2007, prejudiced the proceedings, Thiel said.

“Try as a person might, it is very difficult to dislodge first impressions,” Thiel said.

Assistant District Attorney Don Wall said that the jury reached a just and proper verdict in Lamonica’s trial.

“I wouldn’t have presented this case to a jury if I believed nothing happened,” Wall said.

This article was found at:

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/32116044.html

17 Sept 2008

Third member of Hosanna Church to stand trial for ritual abuse of children

The Advocate - Louisiana
September 17, 2008

by Debra Lemoine | Advocate Florida parishes bureau

HAMMOND — The trial of the third member of a Ponchatoula church accused of molesting children as part of occult rituals likely will be held in early 2009, 21st Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said Tuesday.
Paul Fontenot, 25, of Ponchatoula, is the church member the state anticipates bringing to trial, Perrilloux said. Prosecutors will seek a trial date for early 2009 at Fontenot’s next hearing, on Oct. 15, Perrilloux said.
Fontenot is among the seven members of the now-defunct Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula indicted in 2005 on charges of molesting three children as part of occult rituals.
Two other church members already have been convicted of aggravated rape as a result of the investigation. The convictions carry automatic life sentences in prison.
Most recently, former Hosanna pastor Louis D. Lamonica, 49, of Hammond, was convicted on Sept. 6 of aggravated rape for abusing his two sons. His sentencing is scheduled for October.
Another church member, Austin “Trey” Bernard III, 39, formerly of Hammond, was convicted on Dec. 3 of raping his infant daughter and Lamonica’s two sons. Bernard is now serving a life sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
Fontenot, 21 at the time of his arrest and 19 when the alleged abuse ended, is the brother-in-law of Bernard. According to court records, Fontenot was indicted on four counts of aggravated rape of Lamonica’s younger son and Bernard’s daughter.
Lamonica’s son was 11 years of age or below at the time of the alleged abuse and the girl was age 2 or younger, investigators have said.
Public Defender Reggie McIntyre had left his office for the day late Tuesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment. Fontenot is being represented by the Public Defender’s Office.
During the previous trials, Lamonica’s two sons testified that they were lying when they told authorities about the abuse. The boys alleged that their mother and Nicole Bernard, Fontenot’s sister and Trey Bernard’s ex-wife, forced them to lie about the abuse.
On the witness stand at Trey Bernard’s trial, Nicole Bernard testified that her daughter maintains that she was abused. The girl never testified at her father’s trial, but a taped interview of her statement was played in court.
This article was found at:
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/28492134.html

29 Aug 2008

Former pastor confessed to ritualized sexual abuse of children

WAFB Channel 9 - Louisiana
August 26, 2008

Prosecutors play taped confessions in former pastor's trial

by Doug Mouton


AMITE, LA (WWL) - Jurors heard graphic and disturbing testimony Monday in the child sex trial involving the former pastor of a Ponchatoula church. Prosecutors played audio tapes of two confessions from former Hosanna Church Pastor Louis Lamonica.
Lamonica voluntarily walked into the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office and told deputies he molested several children over several years and he told of "dedications to Satan" inside the Ponchatoula church. Lamonica's confessions give detailed accounts of how he molested two boys, both family members. He tells how it began and how it continued over the course of years. He also told of having sexual relations with several other children inside the Hosanna Church.
Detective Bonita Sager of the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office took the first confession and was there a few hours later for the second. At the time of Lamonica's confessions, he was not under investigation by police. In his confession, Louis Lamonica says he voluntarily came to police for two reasons: "the guilt of all of this" and "because Robin is still doing stuff. She's still in that cult. I know she is and I believe she is molesting them." Robin is Lamonica's wife.
He says in 2000, the Hosanna Church switched from Christianity to Satanism, although he says, the general congregation didn't know it. He spoke of killing animals and drinking the blood during ceremonies and of sex with children, saying, "It was orgies. You put one (meaning a child) in the middle and it was your turn to be with this one. Everybody got a turn. It was like, nobody missed out, including the women."
Lamonica said that roughly eight adults took part. In opening statements, his attorney says Lamonica was manipulated and coerced into his confessions. However, in his second confession, Lamonica says, "Nobody brain washed nobody." Monday afternoon, prosecutors called a handwriting expert and introduced 260 pages of explicit sexual writings, basically Lamonica's handwritten confession. Jurors finished their day by reading those writings.

