Family cult leader attempts to withdraw guilty plea in deal that saw him convicted and sentenced for raping girl

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - March 31, 2011

Cult leader wants to withdraw guilty plea

By Andria Simmons | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution



A man convicted in February of raping a teenage girl while he was a North Georgia cult leader is attempting to withdraw his guilty plea.

Albert Tony Walker filed a motion in Rabun County last week claiming the plea shouldn't count because he replied, "Yes sir, I guess so," when a judge asked if he was ready to go forward.

Rabun County District Attorney Brian Rickman said he doesn't believe the court will grant the motion, noting that Walker also signed a written plea agreement.

"It's just another attempt at control," Rickman said of Walker's motion.

If a judge grants the motion, Rickman said he would proceed with a trial. A hearing is slated for April 28.

Walker's defense attorney, Joe Cox, did not return calls seeking comment.

Walker, 63, was sentenced Feb. 23 to 10 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation. He was accused of raping a young member of the cult 16 times between 1991 and 1996.

He has already served 18 months while he awaited trial.

The victim, Kirsten Ferguson, said she was not surprised by Walker's maneuver, adding, "I knew he was going to do something like this." She is ready to take the witness stand if necessary at a trial. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution typically does not name rape victims; Ferguson, however, agreed to have her name publicized because she said Walker's misdeeds need to be exposed.

Prosecutors said Walker and his wife, Dalene, at one time had 50 people living with them on a 17-acre tract of land in the Chattahoochee National Forest near Clayton. The cult disbanded sometime around 1996.


This article was found at:

http://www.ajc.com/news/cult-leader-wants-to-891628.html

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Alabama pastor arrested on charges of aggravated child abuse and sexual torture of 12 year old boy

WSFA 12 News - Montgomery, Alabama March 25, 2011

Montgomery church employee arrested for sexual torture and child abuse

by JoBeth Davis, Community Web Producer



MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - A former Montgomery church employee and author has been arrested on accusations of child abuse and sexual torture.



Dr. Barry Cook, 47 of Montgomery, was arrested Thursday on charges of Sexual Torture and Aggravated Child Abuse. He also has an outstanding warrant for Domestic Violence in the Third Degree.

Cook is listed as a leadership teacher and member of the Pastoral Staff at the Christian Life Church on Monticello Drive in Montgomery. On the church's website, Cook is listed as teaching the "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Power: God Still Speaks" class on Sunday mornings. According to Montgomery Child Protect spokesperson, Jannah Bailey, Cook was fired from the church earlier this week.

Due to the fact that the victim in this case is a minor, not many details are available for release.

Bailey did say the the victim is a 12-year-old boy who recently moved to this area with his family.

This is the very same Barry Cook who founded Ambassador Family Church in Oceanside, California back in 1995 with his then wife, Terri. AFC was foreclosed on back in 2008 after the church could no longer afford to pay its mortgage when patrons started leaving the church.

The circumstances surrounding the demise of that church are outlined in an article that appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune back in May 2008. A 2005 paternity scandal between an AFC minister and his wife rocked the core values of the church.

Carolyn Limon, at that time a church office worker, filed for divorce from her husband, Vincent Limon, a former assistant minister at AFC. According to court records, a paternity test revealed that Limon was not the father of the couple's young child.The alleged father - Barry Cook.

The rumors around Cook's involvement continued to strengthen when Cook and his wife Terri separated the next year. Although the Cooks' divorce record does not cite misconduct, according to the Union-Tribune, church members apparently voted with their feet, leaving the congregation in droves. An estimated 600 out of 800 worshipers took their devotions elsewhere.

Church leaders asked Cook to take a paternity test to address the rumors, he was unresponsive.

One former church member, Susanne Guinn, took to the internet to blog what she knew of the situation. Guinn blames Cook for the downfall of the Ambassador Family Church.

“The church is in foreclosure because of Pastor Cook's refusal to admit what he did, that he did wrong, and to ask forgiveness from the church,” said Guinn, who left in 2004.

In an interview with the Union-Tribune, Cook repeatedly denied the claims. “They're unsubstantiated and vacuous,” he said. He said he was never directly asked to take a paternity test.

According to Cook, people left for other reasons: stress created by the construction battles and delays, differences with his ministry style and his withdrawal after his marriage failed and foreclosure loomed.

“I went through a long period when I was in a cave, so to speak, in my soul,” Cook said. “When I stopped speaking, all kinds of other people started.”

By December 2007, the loss of so many members hit home. The church fell behind on its loan payments and was foreclosed on and was bought by another group in February 2008.

Three years later the same man, Dr. Barry Cook, author of the book The Grace Factor, former religious leader and teacher in Montgomery faces a steep list of charges - Sexual Torture, Aggravated Child Abuse and Domestic Violence.

