Punishment

February 18, 2007

Georgia couple guilty of murdering son, 8

The Tennessean

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070217/
NEWS06/702170339/1023/NEWS


By DANIEL YEE
Associated Press
and ANITA WADHWANI
Tennessean staff writer

Saturday, 02/17/07

MARIETTA, Ga. — Former members of a Brentwood-based church said they hoped Friday's conviction of Georgia couple in the death of their 8-year-old son would prompt the church and its followers to re-examine their child discipline teachings.

Joseph and Sonya Smith were found guilty of one count each of felony murder and involuntary manslaughter. They were remote members of Remnant Fellowship Church, which has Web-based outposts across the nation and was funding the couple's defense.

The jury also convicted them of four counts of cruelty to children, three counts of aggravated assault, one count of reckless conduct and one count of false imprisonment in the death of their son Josef in 2003.

"I think (the Smiths) are the sacrificial lamb," said Oklahoma mother Susan Warren, who joined a support group for former members after her grown daughter, Cary, left home and joined the church. "Maybe it will shock some people in the church. Maybe things will change. They're playing with people's lives when they discipline that way."

The fellowship grew out of church leader Gwen Shamblin's Weigh Down Workshop, a Christian diet program she created in 1986.

"The Smiths are innocent and so we will appeal this and fight for justice for the Smith family. This case is not over," said a statement released on behalf of Shamblin and Remnant Fellowship Church members.

Defense attorney Manubir Singh Arora said he spoke briefly with the Smiths before they were taken into custody.

"I think it's going to take them a while to let it all soak in. I think they're a little stunned.

"I'm incredibly disappointed," Arora said. "I never in my wildest dreams expected to lose on any of the four murder counts."

Case spotlighted church

The church advocates strict discipline for children, including corporal punishment. Shamblin told The Tennessean earlier this month that she believed the Smiths were innocent and that media coverage since their arrest has distorted the church's teachings on child discipline.

Investigators in the case raided the Weigh Down program's Franklin headquarters in 2004. No one else, however, was charged in connection with the boy's death. Officers testified that they never established a solid link between the church and the boy's death.

Some former members who have called the church a "cult" watched trial coverage closely .

"My prayer was that the truth came out and I hope the truth did come out," former member Steve Miozzi said Friday.

In a Marietta, Ga. courtroom Friday morning, the Smiths were motionless as Cobb County Deputy Clerk Tricia Crawford read the verdicts, although Sonya Smith closed her eyes after the jury found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter and murder.

The crowd in the courtroom was silent after Judge James Bodiford threatened to respond to any outbursts with 20 days in the county jail.

The Smiths were found not guilty of additional, separate counts of murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct, false imprisonment and cruelty to children. Sentencing is March 27.

"I'm pleased with the verdict. I'm pleased these two defendants will not get away with this brutal abuse," prosecutor Eleanor Dixon said.

Several members of the church attended the court session but declined to comment.

Cause of death disputed

Prosecutors charged that Josef Smith was beaten, locked inside a wooden box and forced to stay in a closet for hours at a time before he died in October 2003.

Defense attorneys contended that Josef did not die from the injuries, and the county medical examiner failed to perform crucial tests that would have found the actual cause of his death.

A police witness said Josef Smith's father told officers his 8-year-old son frequently needed discipline because the child carved death threats on the walls, keeping the family awake at night, and claimed he was a foot soldier for the devil.

But prosecutors said the parents met that behavior with a tragic overreaction that led to the boy's death, his body full of bruises and other injuries, after an October 2003 prayer session.

The verdict came on what would have been Josef Smith's 12th birthday.

Adam Brooks, a Philadelphia psychologist who attended the church for several months with his wife before leaving and creating a support group for former members, said he watched the trial closely.

"It's a sad outcome, regardless of which side of the fence one is on regarding Remnant Fellowship, just to realize fundamentally what this is really about is the life of one little boy," he said.

Posted by Perry at 02:05 PM

February 15, 2007

Remnant Church Members' Fate In Jury's Hands

WKRN Nashville Tennessee

http://wkrn.com/nashville/news/
remnant-church-members-fate-
in-jurys-hands/77685.htm

February 14, 2007

The case of a Georgia couple accused of murdering their eight-year-old son is now in the hands of jury.

