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July 21, 2006

Is Smacking Okay?

21.07.2006
By KRISTIN MACFARLANE
Rotorua's Deanna Hunter believes a smack is a vital tool in disciplining children - as long as it's used correctly.

And the member of the Faith Christian Centre says a booklet compiled by the Christian group Family Integrity goes too far. It describes children as "little bundles of depravity" who can develop into "unrestrained agents of evil".

As the mother of four children aged of 6 to 12, she said smacking was something she would do if her children continued to disobey her.

However, a warning would be given first, which she said was important because it alerted the child to their wrongdoing, but would only happen once.

The Rotorua woman is manager at the Western Heights Pre-School. She agrees with smacking children, although she would never smack any of her pre-school charges.

Palmerston North-based Christian group Family Integrity has produced a controversial booklet titled The Christian Foundations of the Institution of Corporal Correction. The booklet, claiming to be based on the Bible, was written by the group's national director Craig Smith and includes tips for disciplining children.

Anti-smacking supporters have condemned the booklet, saying it promotes child abuse.

Mr Smith says the Bible states all people, including children, are sinners.

For children who cannot talk, a wee smack to the forearm or leg or a flick to the hand accompanied by a "no" is effective for stopping bad behaviour, the booklet states.

It says with older children "smacking may be a 10-15 minute process" and they may need to be taken away in private to discuss what they did wrong. A rod should be used for smacking to correct the child, up to the age of 8, and to "drive the foolishness out", the booklet says.

Mrs Hunter believes in smacking as a way to discipline children.

She said a smack should only come after a warning, only be done in private by a parent on a child's clothed bottom and should definitely not be done in anger. Parents should also be careful what they punished children for, she said.

It was not right to smack a child if they dropped something but okay if they continuously disobeyed something a parent said.

Anything else was bordering on child abuse, Mrs Hunter said.

At the pre-school where she works, instead of a smack, children who misbehave are dealt with similarly to the television show Super Nanny and are sent to time-out on "the naughty chair". They must then apologise for what they had done and it worked well, according to Mrs Hunter.

"We're always encouraging saying sorry and giving cuddles."

The Family Integrity booklet tells parents children are "not little bundles of innocence: they are little bundles of depravity and can develop into unrestrained agents of evil unless trained and disciplined".

It also states that "smacking is meant to drive the foolishness, the sinful manifestations, out of the child's personality so that they do not become permanent fixtures".

Statements like these seem "a bit far-fetched" to Mrs Hunter, who is a devout Christian.

"I think they're unwise. They're too religious and they would put non-Christians off God. The God I know is absolutely beautiful and not this crazy," she said.

Rotorua church leaders also believed some of the statements in the booklet were a bit over the top.

Jennie Gray, an elder at Living Well Church, said smacking had to be done in love and not in anger because that was where the difference lay between smacking and abuse.

Jill Moore, a senior pastor at Charisma Apostolic Church, said some of the comments in the booklet were a bit of a "concern", while Baptist Church Pastor Geoff Follas only saw smacking as a last resort.

Plunket New Zealand president, Kaye Crowther said rather than smacking children, positive parenting should be used with love and guidance to shape children's behaviour.

Posted by Julia at 01:49 PM

July 20, 2006

Oregon police say man abused teen in cult-like operation

7/20/2006, 12:01 p.m. PT
The Associated Press

HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) — A 39-year-old man who had a robe with the words "Master Eric" and claimed that a psychic ability called "remote viewing" helped him locate runaways has been accused of sexually abusing a teenager, police said.

Police said the victim was 17 when a follower of Eric J. Pepin recruited him in 2004, and then Pepin had him perform sex acts.

Pepin and an employee, Jamison Priebe, 21, who lives at the same address as Pepin in Aloha, surrendered on charges of using a child in a sexual display and sexual abuse. A grand jury issued indictments last week.

"The charges are false, and we are confident Mr. Pepin will be exonerated," said his attorney, Sam Kauffman.

Under Oregon law, using a child in a sexual display carries a minimum penalty of nearly six years in prison.

Beaverton police Detective Mike Smith said Pepin operated the Higher Balance Institute in Beaverton. Smith said the ornate robe emblazoned "Master Eric" turned up during a search.

Pepin's Web site says he has located more than 100 missing persons and runaways, along with U.S. Navy submarines, through a psychic ability he calls "remote viewing." The site offers meditation systems for $79 to $149 help customers develop their "sixth sense" and apply it "inward to awaken a dimensional universe within the mind."

In an affidavit filed with a request for a search warrant, Smith said the victim, now 20, told police that Internet customers are men and women usually older than 35. But, he told police, Pepin told him he should recruit "good-looking men" between 18 and 24 to work for him.

Smith wrote that the victim "was taught by Pepin to believe that the sexual contact was only a spiritual necessity." But after a while, the affidavit says, the boy decided he was being used by Pepin, who bought him meals and paid him $200 after sex.

The man contacted Beaverton police in January.

___

Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com

Posted by Julia at 01:41 PM

July 15, 2006

Testimony shows man took teen bride after 'marriage' with her mom

Family ties: Verdict is called a message
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune

KINGMAN, Ariz. - Compelling testimony about how polygamous marriages work, coupled with birth certificates, proved enough for a Mohave County jury to find a Colorado City, Ariz., man guilty of two sex-crime charges Friday.