Cook was placed in the Montgomery County Detention Facility. The warrant for Domestic Violence will be served upon his release from the facility.

This article was found at:

http://centralmontgomery.wsfa.com/news/crime/montgomery-church-employee-arrested-sexual-torture-and-child-abuse/77764

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The Daily Nonpareil  -  Council Bluffs, Iowa   March 17, 2011

Girouex: I helped men gain 'sexual purity'

By Chad Nation, News Editor

A former Council Bluffs youth pastor allegedly told the teens he is accused of sexually exploiting that he was trying to help them gain “sexual purity in the eyes of God.”

Brent Girouex, 31, told Council Bluffs police detectives in February that starting in 2007 he had sexual contact with four young men who he knew while he was a youth pastor for Victory Fellowship Church.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber said the number has risen since Girouex first talked with police on Feb. 16. Now, Wilber said there are at least eight people who have come forward.

Girouex was arrested on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist earlier this month and has been released on a $30,000 bond. He is due back in court on April 21.

The Rev. Lonnie Parton of Victory Fellowship Church said church leaders were stunned when four young men came forward with allegations against Girouex in February.

Once Parton learned of the allegations, he confronted Girouex and told him he needed to go to the police and make a confession. He did so on Feb. 16.

Court documents indicated Girouex told investigators the most sexual contact he had was with one teen over a four-year period, starting when the boy was 14 years old. Girouex speculated that he had “mutual” sexual contact with the teen between “25 and 50 times” over the four-year period.

When investigators spoke to the teen, who is now an adult, he told them the number was between 50 and 100 times.

Girouex allegedly said as a youth pastor he felt it was his duty “to help (the teen) with homosexual urges by praying while he had sexual contact with him.”

Several additional victims also spoke with detectives.

At least three others – who were teenagers when the incidents occurred – told investigators the events happened at Girouex’s home. All three said they were at the house to be helped with “sexual purity.”

Another man said he was 23 years old and having problems with his wife when Girouex wanted to “help him with his issues.” The man alleged Girouex pulled down his pants and began to touch his genitals.

Yet another man said that over a five-week period when he was 20 years old, Girouex slowly evolved sexually contacting him from touching him over his clothes to oral sex.

Court documents stated Girouex said during all of the incidents, it was only about “helping the victims gain sexual purity.”

“When they would ejaculate, they would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind,” he allegedly told detectives.

While there are at least eight people who have come forward, Wilber said investigators are still following leads to see if there are more victims in the case.

This article was found at:

http://www.southwestiowanews.com/articles/2011/03/17/council_bluffs/doc4d822e3a97362006634458.txt

**************************************************************************

CNN - March 15, 2011

Former youth pastor faces 60 charges of sexual exploitation


OMAHA, IA (CNN) - An Iowa community is in shock after a youth pastor was accused of having sex with several young men in his congregation.

Brent Girouex is facing 60 counts of felony sexual exploitation.

Court documents show four alleged victims came forward to the church's pastor. The young men explained how Girouex talked them into having sexual contact with him by explaining to them they would gain "sexual purity in the eyes of God."

Church leadership told Girouex to turn himself in, which he did on Feb. 16, telling police he wanted to confess what he had done.

Girouex told investigators he engaged in sex acts with a 14-year-old victim at the time 25 to 50 times over a four-year period, all the while praying while they two had sexual contact.

Girouex joined the church in 2006 as an unpaid volunteer in the youth department. Pastor Patron said the church has a policy of running background checks on all people who work with the church's kids, but Girouex's came up clean.

The county attorney worries there may be other victims that have not yet come forward.

Officials said Girouex was released from custody after posting bail. He is due back in court next month.

This article was found at:

http://www.wdam.com/Global/story.asp?S=14256292

************************************************************************

KETV 7 ABC   -  Omaha   March 14, 2011

Ex-Pastor Faces 60 Sex Charges

Former Iowa Youth Pastor Out On Bond


COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa --Pottawattamie County officials said former Council Bluffs youth pastor, Brent Girouex, 31, is out of jail Monday night after he surrendered to authorities last month.

Court officials said Girouex posted bond on a $30,000 bail. He's due in court April 21.

Police said Girouex confessed to engaging in sex acts with at least six boys and men. In one instance, Girouex told police he had sexual contact with a teenage boy 25 to 50 times over a four-year period. The boy was 14 years old when the sex acts began, according to court documents.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber said his office is now working with eight alleged victims.

Wilber said Girouex has been charged with 60 counts of sexual exploitation.

Lonnie Parton, a Victory Fellowship Church pastor, said they were caught by surprise when four young men came forward with the allegations in early February. They told him that Girouex talked them into having sexual contact with him by explaining to them this was to gain "sexual purity in the eyes of God."