The murder trial is being closely followed in Middle Tennessee as the couple charged, Joseph and Sonya Smith, are members of the Brentwood-based Remnant Fellowship Church.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the jury adjourned for the day, after a few hours of deliberating.

In closing arguments Wednesday morning, Prosecutor Eleanor Dixon stated her case against the Smiths, simply that pictures showing bruises and marks on Josef’s body are just what they seem, child abuse. She said, "That's what people who kill a child, their own flesh and blood look like."

She reenacted how the prosecution believes the Smith's locked Josef in a wooden box telling them how the marks on his skin were the results of beatings.

The courtroom was packed with Smith sympathizers, members of the Brentwood-based Remnant Fellowship Church, that believe in corporal punishment.

The Smith’s lawyer said their son died from a skin infection telling jurors the prosecution's pictures are not what they seem. Defense attorney Manny Arora said, “You have to look past the surface, in order to come up with a just verdict.”

Arora reminded jurors that even theprosecution's experts disagreed about the exact cause of death, telling jurors that if Smith did abuse his child, it was battery, not murder.

“I’m sorry his son died but they didn't do it. They just didn't,” he said.

As the Smiths wept, the prosecution lit a birthday cake with eight candles, reminding jurors of the birthdays Josef will never have.

The Brentwood-based Remnant Fellowship Church is picking up the legal fees for Joseph and Sonya Smith.

The church said it condones discipline, not abuse and maintains the Smith's are innocent. No one else involved with the church is charged in this case.

There is no word on how long the jury will deliberate.

Posted by Perry at 04:53 PM

February 12, 2007

Woman Explains Why She Withdrew From Remnant Fellowship

WKRN TV Nashville
http://wkrn.com/nashville/news/woman-
explains-why-she-withdrew-from-remnant
-fellowship/76522.htm

February 8, 2007

Critics have long questioned the Brentwood-based Remnant Fellowship Church’s teachings of following God.

On Thursday, News 2 spoke with a woman who was a former member of the church, but left after she feared for the safety of her children.

The woman, who did not want her identity revealed, she said didn't quit until she worried about the safety of her children.

She said at first, she liked Remnant Fellowship when she and her family joined the church in 2002. “We were very happy for the most part,” she said.

Remnant Fellowship founder and leader Gwen Shamblin impressed her when they first met. The woman said, “At first I was star struck with her because I had watched her on video for many years and got to go to her mansion and have luncheons and that kind of thing. At first, it was like she was a celebrity.”

She, however, claims when other members of the church started telling her how to discipline her children... That's when her feelings changed.

“I was afraid that my son would get beat severely by another parent,” she said.

Soon after, she and her family left. Now, she has nothing to do with the church, although she is paying very close attention to the murder trial of Joseph and Sonya smith inAtlanta. She hopes the case will shine a light on Remnant Fellowship.

She said, “I pray for them. That’s all I can do is pray for them and hope that they change their ways. I don't feel angry at them; I just don't have the respect I used to have."

When asked what she'd like to see happen, the woman said she would like to see the church fold.

No one else from the Remnant Fellowship Church is charged in the Smith murder case

Church leaders said the Smith’s are innocent.

Posted by Perry at 04:28 PM

February 07, 2007

Prosecutor, defense lawyer give different versions of child's death

The Florida Times-Union
http://www.jacksonville.com/
apnews/stories/020607/D8N4GJEG1.shtml

February 6, 2007

By DANIEL YEE
Associated Press Writer

MARIETTA, Ga. - An 8-year-old was beaten by his parents, locked inside a wooden box and forced to stay in a closet for hours at a time before he finally died in October 2003, a prosecutor told the jury as the trial of the couple began in Cobb County.

"Josef's body will tell you the story of what happened to him," Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Dixon told the jurors, who were seated earlier Tuesday in the trial of Joseph and Sonya Smith in the death of their son, Josef.

"There was beating after beating after beating, and then he died," Dixon said.

Defense Attorney Manny Arora cautioned the jurors that they would see photographs depicting horrible injuries, but said those injuries "did not cause Josef's death." Arora said he would show that the medical examiner did not perform tests that would have cleared his clients.