This article was found at:

http://www.wafb.com/
Global/story.asp?S=8901018

Hosanna Church rites described as cultlike

The Advocate - Louisiana
August 29, 2008

by Debra Lemoine

AMITE — The Hosanna Church child-rape trial defendant is the former leader of a Christian cult with congregants who veered from mainstream charismatic teachings by focusing on prophetically inspired public confessions and by vomiting in order to cast out demons of sin, three defense witnesses testified Thursday.
Their testimony in the trial of Louis D. Lamonica offered insight into the decline of Hosanna Church from the spiritual center built by Lamonica’s father into a cult that witnesses said had lost touch with reality.
Lamonica’s attorney, Michael Thiel, has maintained that his client falsely confessed to child rape because he was being controlled by a woman claiming to have prophetic visions. The state’s case, presented by Assistant District Attorney Don Wall, includes accusations that children were molested as part of satanic cult rituals.
Lamonica, 49, of Hammond, faces four counts of aggravated rape of his two sons when they were age 11 or younger. He is the second of seven church members indicted in 2005 for their roles in an alleged child-sex ring to be tried in the 21st Judicial District Court.
Two young woman, Karen Bushey and DesireƩ Louque, testified Thursday that their membership in the Hosanna youth group was solely about worshipping God. They testified they never saw any satanic symbols or rituals at the church.
Even though they had been named as participants by some of the suspects and Lamonica’s sons, both women said they never had sex with Lamonica or other church members.
Instead, they described what they referred to as a Christian cult.
Once Lois Mowbray became Hosanna’s associate pastor, sermons ended and Sunday worship services varied from praising God for many hours to altar calls where Mowbray claimed God had told her of a sin that a congregant had to confess publicly, Bushey and Louque said.
“People would go up, start kneeling at the front praying,” Bushey, 24, of Tickfaw, testified. “The worship team would crowd around them and pray over them. This would make them start to throw up.”
Mowbray, 56, formerly of Ponchatoula, had been arrested by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office in May 2005 and booked with being an accessory after the fact to rape and failure to report a felony. She was never charged with the crimes by the District Attorney’s Office or a parish grand jury.
Toward the end of the church’s existence, strangers seeking to drop in on services were turned away at the doors, the women said. In fact, they, too, had no contact with others outside the church.
Bushey moved out of her parents’ home and into the residence of the youth pastor after her parents had an argument with Lamonica and told her to leave the church or get out of their home.
Six months later, Bushey said, she contacted her sister in order to visit her on her birthday. Before she knew it, Bushey said, she was dropped off at a park where her mother picked her up.
No one at the church talked to her again, she testified.
Louque’s break with the church came after she told her boyfriend, Christopher Labat, that she was tired of Labat’s practice of confessing every aspect of their personal relationship to Mowbray.
Labat, 27, of Hammond, is the former Tangipahoa Parish sheriff’s deputy who faces child-rape charges in this case.
Six months later, Louque, 23, of Hammond, said she hung out with Labat for a couple of hours. The next day, Labat, after confessing his visit to Mowbray, arrived at her place of employment and pulled her aside, she testified.
Labat then cut off the head of a rubber snake and handed the head to her, Louque tearfully related.
“He told me it was me,” Louque said.
Harvest Family Church Senior Pastor Bray Sibley testified he was concerned when Lamonica decided to become pastor of his late father’s church after Hosanna Church began to decline under the senior Lamonica’s successors.
Sibley leads a nondenominational church along Interstate 12 in Hammond with more than 3,000 members.
However, Sibley once ran a ministry near Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond that was a “seed” planted from Hosanna’s congregation and later became the Harvest Family Church. Previously, Sibley had been a youth pastor at Hosanna under Lamonica’s father.
Lamonica had participated in a church praise band but had no pastoral experience, Sibley testified. But Lamonica had a “fever dream” in which his dead father asked him to finish his work, Sibley said.
“I know it was frustrating to him watching his father’s church disappear,” Sibley said. “I knew he felt an obligation with this dream he had.”
At some point, the founding families left and Hosanna no longer was part of the Assemblies of God affiliation, two moves that worried Sibley because it reduced the accountability of the church leadership, Sibley testified.
The lack of the authority of the others and the accountability created an environment where a person with spiritual gifts could misuse them to control others, Sibley said.
“You need a church with accountability,” Sibley said. “You can’t have people become hyper spiritualized because they lose touch with reality.”
The trial is scheduled to resume today in state District Judge Zoey Waguespack’s courtroom.
This article was found at:
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/27646729.html?
showAll=y&c=y