The jury found Kelly Fischer, 39, had engaged in sex with a 16-year-old girl he took as a plural wife about six years ago and that it occurred in the home they shared in Colorado City. Prosecutors had contended Fischer, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, conspired with Warren Jeffs, the faith's leader, and the girl's mother in arranging to have sex with her.
The jury took just over an hour to reach its verdict, despite the lack of testimony from a victim or a witness with firsthand knowledge of the crimes.
"The evidence was very direct in what conclusion we came to," said Debbie Henderson, the head juror, as she left the courthouse. "That made it really easy. The witnesses - all three - they knew what they were talking about."
Henderson also said birth certificates, which showed the girl was 17 when she gave birth to a child fathered by Fischer, were "definitely very good evidence."
Fischer was the first of eight men to stand trial on the sex crime charges, and Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said he hoped the verdict sent a message to the polygamous FLDS community that straddles the Utah/Arizona state line.
"This case is not about polygamy. It is about underage sex practices and having sex with underage girls, and I think the jury in this county is speaking for the fact that that is not something that should be tolerated, no matter where it happens," Smith said.
He also praised the jury for being able to understand the conspiracy charge, saying that the only way FLDS men enter marriages with underage girls is if "Warren Jeffs puts his stamp of approval on it."
Jeffs is a fugitive, wanted on the same Arizona charges, as well as a rape-as-an-accomplice charge in Utah for his role in arranging and conducting underage marriages. He has been on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" fugitive list since May 6.
Fischer, a construction contractor, sat stoically as the court clerk read the jury's verdict, and he left the courthouse without speaking.
Judge Steven F. Conn will sentence Fischer on Aug. 4. The charges - sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor - are class 6 felonies punishable by four months to two years in prison, or probation.
Bruce Griffen, Fischer's attorney, said he will seek probation, with the possibility of dropping the conviction from his record in the future, as allowed by Arizona law.
Smith said victims usually are allowed input on sentences, but since the girl has not been located, he doubted "we'll have much luck in that."
Fischer is listed as the father of her first child, born in 2001, and Griffen did not dispute that. Instead, he challenged the lack of specific information on where she conceived the child - raising questions about whether Arizona had jurisdiction in the case - and who else might have had a role in authorizing the relationship.
But Smith returned over and over to one theme: exploitation of minors.
According to testimony, the girl's mother was ''re-assigned'' as a wife to Fischer around 1997-98 and moved into his home with her children. Her daughter - who would become Fischer's third wife - was about 13 or 14.
Isaac Wyler, then an FLDS member, lived down the street and worked with Fischer on community service projects. Wyler testified that a couple of years later, he noticed the girl and Fischer frequently riding horses together.
Once they came up a creek near his home and Fischer asked Wyler, a horse trainer, for advice about how to get their horses to cross a large puddle.
"They were joking around a little bit, probably inappropriately for the way we were raised," he said, describing it as "courtship" behavior.
Wyler later heard the pair had been married in a secret FLDS ceremony - a rumor he felt was confirmed when he saw Fischer drive by one day with the girl seated in the vehicle between him and his legal wife.
That behavior is typical among polygamists who "rotate" seating arrangements among wives - a strong relationship signal in a faith that discourages displays of affection, said Wyler, who was kicked out of the FLDS church in 2004.
Richard Holm, also an ex-FLDS member, described how marriages are directed by the faith's prophet. No one can refuse such edicts, he said, without facing intense pressure and threats of, as Smith put it, "death and destruction."
Smith said that explanation showed why Fischer had to have approval from Jeffs and the girl's mother to father children with her.
"The only way it happened is the way you heard things happen up there," he said. "Sex with underage girls would be condoned up there. . . . But keep in mind that doesn't make it OK. . . . This is, in effect, sex with his stepdaughter. He's got to know that is wrong."
Smith told the jury that in sex abuse and domestic violence cases, there often is no victim testifying; nevertheless, cases go forward.
"You're her voice. You get to speak for the victim in this case," Smith said. "Don't let him get away with it."
Griffen argued the testimony was full of "guess, speculation and assumption," and characterized Wyler and Holm as disgruntled.
"Seeing [the girl] at a house is not circumstantial evidence of sexual intercourse at that house," said Griffen, who had suggested it was possible the girl became pregnant in some other state where Fischer worked.
"Don't rely on just culture," he urged jurors, asking them to put aside their feelings about polygamy, Jeffs and about men who father "a couple dozen football teams of children . . . to give a Colorado City fundamentalist a fair trial."

What's next:

* Kelly Fischer will be sentenced Aug. 4.
* Seven other polygamists face identical charges: Dale Evans Barlow, 48, whose trial begins in August; Rodney Hans Holm, 39; Donald Robert Barlow, 49; Vergel Bryce Jessop, 46; Terry Darger Barlow, 24; Randolph J. Barlow, 33; and David Romaine Bateman, 49. They are the largest group to be prosecuted on charges related to polygamy since 1953, when Arizona staged an infamous raid on Short Creek, now known as Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

Posted by Julia at 11:31 AM

July 11, 2006

Former Ohio Police Chaplain Sentenced For Having Sex With Girls

MEDINA, Ohio -- A judge sentenced a former police chaplain to 15 years in prison for having sex with four girls since 2002.

Leonard Robertson, 46, pleaded guilty in April to 54 counts of sexual battery, two counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of attempted gross sexual imposition.

"This is sort of the poster child of patterns of abuse," Medina Common Pleas Judge Christopher Collier said Monday. "You don't get much more clear than this."

In November, the Medina Police Department learned of the allegations and dismissed Robertson from his position as chaplain, a volunteer post he held for about seven months.

Robertson also served for a time as an associate minister at Medina Alliance Fellowship, authorities said. He was leading Prepare the Way Community Church when he was arrested.

Robertson will have to register as a sexual predator after his release. He told the judge that he now knows he needs help.

"I struggle with whether I always knew it," Robertson said. "Given the chance, I know I would do the right thing."

Medina is about 30 miles south of Cleveland.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.

Posted by Julia at 08:16 PM