On Oct. 8, 2003, police and emergency medical personnel went to a home in Mableton, 12 miles northwest of Atlanta, after a report of an unresponsive Josef, who later died at a children's hospital.

The parents were charged in a 14-count indictment in June with murder, cruelty to children, aggravated assault and false imprisonment.

Testimony was to begin on Wednesday.

The Smiths are members of the Franklin, Tenn.-based Remnant Fellowship Church, which grew out of church leader Gwen Shamblin's Weigh Down Workshop, a Christian diet program she created in 1986. Authorities raided the church in June 2004 as part of the investigation of Josef Smith's death.

Authorities found "an enormous amount of different injuries on the back side" of the child's body and "a recent bruising and swelling to the head and shoulder area," according to the arrest warrant.

Investigators said in the warrant the child had been struck with a glue stick "causing blood to show through the 8-year-old's underwear" and that he had been locked in a closet and made to pray to a picture of Jesus on the closet's ceiling. They said in the warrant that despite acknowledging the bloodied underwear, the Smiths had deprived the child of medical care.

Former Remnant members have suggested to investigators and reporters that church teachings on discipline include corporal punishment.

Shamblin previously said the church leaves discipline to parents but believes in spankings as a last resort. She also said critics fooled former Remnant members into believing they were part of a cult.

Dixon told jurors that Josef was beaten by his parents using various objects, including the glue stick, which she described as a foot-long piece of flexible material for use inside a glue gun.

She said the boy was known as a "wild youth who had issues" but said his parents never took him to a doctor or to see a counselor.

Arora told jurors that photographs of the boy's injuries "may make you sick to your stomach. It was that bad."

But he said, "The injuries to the body did not cause Josef's death."

The lawyer said the medical examiner failed to perform crucial skin and neurological tests during the autopsy to determine the actual cause of death. He said it was attributed to blunt force trauma to the head, but Josef's brother, Michael, told authorities twice that the head injury was caused a few days earlier when he slipped and fell on a banister.

Arora said the medical examiner failed to consult neurologists to determine the severity of that head injury. "He didn't do the job correctly," he said.

As for the wooden box, Arora said there was no DNA evidence to prove the boy was ever locked inside. Arora said the closet that prosecutors accused the parents of locking the boy in had no wall to prevent him from going into his bedroom, because Joseph Smith had been renovating the house.

Posted by Perry at 04:19 PM

Child's death renews scrutiny of local church

The Tennessean
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070207/
NEWS06/702070447/1023/NEWS

02/07/07

Members say accused Georgia parents innocent of murder

By ANITA WADHWANI
and HEATHER DONAHOE
Staff Writers

The murder trial of a Georgia couple accused of whipping, confining and then beating their son to death shines a spotlight on the child discipline practices of a controversial Brentwood church.

Josef Smith, 8, died in 2003 on the day he was whipped with foot-long glue sticks, locked in a closet and told to pray to a picture of Jesus. Ex-members of the church say the punishments were in line with the discipline advice they heard while attending Remnant Fellowship Church.

But church leaders, including Gwen Shamblin — the charismatic woman known for creating the best-selling Christian weight-loss program called the Weigh Down Workshop — say the trial under way this week in an Atlanta suburb is their chance to set the record straight.

The church condones discipline, not abuse, said Shamblin. In an exclusive interview, she called spanking a "loving," "time-tested, ancient teaching from the Bible."

"Parents need to know that spankings and traditional groundings are not against the law," she said. "I abide by the law.

"We don't leave marks."

Both sides say they hope the truth about the Remnant Fellowship Church will emerge from the trial.

Boy died after whipping

Remnant Fellowship is a far-flung group, with 130 outposts called "fellowships" across North America. Outlying members tune in to worship services through a video Webcast from home, but many make their way to the handsome, 650-seat Brentwood flagship church for religious holidays and church celebrations.

Joseph and Sonya Smith lived in the Atlanta suburb of Mableton, Ga., and joined the church in 2000. Former church members recall seeing the Smiths at church functions in Brentwood. One remembers seeing the boy, Josef, dancing happily in church.

On Oct. 8, 2003, emergency crews were called to the Smiths' home in Georgia after the couple reported Josef was having trouble breathing. He died the next day at an Atlanta hospital.

