'Cursed' woman claims exorcism sex abuse

Brisbane Times - September 12, 2008

SYDNEY - Two men have been charged with more than 220 sex offences at prayer sessions of a western Sydney church.
Police say one of the men had claimed he could speak to angels and remove curses.
The men, aged 61 and 38, are highly regarded members of the Greek Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox communities, police say.
They are alleged to have committed the offences over a period of four years on a young woman who believed she was cursed.
Police allege the older man claimed to be a spiritual mentor who was able to speak to angels to remove curses and banish evil spirits.
They allege the victim believed she and her family had been cursed by a member of the Greek community practising black magic and that they would all suffer terrible consequences including death and illness unless the curse was removed.
The woman told police she attended many prayer sessions at various hotels between 2001 and 2005 where she was blindfolded and sexually assaulted.
It's alleged she paid the men between $500 and $1,000 for each prayer session and by 2005 had paid at least $70,000.
Fairfield Local Area Commander, Acting Superintendent Gary Bailey, said police could not rule out the possibility there had been other victims.
"Two extremely courageous women have already come forward with information which has led to the arrests of these two men," Supt Bailey said.
"We will allege these women have been the cruel prey of callous individuals who used religious fear to manipulate and abuse them for their sexual gratification and financial gain.
"Sexual offences are heinous but an offender who hides behind the cloak of religious respectability is particularly vile," Supt Bailey said.
"Our investigations are far from over and we cannot rule out the possibility of other victims and I would urge any woman or person, particularly in the Greek Orthodox or Coptic community, with any information to come forward.
"These two women have already shown tremendous strength and courage to overcome the embarrassment and shame they feel to contact police.
"For that they deserve to be acknowledged."
A 61-year-old man and a 38-year-old man were arrested at their homes this morning.
They were expected to appear at Burwood Local Court later today charged with 151 and 79 sexual offences, respectively.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Information can be given anonymously and will be treated confidentially, police say.
This article was found at:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/cursed-woman-claims-exorcism-sex-abuse/2008/09/12/1220857794561.html

Polygamous Sect to Defend 6 Members in Court and Its Practices on Capitol Hill

New York Times - July 24, 2008

by Gretel C. Kovach

DALLAS — Texas Rangers and prosecutors prepared Wednesday to arrest five members of a polygamous sect indicted the day before with their imprisoned leader on charges relating to under-age marriages and bigamy.

Warren Jeffs

Also Wednesday, supporters and critics of the sect converged on Washington for a Senate committee hearing on “crimes associated with polygamy.”

The Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, had announced the indictments by a Schleicher County grand jury late Tuesday, which accused the sect leader, Warren Jeffs, and four other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of sexual assault. One of those men was also accused of bigamy. A sixth man was charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse.

The indictment against Mr. Jeffs, the only one yet made public, charges him with first-degree felony sexual assault involving a child.

The other men will not be identified or the indictments unsealed until they have been taken into custody, the authorities said.

The grand jury investigation stemmed from a weeklong raid on the church’s Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado in April that led to 440 children being temporarily taken into state custody. The children were returned after two state courts ruled there was insufficient evidence of abuse or neglect, but court-ordered parenting classes are scheduled to begin this week as the criminal investigation continues.

Willie Jessop, a sect spokesman, said Wednesday, “We feel like it is a desperate attempt for Texas to save face on their barbaric actions on their first raid,” but Mr. Jessop added that the indicted men would turn themselves in to fight the charges in court once the arrest warrants were served.

Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the attorney general, said his office was “coordinating with multiple law enforcement agencies to ensure all suspects are taken into custody quickly and in a manner that does not harm an ongoing criminal investigation.”

Natalie Malonis, the court-appointed lawyer for one of Mr. Jeffs’s daughters, said, “It’s a tragedy all the way around, a sad, sad situation for a lot of people.”

“The indictments indicate there was something wrong going on and it was happening with children,” Ms. Malonis said, but added that in her view the legal system was not equipped to deal with such a closed society.

As the criminal case against the men unfolded in Texas, advocates and critics of the sect headed to Washington for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the majority leader, introduced legislation Wednesday calling for a national task force on polygamy and a $4 million fund to bolster law enforcement and social service efforts to fight it and associated crimes.

Jon Summers, a spokesman for Mr. Reid, said the senator had long been concerned over “rampant” levels of crime in polygamous communities, including the abuse of women and children, financial crimes like welfare fraud and tax evasion, kidnapping and extortion.

“We see it in Arizona, in Utah; clearly we’ve seen it in Texas,” Mr. Summers said, “and Warren Jeffs was arrested in Nevada.”

Sect members plan to attend the hearing on Thursday to speak on their own behalf, and their lawyer, Rod Parker, sent committee members a letter saying the sect had been persecuted for maintaining its religious practices.

Shannon Price, a social worker with close relatives in the church, said that even if all of its leaders were imprisoned, the group would never abandon its practice of polygamy.

“It’s essential to their faith,” Ms. Price said. “You can’t enter the celestial kingdom unless you’ve been entered into a polygamous or plural marriage.”

Carolyn Jessop, a former member of the sect who fled with her children, said she would lobby at the Senate committee hearing for federal protection and support for women and children trapped in the polygamous lifestyle.