Parton said church leadership told Girouex to turn himself in, which he did on Feb. 16.

Parton said the church has a policy of running background checks on "all people who work with the church's kids" and Girouex's background check came up clean when he came to the church in 2006 as a volunteer in the youth department.

Wilber said Girouex told police that both he and his alleged victims were praying while they had sexual contact.

"In my line of work, I get to see the worst of the worst, and this is pretty bad," Wilber said.

Given the allegations, Wilber said he is worried that there may be more alleged victims that have not yet come forward.

"The only way that I can truly say this won't happen to somebody else is for us to get a full picture of what we've got, and then we can present that full picture to the court," Wilber said.

This article was found at:

http://www.ketv.com/r/27196314/detail.html

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Six more members of Wisconsin house church to be charged for beating children according to biblical dictate

Wisconsin State Journal  -  March 21, 2011

More people to be charged with child abuse for alleged Biblical punishment methods

by SANDY CULLEN


Six more members of a Black Earth church are expected to face child abuse charges in what experts say is a rare — and legally indefensible — case of claiming the Bible dictates using a rod to punish children as young as 2 months.

"I think these are deviant people, not deviant beliefs," said law professor Michael Broyde, who is academic director of the Law and Religion Program and a project director at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University in Atlanta.

"It's an exceptionally rare view of the Bible that permits activity that would otherwise be considered abuse," said Broyde, who is also a rabbi.

"As I understand the Biblical text," he said, "there is no right in the Bible to commit child abuse."

People cannot defend themselves from a criminal charge "by saying my religion made me do it," Broyde said, adding, "The law ignores your religious motivation."

Last week, Philip Caminiti, 53, head pastor and elder at Aleitheia Bible Church, and his brother, John Caminiti, 45, both of Black Earth, were charged with a total of 12 counts of child abuse. According to a criminal complaint, they admitted using rods and dowels to hit the backsides of children in their family and other church families.

Both appeared in court Monday and were released on signature bonds with instructions from Court Commissioner Todd Meurer not to inflict corporal punishment on any child and not to discuss the case with other people who will be charged, along with child witnesses and victims.

On Friday, subpoenas were sent to three couples who are church members to appear Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court on charges of being a party to intentional child abuse of their children, causing bodily harm, said Dane County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Elise Schaffer.

They are: Andrea L. Wick, 26, and Timothy J. Wick, 27, of Mazomanie; and Alina N. Caminiti, 24, Matthew B. Caminiti, 27, Maria J. Stephenson, 29, and Timothy D. Stephenson, 28, all of Black Earth.

The Sheriff's Office began investigating in November after former church members expressed concerns about the mistreatment of children, Schaffer said.

The victims are 12 children, ranging in age from infants to age 6, she said. Their parents described redness and bruising as common results of the spankings.

Schaffer said church members were open about their "spare the rod, spoil the child philosophy" and described using wooden dowels and wooden spoons on the bare skin of children as young as 2 months. The dowels were 12 inches to 18 inches long and the diameter of a quarter.

Church members said Philip Caminiti instructed parents on how to use rods for spankings, Schaffer said. One person described children being grumpy, emotional or crying as behaviors that warranted a spanking with a dowel.

Schaffer said the church was formed in 2006 when some members of the Curtiss Street Bible Fellowship broke away to start their own congregation.

She said the new church was started with a donation of between $500,000 and $600,000 from Bob and Lori Wick of Mazomanie.

Lori Wick declined comment Monday, saying attorneys have advised them not to discuss the case.

While experts say there is no clear threshold that differentiates discipline from abuse, Schaffer said Wisconsin law considers child abuse to be anything excessive or beyond reasonable discipline.

Sociology professor Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire and an expert on the effects of spanking, said that in addition to immediate physical harm, corporal punishment can lead to long-term psychological problems.

"The more spanking, the greater the probability of a child being depressed as an adult," Straus said, adding that children who are spanked also are more likely to be delinquent and to get in trouble.

Straus said he considers using wooden rods to discipline youngsters to be both child abuse and a violation of children's rights to be brought up without violence.

State Journal reporter Ed Treleven contributed to this story.

This article was found at:

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_a8684e74-5428-11e0-b9d6-001cc4c03286.html

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Islamic scholar says Utah schools doing better job teaching students about all religions

Deseret News - Utah March 12, 2011

Islamic scholar: Religious education improving in schools

By Sara Israelsen-Hartley  |  Deseret News


OREM — Twenty years ago, elementary and high school textbooks contained fairly secular and even slightly negative views about religion, often painting Mormonism as a "sect" and glossing over the Islamic faith entirely. But since the 1990s, when schools and states began to implement more content standards, religious representation in K-12 classrooms has improved, said Shabbir Mansuri, founding director of the Council on Islamic Education.