Sonya Smith told police that on the day he died the couple had disciplined Josef with a series of glue-stick whippings, delivered in increments of 10. She said the boy was locked in a closet and made to pray to a picture of Jesus affixed to the ceiling. He was monitored in the kitchen via a camera in the closet.

A grand jury indicted the Smiths on murder charges, saying the couple struck him with unknown objects and confined him to a wooden box. The indictment included five counts of first-degree cruelty to a child, two counts of false imprisonment and three counts of aggravated assault, including beating him with glue sticks, the kind sold at craft shops to load into a hot-glue gun.

The Smiths were arrested in December 2003 and spent four months in jail before Remnant church members posted their bond.

The following May, Georgia investigators raided the Franklin headquarters of the Weigh Down Workshop weight-loss program, collecting files and computer disks over two days.

Police did not say what they found. No charges have been filed against church officials or anyone else in the case.

Members support couple

Sonya Smith's attorney says she is innocent. Joseph Smith's attorney did not return calls.

In an interview last week, Shamblin said her personal contact with the Smiths was limited and that she was only vaguely familiar with the family. She said the couple is innocent.

Hundreds of Remnant church members have prayed and decided to collectively foot the Smiths' legal bills, Shamblin said.

Shamblin wouldn't go into detail about the case, saying she didn't want to say anything that might jeopardize the Smiths' chance at getting a fair trial. She said she does not know of any Remnant members who will testify.

"It has been three years now, and I am more sure of their innocence than ever," Shamblin said. "The forensic evidence that will come out in court will prove the innocence of the Smiths."

Part of the evidence police have collected is a tape recording of a women's group meeting in which Shamblin praises Sonya Smith for disciplining her son, the magazine Christianity Today reported in 2004. Prosecutors won't comment on what evidence will be introduced at trial.

In the recorded church conference call from 2003, Sonya Smith tells Shamblin she had locked her son in his room from Friday to Monday with only a Bible, the magazine reported.

"That's a miracle," Shamblin responded. "You've got a child going from bizarre to in control. So praise God."

At the trial on Tuesday, defense attorney Manny Arora cautioned jurors they would see photographs depicting the boy's injuries that "may make you sick to your stomach." But, he said, those injuries "did not cause Josef's death." Josef slipped and fell on a banister, he said.

Baby-sitter was uneasy

Laura Boone, 17, has been called to testify as a witness in the trial this week. Boone, who will graduate from Brentwood High School this spring, began baby-sitting for Remnant families when she was in junior high school.

Occasionally, she and her friends were hired to provide child care during conferences and special events.

In April 2003, Boone baby-sat during an event at Weigh Down's Seaboard Lane headquarters, where she says the Smiths had come for a weekend visit.

"There were more than 20 kids total there," she said. "All the adults were getting ready to go into the worship room, and Josef Jr. was crying really hard in the corner. I asked his dad what he wanted me to do, and he looked right at me, and he hit his fist into his hand really hard."

Boone said Smith Sr. told her to hit his son, "Hit him hard," she recalled Smith telling her.

"I just told him I didn't feel comfortable hitting his son," she said. "So, he took Josef in the little room next door, and we could hear Josef crying really hard and his dad hitting him."

Boone said Josef returned to the nursery area still crying but with no visible marks on his body.

That was the last time Boone or her friends accepted a baby-sitting job at Remnant or for a Remnant family, she said.

Boone says she is testifying because she "wants to be a voice for Josef Smith Jr."

Some disenchanted

Some former church members say obedience to church leaders, called "getting under authority," is paramount for adults. Children's disobedience is a sign of sin, they say.

Ex-members have created an online support group called City of Refuge. Former member Adam Brooks, a Philadelphia psychologist, says the online group has attracted about 100 people, ex-members and family members cut off from those still in the church. They are closely watching the trial coverage, he said.

Like other members, Steve Miozzi and his wife joined Remnant after taking a Weigh Down class at their church in east Cleveland, Ohio. He said he and his wife were initially enthralled.

"You walked into the church, and you thought this is what heaven must look like," said Betsy Miozzi.

Everyone was thin, their teeth white, the children well behaved, and many appeared to be financially successful, she said. And everyone was "lovebombing" the couple, she said, using the church's terminology for friendly embracing of new visitors.