“When you’re born into this kind of society, it is next to impossible to leave,” Ms. Jessop said.

This article was found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/us/24polygamist.html?ref=us

Shurtleff to testify before Congress on polygamous sect

Legal News Line - July 15, 2008

by Chris Rizo

SALT LAKE CITY (Legal Newsline)-Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff will testify before a U.S. Senate panel investigating a polygamous sect in Texas, Utah and Colorado, his spokesman said Tuesday.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is probing allegations of fraud, bribery, extortion and crimes against children in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Shurtleff, a Republican, has been pursuing an investigation into the FLDS Church.

His spokesman Paul Murphy told Legal Newsline that Shurtleff is happy that the U.S. government is taking a bigger interest in potential federal crimes by the reclusive sect.

"These people have been ignored for the last 50 years," Murphy said. "We think the states of Utah and Arizona have done everything possible to pursue allegations of state crimes."

Among other allegations, Murphy said FLDS members have been suspected of flouting federal child labor laws and avoiding paying federal taxes.

"There are allegations that a lot of money is being funneled about without being accounted for," Murphy said.

The Senate hearing, called by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., comes on the heels of a meeting in Las Vegas between several state attorneys general and officials to discuss legal issues relating to polygamy.

At the closed-door meeting were Shurtleff, Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard along with federal and local authorities.

The June 11 meeting followed public comments by Reid that criticized authorities in Arizona and Utah for not doing more to crackdown on crimes in polygamous communities, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

For his part, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey recently appointed a senior Justice Department prosecutor to work with Utah, Arizona and Nevada to review how federal authorities can help investigate and prosecute polygamy-related crimes.

From Legal Newsline: Reach reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.

This article was found at:

http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/214150-shurtleff-to-testify-before-congress-on-polygamous-sect

Dead: controversial founder of church accused of mind control, sexual misconduct, child molestation, fraud and extortion

The Berkshire Eagle - Maryland
June 5, 2008

Controversial reverend dies

By Amy Carr, Berkshire Eagle Staff

LENOX — The Rev. Carl Henry Stevens Jr., founder of the controversial The Bible Speaks church in Lenox, and later the Greater Grace World Outreach in Baltimore, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure. He was 78.

After a $5.5 million lawsuit prompted Stevens to leave The Bible Speaks' sprawling campus on Kemble Street in Lenox, he formed Greater Grace, which lists more than 25 affiliated churches nationwide, including one in Lee.

Stevens' ministry was marked by controversy, with former members alleging on Internet sites that the church practiced mind control, sexual misconduct, child molestation, fraud and extortion.

In 1987, 11 years after Stevens brought the Bible Speaks to Lenox, a court ordered the pastor to repay a Lenox woman $6.5 million that he had persuaded her to donate to his ministry. The suit accused Stevens of deceit. The amount was reduced to $5.5 million on appeal.

Despite the controversy, Steve Andrulonis, an assistant pastor and spokesman for Greater Grace, said in a phone interview yesterday that Stevens will be remembered as a man of honesty and conviction.

"He stirred things up because he was a man of strong opinion and conviction," Andrulonis said. "And the controversy came from not being wishy-washy. You'll get different opinions on him, people thinking this way or that way. But in my opinion, he was very steadfast."

Berkshire County residents had mixed feelings yesterday about the ministry created by Stevens, which now operates more than 460 churches in 70 countries.

James Bisgrove, a former student at the Stevens School of the Bible located on the church's Lenox campus — now the home of the Shakespeare & Company theater group — said the church did "some wonderful and some terrible things" for the county.

"There were bus ministries to help feed the poor and things like that," said Bisgrove, 58, of Pittsfield, who later became president of a group aimed at convincing people to leave the church. "They were doing a lot. But at the same time, Stevens was (ruining) the background."

Frederick Regan, a former member of The Bible Speaks in Lenox, said he left the church after four or five years, but his daughter remained at the school. Now a resident of Woburn, he said he thought the church came between him and his daughter, and that Stevens' death will draw reactions on two extremes.

"The ones that are still in the church will see him as an apostle," Regan said. "Other people who are not, or who never were, will see him for what he was."

Pastor David Stambovsky, leader of Greater Grace in Lee, said members of his church are glad the suffering has ended for Stevens, whose health had declined in recent years.

While an international memorial service will be held for Stevens in Baltimore on June 14, Stambovsky said he and members of his congregation will reflect in their own way about the man who led their religious journey.

"He was a real friend of ours and of many people from the Berkshires," Stambovsky said. "We know what the effect has been of the underlying events in the Berkshires. But all I can say is, he spoke of God's promise, and it stirred up a great following in New England and throughout the world.

"Over the past 200 years, many men and women have been advocates of Jesus Christ. Pastor Stevens was one of them, and I think history will record that."

A message posted on the Greater Grace Web site by Thomas Schaller, who became the lead pastor of the organization in 2005 when Stevens began to experience declining health, reads in part: "We will continue to reflect on the great privilege of walking with a true man of God. The fruit around the world speaks of God's great grace towards all those that delight in his word. Pastor loved His Word."

This article was found at:

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
ci_9485679