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August 23, 2005
WOFF-related custody saga continues
Daily Courier, USA
Aug. 23, 2005
Jerry Stensland
thedigitalcourier.com
RUTHERFORDTON -- The ongoing saga of former Word of Faith Fellowship member Shana Muse continues to add chapters.
Muse was in court last week after the WOFF couple with custody of her children claimed she was in contempt of court after a recent alleged incident in Charlotte.
Brooke and Kent Covington, WOFF ministers, have accused Muse of violating a standing custody agreement after Muse was arrested and charged with simple assault and battery and misdemeanor child abuse.
The contempt of court hearing before Judge Athena Brooks was delayed until Sept. 27.
Muse denied any wrongdoing during a visitation with her children and sister in Charlotte in June. Charges were filed that she pushed her sister and hit one of her two boys.
Muse has four children, two older girls -- who have been emancipated and are considered legal adults -- and two younger boys.
All four children are were removed from the Covington's home in Oct. 2003 after a court ruling found the WOFF environment to be abusive. That verdict was overturned by the North Carolina Court of Appeals which said the Rutherford County Department of Social Services did not properly bring the case to trial.
The two boys were returned to the custody of the Covingtons after the Court of Appeals' ruling. Muse had left her children in the custody of the couple after Muse decided to leave the controversial Spindale-based institution and seek counseling in Ohio.
Muse signed a temporary custody agreement with the couple at the time, but has been actively trying to get her children back since.
With the DSS effort to get her children out of the WOFF failed, Muse has revived a civil custody suit to get her children back.
Two of Muse's sisters, Cindy Cordes and Suzanne Cooper, are WOFF members and have taken part of various visitations over the years and have been involved in the care of the children.
DSS and various former WOFF members have over the years accused the WOFF leadership of allowing child abuse in the name of religion.
Those allegations include the use of strong prayer or blasting where a person is usually seated in the center of a group of people who use loud screams or sounds to force demons out of the seated subject.
Most church members, including children, have been blasted various court testimony has revealed.
The WOFF most recently won a settlement with DSS after filing a more than $2 million federal discrimination lawsuit against the agency.
The settlement paid the WOFF $305,000 and included a number of stipulations and hurdles the agency must now clear in order to investigate allegations of child abuse at the WOFF.
Attorneys who have represented the Covingtons and Sarah and Rachael Almanie, Muse's two daughters, have filed for reimbursement of legal expenses incurred during the custody and emancipation proceedings.
They are asking for reimbursement from DSS of $273,000 in fees.
DSS claims asking for the reimbursement violates the spirit of the settlement reached on the federal lawsuit.
Posted by Perry at 01:54 PM
August 18, 2005
'Faith' filmmakers say church rebuffed them
By CLAUDIA ROWE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Thursday, August 18, 2005
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/236935_faithside18.html
In 2002, when news stories broke detailing a decades-long coverup of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church, Kirby Dick, a documentary filmmaker in Los Angeles, felt many things, among them exasperation.
News coverage concentrated on accountability and blame and, eventually, lawsuits. But rarely did he read anything that exposed the emotional reality of victims. "Twist of Faith," Dick hopes, will redress that.
In an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dick and producer Eddie Schmidt discussed their search for an appropriate subject to tell this story and described church reaction in its aftermath.
P-I: There are innumerable instances of child abuse. Why make a movie about this particular scandal?
Dick: Sexual abuse, unfortunately, happens very, very frequently in this country, but I think it's actually hard for people to contemplate this, to even think about it. And when you add religion it adds a level of complexity and trauma for the survivor that I was very interested in delving into.
How has the church reacted to your movie?
Dick: When we were making the film, we'd arranged for an interview with the bishop in Toledo. He had no direct relationship to the abuse we were talking about so we thought it would be OK. We flew out to Ohio, set up our cameras for an hour and a half outside his office, and five minutes before we were going to start shooting he said, "I've changed my mind. I'm not going to do it." That was astounding to us. It kind of gave me a sense of what Tony (the film's protagonist) had gone through, that this person you think of as a paragon of virtue suddenly breaks a promise and is lying to you.
Though "Twist" is pretty specific in its locale, Toledo, Ohio, the experience of victims there is amazingly consistent with that of victims here in Seattle. What kind of reaction did you get when the film screened in Toledo?