But when Steve Miozzi sought help on how to deal with an 11-year-old boy misbehaving during worship services, he said he was told by church leader Ted Anger to beat the back of the boy's thighs with a glue stick. If the boy didn't behave he was to keep repeating the procedure, and if the boy continued to misbehave he was to put him in a room with nothing but a Bible, Miozzi said.

Miozzi says that when he visited the Brentwood church for worship services, there were "glue sticks sticking out of diaper bags" in the aisles.

Anger dismissed Miozzi's account last week, saying he never prescribed a specific way to spank a child.

"I didn't sit there and give people manual instructions about discipline," Anger said. "It's always been about teaching principles. It's about putting the parents back in control with love and boundaries."

Child discipline is not what Miozzi says prompted him and his wife to leave the church.

They left after three years because of a church philosophy that he said did not allow any questioning of church leaders. The strict obedience to their authority "destroyed my personal relationship with Jesus Christ," he said.

Also, he said, he was taken to task for not losing enough weight.

Parents, daughter differ

Support group member Susan Warren of Oklahoma says she feels she has lost her daughter to Remnant. Her daughter, Cary, joined the church seven years ago at 17 after baby-sitting for a church couple.

One day, Warren said, she and her husband stopped by the home where her daughter was baby-sitting three small children. She said she spied two long white glue sticks on the kitchen counter.

"We were in the kitchen with the kids," she said. "We saw the glue sticks on the counter, and I said, 'why do you have to keep glues sticks out like that?' She (Cary) said they were necessary, that she didn't have to use them very often, but she did have to use them" to discipline the children, Warren said.

Cary Warren said she doesn't remember the incident, and her parents never visited while she was baby-sitting.

"She could refresh my memory, but I don't recall that," said Cary Warren, who now lives in Brentwood. She said she loves and honors her parents even more after joining Remnant but believes they are getting misinformation from "groups that are against Remnant."

Her mother said she hopes the trial will expose Remnant.

"I hope it finally breaks (the church) open, and we can have our daughter back," Susan Warren said.

Members back leaders

Shamblin said that the criticisms leveled by a handful of former church members distort reality. Miozzi, for example, has spoken with the media before.

"Talking to someone who left our church in anger is like talking to someone's ex-boyfriend," Shamblin said. "People have learned they can get on television if they have something bad to say. It's really exciting being Gwen Shamblin's enemy."

The handful of church critics must be weighed against thousands of more who have found joy in the church, she said.

"Nobody is told what to do here," Shamblin said. "They do it because they're under conviction to do so. If they don't like it, some of them leave on their own. It's not my way or the highway."

And church members have rallied around their leader and the institution.

"By nature I'm a skeptical person, so I asked every single question I could think of," Remnant member Kent Smith agreed. "All the questions I had were addressed, and they never made me feel badly about asking so many questions. They were very patient."

Smith moved his wife and four children from Oklahoma to live near Remnant and said their experiences were far different than those relayed by former church members.

Cliff and Lisa Peters are typical of the church experience, according to Shamblin. They moved to Williamson County from their home near Fresno, Calif., to be near Remnant. Cliff Peters says it was the spirit of camaraderie in the congregation that compelled him to move his wife and three children across the country in June of 2005.

The family had been attending an evangelical Christian church, where Peters says he "felt we had really gotten away from what the Scriptures teach."

"Even before Remnant I had felt burdened by that," Peters said. "But when we came to Remnant, we realized we had not really been following the Word and being obedient to God and seeking him in everything we did."

Peters said that those who allege Remnant is a cult don't understand what goes on at the church.

"I think it's the fear of the unknown for a lot of people," he said. "If someone came here and really found out for themselves, they'd see lives being changed and marriages being healed through this relationship with God."

Defamation suit filed

Shamblin said the church does not promote or condone child abuse, adding that she differentiates between hitting and spanking.

"Spanking a child is very different from hitting a child," she said. "Hitting is not spanking. Hitting is inflicting pain in anger. Spanking is a reluctant feeling that is necessary, and it does hurt the parent more than the child."

She called spanking a "time-tested, ancient teaching from the Bible. … Every child is different, and some parents in the Remnant, all they have to do is give the child a disapproving look, and some children are strong-willed. Teaching and constant direction in the form of both positive and, very occasionally negative, reinforcement is the most loving way to raise a child."