23 Aug 2008

Sex Abuse Trial Takes Bizarre Twist

ABC26 WGNO News - New Orleans

August 22, 2008


by Jon Huffman



AMITE — THE TRIAL OF A FORMER PASTOR FROM PONCHATOULA ACCUSED OF MOLESTING HIS TWO YOUNG SONS TOOK A STRANGE TWIST THIS MORNING.

IN OPENING STATEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEYS PORTRAYED THE CHARGES AS THE DEMENTED FANTASIES OF ONE POWERFUL CHURCH MEMBER WHO CONVINCED OTHER CONGREGANTS IT WAS TRUE.

THEY PAINTED A PICTURE OF THE HOSANNA CHURCH AS AN ALMOST JIM JONES-LIKE CULT HEADED BY A CHARISMATIC LEADER.

FIRST UP, PROSECUTORS PROMISED JURORS THEY WOULD SEE VIDEOTAPES OF FORMER PASTOR LOUIS LAMONICA'S TWO SONS DESCRIBING SEXUAL MOLESTATION BY THEIR FATHER IN GRAPHIC DETAIL.

AND, THEY ADDED, JURORS WOULD READ LETTERS OF CONFESSION WRITTEN BY LAMONICA HIMSELF.

BUT THEN THE DEFENSE GOT ITS TURN, PAINTING THE SHOCKING PICTURE OF A PENTECOSTAL CHURCH TURNED INTO A FANATICAL CULT HEADED BY A SELF-DESCRIBED PROPHET NAMED LOIS MOWBRAY.

DEFENSE ATTORNEY MICHAEL THIEL CLAIMED MOWBRAY VIRTUALLY IMPRISONED FORMER PASTOR LAMONICA INSIDE THE CHURCH AND SUBJECTED HIM TO SLEEP DEPRIVATION UNTIL HE MADE FALSE CONFESSIONS OF CHILD RAPE, ANIMAL SACRIFICES, AND SATANIC RITUALS.

THIEL SAID MOWBRAY TOLD THE DEFENDANT "IF YOU THINK OR DREAM ABOUT SOMETHING, THEN YOU'VE DONE IT. YOU MUST CONFESS...I'VE HAD A VISION WHERE GOD TOLD ME YOU ARE MOLESTING YOUR TWO SONS. YOU MUST CLEANSE YOUR SOUL BY WRITING A CONFESSION."

THE DEFENSE CLAIMS MOWBRAY HOUNDED THE FORMER PASTOR FOR MONTHS UNTIL HE BROKE DOWN AND CONFESSED TO FALSE ACCUSATIONS.

BOTH OF LAMONICA'S SONS WILL BE CALLED AS WITNESSES, AND DEFENSE ATTORNEY THIEL PROMISED JURORS BOTH WOULD TESTIFY THAT NO MOLESTATION EVER HAPPENED.

HOWEVER, PROSECUTOR DON WALL TOLD JURORS THEY WOULD SEE VIDEOTAPES IN WHICH BOTH BOYS DESCRIBE MOLESTATION BY THEIR FATHER IN GRAPHIC DETAIL.

THE TRIAL IS EXPECTED TO LAST WELL INTO NEXT WEEK.

This article was found at:

http://abc26.trb.com/news/wgno_news_082108sexabusetrialstarts,
0,790313.story