Schmidt: Well it hasn't yet -- not really. We had a private showing at the one independent screen in town, but as far as mainstream movie houses, we were told it would never happen because the material was too controversial. Then they said they'd have to create a policy for controversial films. Then they said it was a business decision. Basically, the film is being censored in Toledo.
How did you choose your main subject, Tony Comes? And did he receive any pay for appearing in the film?
Schmidt: No. In fact, Tony asked about that the first time we met. Kirby explained that in a documentary we don't pay people, and he said, "Good, because I don't want anyone to think I did this for the money."
Dick: So many of these people, they don't want to sue the church and they're forced into that position because over and over and over the church doesn't respond. What people tend to forget when they hear these stories is this was against the law -- people should be in jail! So what other recourse do they have, because by the time you're able to process it and come forward, the law is not on your side. What else can they do? The idea that money's behind this is so off. These people are just trying to find some kind of justice.
There are many within the church who say abuse victims have been hurt so badly it seems that nothing will heal them. What do you think about that?
Dick: I think it's kind of an un-Christian response. When somebody's hurting, you never stop trying to ease their pain, especially if your church has had a hand in it.
The thing that's most important to these people is an acknowledgement that it happened, in an open and honest way, and that there's an apology for that. I know that goes a long way toward easing their pain. And those are two things that are not really financial at all.
Posted by Perry at 04:43 PM
August 16, 2005
Twisted logic in polygamy case
The Arizona Republic, Op-Ed, Aug. 11, 2005
Trustees must have true respect for laws on marriage
Who would you pick for trustees of a pot of money worth more than $100 million that was established for a polygamous cult and put in jeopardy by its indicted and missing "prophet"?
More polygamists?
If you think the answer is obvious, you are in for a surprise.
Polygamists are on the list of people a Utah court is considering as replacements for Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "prophet" Warren Jeffs and his cronies.
Jeffs and Co. were stripped of their trusteeships to stop them from looting the trust's assets, which are the sole resource of 10,000 or so cult members living in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City.
One of those on the replacement list is Winston Blackmore, former leader of a polygamist cult in Bountiful, British Columbia.
The Vancouver Sun says he is being investigated by Canadian authorities for sexual exploitation of underage girls.
It is no secret that Jeffs' Arizona-Utah cult practices polygamy by inflicting the robust sexual appetites of older men on teenage girls who are raised to "keep sweet" and do what men tell them.
Polygamists have been perpetrating these crimes for decades while law enforcement played dumb.
About two years ago, Justice saddled up an exceedingly slow horse and rode out toward the scene of the crime. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff began talking about the outrages.
This year, an investigator for the Mohave County attorney got enough evidence to win several indictments against some of the suspected child rapists in the community, including Jeffs, who disappeared when it became clear the law was coming after him at a slow walk.
Before he went underground, Jeffs bought more than 1,000 acres in Texas and set up a compound for some of his pet followers.
This property is not held in the cult's trust, but it was likely bought with trust money, says Bruce Wisan, a Salt Lake City CPA who was named by the court to inventory the trust.
The trust owns nearly all the property in Colorado City and Hildale. That resource is the target of lawsuits by former cult members, which means current cult members may lose their homes to pay for the cult's sins.
Trust assets may also be sold off to pay mounting legal costs. Yet Wisan and others say no current cult members put their names on the list of proposed trustees.
To some, naming polygamists from other groups, such as Blackmore, is a way to represent the interests of Jeffs' cult members.
To us, that's twisted logic. The Utah court last week delayed naming new trustees until October and requested biographical and other information on all the proposed trustees.
If good sense prevails, the judge will see that it makes more sense to appoint knowledgeable people who have demonstrated a respect for the laws against polygamy.
Former state Sen. Linda Binder and Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson are on the list the court is considering.
So is former cult member Flora Jessop, who understands the secretive culture that Jeffs still rules.
They would make better guardians of a trust that, in addition to being Jeffs' former piggy bank and the deep-pocket target of lawsuits and lawyers fees, represents the life work of people trapped in a cult where justice is long overdue.
Posted by Perry at 07:10 PM
August 15, 2005
Twisted logic in polygamy case
The Arizona Republic, Op-Ed, Aug. 11, 2005
www.azcentral.com
Trustees must have true respect for laws on marriage
Who would you pick for trustees of a pot of money worth more than $100 million that was established for a polygamous cult and put in jeopardy by its indicted and missing "prophet"?