The 1,200-member church has gone on the offensive to put to rest the criticisms, hashed out in national magazines, blogs and newspaper accounts, that have trailed it since Josef's death, church leaders said.

Shamblin and 78 church members also have filed a
$3.3 million defamation suit against Rafael Martinez, who operates the self-described cult-watch organization Spirit Watch, saying statements that described church members' use of "extreme discipline" such as "harsh spankings and whippings" were a "lie and a falsehood."

The suit, filed in November, goes to court next month.

It's "been a series of media sound bites that have been taken out of context for three years," Shamblin said last week in a four-hour interview she sought out with The Tennessean. "This is unfortunate for the Smiths, and this will soon come to light the truth of what happened."

Posted by Perry at 04:14 PM

Parents Accused of Murder Beat & Imprisoned 8 Year Old on Advice From Pastors

WTVF - TV Nashville, Tn
http://newschannel5.com/
Global/story.asp?S=6045842

Remnant Fellowship Tape Could Be Evidence

Feb 7, 2007

One key piece of evidence in the trial of Joseph and Sonya Smith may be a Remnant Fellowship tape first uncovered by "NewsChannel 5 Investigates."

A jury in Marietta, Ga., heard opening statements Tuesday in the trial of the Smiths for the death of their 8-year-old son Josef.

The Smiths were members of the Remnant Fellowship in Brentwood.

Our chief investigative reporter Phil Williams first aired portions on this tape three years ago.

On the tape, Sonya Smith talks with Gwen Shamblin, the founder of Remnant Fellowship, about what she learned from church leaders about child discipline.

That was just eight months before young Josef's death in 2003.

Joseph and Sonya Smith are charged not only murder, but they're also accused of confining Josef in a small room for long periods of time.

The tape comes from a Remnant Fellowship conference call about how to get children into complete obedience.

On it, Sonya Smith describes the problems they'd been having with Josef.

Then, Smith thanks Remnant leader Ted Anger and Shamblin for their advice.

Sonya Smith: "I did exactly what Ted told me to do, to spank him on the back of his thighs, take everything out of his room. That was like a two-hour job. But we got everything out of there and locked him in there from that Friday until Monday -- and only left him in the room with his Bible. I just praise God for you guys 'cause that's something, otherwise I probably would have had to go to the world and its methods -- you know, calling the police. I just had no clue how to deal with that. I just really wanted to say thank you."

Gwen Shamblin: "People need to know there's hope -- and that's a miracle. You've got a child that's going from just bizarre down to in control. So I praise God.... Thank you, Sonya, for sharing that."

(Click on the related link to listen to the entire exchange.)

After NewsChannel 5 first aired portions of that tape, Georgia investigators raided the Remnant Fellowship offices in search of that tape and other evidence.

The trial is also expected to touch on the Smith's use of glue sticks to spank their children -- an idea that our investigation they apparently picked up inside the Remnant Fellowship.

More news on this story at
http://www.newschannel5.com/
Global/category.asp?C=85861

Posted by Perry at 04:00 PM

January 25, 2007

Settlement reached in KIDS abuse case

The Jersey Journal
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/
index.ssf?/base/news-0/
1169710254263210.xml&coll=3

Thursday, January 25, 2007

By ALI WINSTON - JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A settlement has been reached in the civil suit against the former directors of KIDS of North Jersey, a now-defunct drug treatment center in Secaucus, brought by Antonio Carrera, 26, a former patient.

The agreement was reached before Carrera was to take the stand, but Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli agreed to allow him testify about his five years at KIDS.

The agreement, which involves an undisclosed sum of money, is the latest in a string of multimillion-dollar settlements that Dr. Virgil Miller Newton III, the former director of KIDS, and his wife, Ruth Ann Newton, a former assistant director, have paid out to former patients. Rebecca Erlich won $4.5 million in a 2000 suit and Lulu Corter settled for $6.5 million in 2003.

Newton, who ran drug rehab centers from North Jersey to California throughout the 1980s and 1990s, has been heavily criticized for his methods and has been repeatedly accused of physically abusing, brainwashing and falsely imprisoning his patients.