During a recent lecture as part of Utah Valley University's conference on Mormonism and Islam, Mansuri talked about how schools went from "sacred classrooms," where religion was preached as well as taught to "naked classrooms," which were devoid of any religious instruction.

Today's classrooms are "civic classrooms," he explained, where religion is taught, but not preached — an essential and constitutionally appropriate action to ensure well-rounded students.

"Because religion plays a significant role in history and society, study about religion is essential to understanding both the nation and the world," according to the Council on Islamic Education's study: "Teaching About Religion in National and State Social Studies Standards," created in partnership with the First Amendment Center.

"Omission of facts about religion can give students the false impression that the religious life of humankind is insignificant or unimportant," the study says. "Failure to understand even the basic symbols, practices, and concepts of the various religions makes much of history, literature, art, and contemporary life unintelligible."

While Mormons were often mentioned in older textbooks, such references were usually short and within sections on "Westward Expansion," explaining very little about actual religious beliefs.

Now, Utah requires students to "understand the contributions of Native American Indians, explorers and Utah's pioneers," "explain the reason for the Mormon migration to Utah" and "recognize how the Mormon pioneers' heritage influences Utah today."

Muslims fared even worse in historical accounts, Mansuri said, showing several pictures from his daughter's sixth-grade book from 1989.

Within the 450 pages of her social studies textbook were 10 pages covering several different world religions. Yet these religions weren't actually named, instead called, "Religion in Japan," "Religion among the Bedouin" and "Religion in France" — rather than talking about Shintoism and Buddhism, Islam or Catholicism.

And in a California textbook from 1990, "Moments in Time" pages taught students about traditional figures from various eras, showing a Japanese warrior, an African woman, a Parisian market woman, a crusading warrior and then, to represent Muslims, there was a picture of a camel.

Mansuri and other members of the Council on Islamic Education went to talk with the book's publisher and asked why they were depicted by a camel, not a person.

The publisher's response?

"You people were great traders, and the trading tool of the time was the camel, so we chose the camel to represent that part of the nation."

"Thank you," Mansuri responded. "But it wasn't the camel who did the trading."

Based on the council's input, the 1999 version of the textbook contained a beautiful image of an Abbasid scholar instead of the camel.

"You can take your place at the table and contribute in major ways," Mansuri said.


This article was found at:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700118051/Islamic-scholar-Religious-education-improving-in-schools.html

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Both Suspects In ‘Exorcism’ Child-Murder Case Indicted

Tyler Morning Telegraph - March 14, 2009

by By KENNETH DEAN | Telegraph Staff Writer


HENDERSON -- A couple who told authorities they were trying to rid a toddler of demonic possession when she died, have been indicted for her murder -- a murder that included the child being beaten with a hammer, slammed into stationary objects and finally strangled.

A Rusk County grand jury handed up the capital murder indictments this week against registered sex offender Blaine Keith Milam, 19, and Jessica Bain Carson, 18, the Dec. 2, death of the woman's 13-month-old daughter Amora Bain Carson.

Carson and Milam called 911 from a home at 13717 County Road 2125 shortly after 10:35 the morning of Dec. 2, and said the child was not breathing.

An arrest affidavit states Milam performed an exorcism of the demons purportedly possessing their child.

The affidavit continues to state after Milam killed the child with Carson looking on, the couple "drove to Henderson to pawn some items to pay for an exorcism."

Officials said Milam and Carson told detectives they decided to hire a priest after the exorcism went badly.

However, there has been no information of any clergy being called to the home found in the case.

Detectives said at the time Carson and Milam beat the child multiple times with a hammer then bit the child more than 30 times.

The indictments against the couple state the defendants also caused the child's death by striking her against objects and by strangulation.

Milam was supposed to be behind bars at the time of the homicide as part of a condition of probation for the second-degree felony criminal solicitation of a child, but a failure in the system allowed Milam to be freed months before he was to be released after he was sentenced by State District Judge Clay Gossett to 180 days in jail as part of the probation conditions.

Those conditions also prohibited him from being around children except his own biological children or siblings.

Officials in the case said Carson graduated as an honor student in 2007 and she seemed very intelligent and added she had not been in any trouble with police in the past.

Gossett also issued a new gag order in the case this week to keep any perspective witnesses from talking about the case and to keep the prosecution, the defense or any law officials from disclosing any information about case strengths and weaknesses, any evidence or any arguments that may be used in the case.

Both Milam and Carson remain jailed on $2 million bonds.


This article was found at:

http://www.tylerpaper.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090314/NEWS01/903140309/0/FRONTPAGE


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