More polygamists?
If you think the answer is obvious, you are in for a surprise.
Polygamists are on the list of people a Utah court is considering as replacements for Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "prophet" Warren Jeffs and his cronies.
Jeffs and Co. were stripped of their trusteeships to stop them from looting the trust's assets, which are the sole resource of 10,000 or so cult members living in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City.
One of those on the replacement list is Winston Blackmore, former leader of a polygamist cult in Bountiful, British Columbia.
The Vancouver Sun says he is being investigated by Canadian authorities for sexual exploitation of underage girls.
It is no secret that Jeffs' Arizona-Utah cult practices polygamy by inflicting the robust sexual appetites of older men on teenage girls who are raised to "keep sweet" and do what men tell them.
Polygamists have been perpetrating these crimes for decades while law enforcement played dumb.
About two years ago, Justice saddled up an exceedingly slow horse and rode out toward the scene of the crime. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff began talking about the outrages.
This year, an investigator for the Mohave County attorney got enough evidence to win several indictments against some of the suspected child rapists in the community, including Jeffs, who disappeared when it became clear the law was coming after him at a slow walk.
Before he went underground, Jeffs bought more than 1,000 acres in Texas and set up a compound for some of his pet followers.
This property is not held in the cult's trust, but it was likely bought with trust money, says Bruce Wisan, a Salt Lake City CPA who was named by the court to inventory the trust.
The trust owns nearly all the property in Colorado City and Hildale. That resource is the target of lawsuits by former cult members, which means current cult members may lose their homes to pay for the cult's sins.
Trust assets may also be sold off to pay mounting legal costs. Yet Wisan and others say no current cult members put their names on the list of proposed trustees.
To some, naming polygamists from other groups, such as Blackmore, is a way to represent the interests of Jeffs' cult members.
To us, that's twisted logic. The Utah court last week delayed naming new trustees until October and requested biographical and other information on all the proposed trustees.
If good sense prevails, the judge will see that it makes more sense to appoint knowledgeable people who have demonstrated a respect for the laws against polygamy.
Former state Sen. Linda Binder and Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson are on the list the court is considering.
So is former cult member Flora Jessop, who understands the secretive culture that Jeffs still rules.
They would make better guardians of a trust that, in addition to being Jeffs' former piggy bank and the deep-pocket target of lawsuits and lawyers fees, represents the life work of people trapped in a cult where justice is long overdue.
Posted by Perry at 04:53 PM
August 12, 2005
Twisted logic in polygamy case
The Arizona Republic, Aug. 11, 2005
www.azcentral.com
Trustees must have true respect for laws on marriage
Who would you pick for trustees of a pot of money worth more than $100 million that was established for a polygamous cult and put in jeopardy by its indicted and missing "prophet"?
More polygamists?
If you think the answer is obvious, you are in for a surprise.
Polygamists are on the list of people a Utah court is considering as replacements for Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "prophet" Warren Jeffs and his cronies.
Jeffs and Co. were stripped of their trusteeships to stop them from looting the trust's assets, which are the sole resource of 10,000 or so cult members living in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City.
One of those on the replacement list is Winston Blackmore, former leader of a polygamist cult in Bountiful, British Columbia.
The Vancouver Sun says he is being investigated by Canadian authorities for sexual exploitation of underage girls.
It is no secret that Jeffs' Arizona-Utah cult practices polygamy by inflicting the robust sexual appetites of older men on teenage girls who are raised to "keep sweet" and do what men tell them.
Polygamists have been perpetrating these crimes for decades while law enforcement played dumb.
About two years ago, Justice saddled up an exceedingly slow horse and rode out toward the scene of the crime. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff began talking about the outrages.
This year, an investigator for the Mohave County attorney got enough evidence to win several indictments against some of the suspected child rapists in the community, including Jeffs, who disappeared when it became clear the law was coming after him at a slow walk.
Before he went underground, Jeffs bought more than 1,000 acres in Texas and set up a compound for some of his pet followers.
This property is not held in the cult's trust, but it was likely bought with trust money, says Bruce Wisan, a Salt Lake City CPA who was named by the court to inventory the trust.
The trust owns nearly all the property in Colorado City and Hildale. That resource is the target of lawsuits by former cult members, which means current cult members may lose their homes to pay for the cult's sins.
Trust assets may also be sold off to pay mounting legal costs. Yet Wisan and others say no current cult members put their names on the list of proposed trustees.
To some, naming polygamists from other groups, such as Blackmore, is a way to represent the interests of Jeffs' cult members.
To us, that's twisted logic. The Utah court last week delayed naming new trustees until October and requested biographical and other information on all the proposed trustees.
If good sense prevails, the judge will see that it makes more sense to appoint knowledgeable people who have demonstrated a respect for the laws against polygamy.
Former state Sen. Linda Binder and Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson are on the list the court is considering.
So is former cult member Flora Jessop, who understands the secretive culture that Jeffs still rules.
They would make better guardians of a trust that, in addition to being Jeffs' former piggy bank and the deep-pocket target of lawsuits and lawyers fees, represents the life work of people trapped in a cult where justice is long overdue.
Posted by Perry at 07:06 PM
Twisted logic in polygamy case
The Arizona Republic, Aug. 11, 2005
www.azcentral.com/
Trustees must have true respect for laws on marriage
Who would you pick for trustees of a pot of money worth more than $100 million that was established for a polygamous cult and put in jeopardy by its indicted and missing "prophet"?
More polygamists?
If you think the answer is obvious, you are in for a surprise.
Polygamists are on the list of people a Utah court is considering as replacements for Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "prophet" Warren Jeffs and his cronies.
Jeffs and Co. were stripped of their trusteeships to stop them from looting the trust's assets, which are the sole resource of 10,000 or so cult members living in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City.
One of those on the replacement list is Winston Blackmore, former leader of a polygamist cult in Bountiful, British Columbia.
The Vancouver Sun says he is being investigated by Canadian authorities for sexual exploitation of underage girls.
It is no secret that Jeffs' Arizona-Utah cult practices polygamy by inflicting the robust sexual appetites of older men on teenage girls who are raised to "keep sweet" and do what men tell them.
Polygamists have been perpetrating these crimes for decades while law enforcement played dumb.
About two years ago, Justice saddled up an exceedingly slow horse and rode out toward the scene of the crime. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff began talking about the outrages.
This year, an investigator for the Mohave County attorney got enough evidence to win several indictments against some of the suspected child rapists in the community, including Jeffs, who disappeared when it became clear the law was coming after him at a slow walk.
Before he went underground, Jeffs bought more than 1,000 acres in Texas and set up a compound for some of his pet followers.
This property is not held in the cult's trust, but it was likely bought with trust money, says Bruce Wisan, a Salt Lake City CPA who was named by the court to inventory the trust.
The trust owns nearly all the property in Colorado City and Hildale. That resource is the target of lawsuits by former cult members, which means current cult members may lose their homes to pay for the cult's sins.
Trust assets may also be sold off to pay mounting legal costs. Yet Wisan and others say no current cult members put their names on the list of proposed trustees.
To some, naming polygamists from other groups, such as Blackmore, is a way to represent the interests of Jeffs' cult members.
To us, that's twisted logic. The Utah court last week delayed naming new trustees until October and requested biographical and other information on all the proposed trustees.
If good sense prevails, the judge will see that it makes more sense to appoint knowledgeable people who have demonstrated a respect for the laws against polygamy.
Former state Sen. Linda Binder and Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson are on the list the court is considering.
So is former cult member Flora Jessop, who understands the secretive culture that Jeffs still rules.
They would make better guardians of a trust that, in addition to being Jeffs' former piggy bank and the deep-pocket target of lawsuits and lawyers fees, represents the life work of people trapped in a cult where justice is long overdue.
Posted by Perry at 07:01 PM
August 05, 2005
Social Services settles lawsuit with Word Of Faith Fellowship
August 4, 2005
By JERRY STENSLAND Daily Courier Staff Writer
http://thedigitalcourier.com/articles/2005/08/04/news/news01.txt
SPINDALE -- A federal lawsuit filed by the Word of Faith Fellowship against the county's social service agency has been settled with $305,000 going to WOFF and prior records of child abuse investigations being expunged from the record.
A WOFF attorney called the ruling vindication, while the Rutherford County Department of Social Services officials said the settlement avoided hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal expenses as they denied any wrongdoing.
The originating lawsuit sought over $2 million and multiple items of injunctive relief regarding DSS investigations of WOFF.
During the past 10 years -- and particularly in 2002 and 2003 -- DSS investigated claims of child abuse against the controversial Spindale-based organization.
WOFF contended that the investigations were unwarranted and were a violation of the free exercise of its religion.
"The settlement, in our view, completely vindicates the position of the Word of Faith Fellowship and its members in the civil rights lawsuit," said WOFF attorney David Goldstein of New York-based Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman. "It is our view that if you take this settlement together with the Court of Appeals victory that took place regarding the Almanie/Muse children that it is our belief that this will put an end to the almost decade-long illegal and unconstitutional harassment and discrimination by DSS against the Word of Faith Fellowship and its members."
The four children of Shana Muse, a former WOFF member, have been at the center of a number of legal proceedings in recent years.
Muse's two older daughters, Sarah and Rachael Almanie, were awarded emancipation in August 2004 and are considered legal adults.
The two boys were recently returned to the custody of WOFF ministers Kent and Brooke Covington after an Oct. 2003 court ruling placing all four children in DSS custody was overturned on appeal.
DSS held a special board meeting Wednesday to release its official public statement after discussing the settlement in closed session at its July 20 meeting.
"The lawsuit has consumed many hours of staff time and extensive financial resources on the part of both parties; and we chose to resolve the disputes between us without the expense of further litigation," the DSS release states. "This settlement amount is minimal in comparison to the litigation expenses incurred by the Plaintiffs. The settlement is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing on the part of this department but a compromise of the disputed issues between the parties."
The DSS statement states that the total legal bills for WOFF were more than $1 million while DSS's expenses, covered by an insurance policy, totaled nearly $170,000.
The county only had to pay the $5,000 deductible on its insurance policy, managed by Sedgwick Claims Management Services, for the agency.
The Charlotte-based legal firm of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice were hired through the insurers to represent the county, with Scott MacLatchie handling most of the work.
The DSS release says MacClatchie and others advised DSS that it "has acted appropriately and had a strong defense."
The settlement is 29 pages long and spells out what the parties agreed upon as well as a number of protocols DSS must now go through to investigate any future claims of child abuse or neglect.
Goldstein highlighted a paragraph of the settlement regarding the WOFF religious practices which states:
"Defendants hereby recognize and acknowledge that Plantiff's practices of strong prayer (or 'blasting' prayer) and discipleship ... are religious practices, and that the individual Plaintiffs and other members of the Word of Faith religion have the right to raise their minor children in the Word of Faith religious tradition free from unwarranted government intrusion, including the right to have their children participate in the religious practices of strong prayer and discipleship."
The new protocol adds two layers of review to DSS's current two-step process when child abuse claims come into the office.
DSS Director John Carroll said Wednesday he didn't consider the new protocol to be burdensome. The steps involve a formal review by both Program Director Karen Adams and Carroll who must each agree in writing to move forward with an investigation into child abuse claims at WOFF.
It creates additional hurdles to clear for those claiming child abuse and requires notification of attorneys if certain timeframes are exceeded.
For allegation of blasting being abuse, for example, additional questions would have to be asked.
"It is really information for that type of allegation that we would ask anyway so that is not something which is burdensome," said Carroll.
Goldstein saw the protocol as critical.
"We believe this protocol together with other restrictions in the agreement will put an end to any future investigations against WFF members based on their religious beliefs and practices and notably the federal court retains jurisdiction to enforce compliance with the terms of the agreement," he said. "The essence of the agreement is that my clients are not going to see any more of what they saw over the past decade."
The agreement prohibits DSS staff members Lynn Hoppes and Melanie Taylor from working on any future cases involving WOFF.
The agreement also closes and expunges from the state database all prior cases of child abuse involving the WOFF religious practices, including cases back to 1995.
DSS has multiple restrictions on where and how it speaks with WOFF members and their children.
DSS is also prohibited from referring any current and former WOFF members to the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center or Mary Alice Chrnalogar or similar entities or persons considered to be cult deprogrammers.
The Plaintiffs in the case were Steven and Cynthia Cordes, Ricky and Suzanne Cooper, Jennifer Moore, David and Jayne Caulder, Virginia Cable, Denise Worley, Patricia Dolan, Jason and Tanja Gross, Marcia Whitbeck, Gilberto Carmona, Jay and Susan Plummer, Cody Ryan Hawkins, Joveille Clark and all the minor children of the plaintiffs.
Posted by Perry at 11:38 PM