Carrera claims he was misdiagnosed as having drug and alcohol problems - a former staffer at the facility admitted on the stand that he had badgered Carrera during his intake interview into admitting that he'd used them - and spent five years at the facility, leaving only when he turned 18. During that time, he was prevented from going to high school and lived with a foster family.

During most of his stay at KIDS, Carrera was stuck between the first two stages of the five-stage program, often restricted for months from speaking unless spoken to and forced to ask permission for every action.

When Carrera refused to participate in sessions and other activities or was otherwise deemed "uncooperative," other patients would pin him to the ground, sometimes for several hours.

"I just had to lay there and stare at the ceilings. Sometimes I used to wish that I was dead," Carrera said, before seizing up and holding his face in his hands.

After getting out of KIDS when he turned 18, Carrera obtained his GED within months and now works as a driver at a Meadowlands hotel.

He had scathing words for Newton: "I don't know if he is in his sick head, he thinks he helped people out. He conned everybody."

The Newtons left the courtroom before Judge Gallipoli's closing remarks. Stephen Ryan, their attorney, declined to comment.

The various facilities Newton opened around the country are now closed, but Phil Elberg, Carrera's attorney, said similar programs still exist.

"In reality, they're private jails in which con artists prey on the fears of frightened parents," he said.

Posted by Perry at 02:54 PM

Ex-patient: I was prisoner at treatment center

The Jersey Journal
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/
index.ssf?/base/news-0/
116953587815780.xml&coll=3

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

By ALI WINSTON - JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A former patient is suing the former directors of KIDS of North Jersey, a now-defunct drug treatment center in Secaucus, claiming that he was held there against his will for five years.

It's the latest in a long history of complaints filed against Dr. Virgil Miller Newton III, the former director of KIDS of North Jersey as well as a number of other centers across the country. He and his wife, Ruth Ann Newton - who was the center's assistant director - are being sued by ex-patient Antonio Carrera, 26, of Clifton.

The trial began Thursday in front of Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli in Jersey City.

Carrera, whose family immigrated to New York City in 1993, was admitted to KIDS of North Jersey in July 1994 at the age of 14. He said he was brought to the center by his parents after he was arrested in connection with a groping incident at his high school in Queens.

Although his parents said they saw no signs of drug use in a preliminary interview with Ruth Ann Newton - and even though Carrera twice tested negative for drugs - he was diagnosed with marijuana and alcohol addictions and was admitted to the program with the consent of his parents, said his attorney, Phil Elberg.

In his opening statement, Elberg accused the Newtons of fabricating Carrera's "addictions" to marijuana and alcohol as cause for admitting him to the program, where he remained until 1998, when he turned 18 and became a legal adult. For all four years, Elberg said, Carrera stayed with a foster family in New Jersey and did not attend school.

"More than 41/2 years of his life were stolen because he was in treatment for problems he did not have," Elberg said.

But defense attorney Stephen Ryan described Carrera as a "failing student" with truancy issues and an arrest record who was admitted to the center by an accredited doctor.

He warned jurors that "this will be a tough case to sort out where truth ends and fantasy begins."

According to Ruth Ann Newton, Carrera would alternate between denying and admitting to a drug and alcohol addiction, and that he never advanced beyond the "second phase" of treatment. There are five phases in the Newtons' drug treatment plan.

Carrera also claimed he was frequently restrained by other patients, often being pinned to the floor by as many as four other teens, until he agreed to participate in drug treatment sessions.

Allegations of false imprisonment, physical abuse, and insurance fraud have dogged Virgil Miller Newton III.

He holds a doctorate in public administration from Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, calls himself "Father Cassian" after being ordained as a priest by the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America and has made unsuccessful bids for political office in Florida.

In 2003, Gallipoli presided over a 2003 suit by Lulu Corter, a former KIDS patient who also claimed she did not have alcohol or drug problems and was falsely held. Corter, who was also represented by Elberg, settled for $6.5 million.

Posted by Perry at 02:48 PM

November 15, 2006

Spiritual head accused of beating up children

by Sajeda Momin
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1064111

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

LONDON: Britain’s first state-funded Hindu school has hit yet another obstacle with the spiritual head of the school’s affairs accused of using corporal punishment against children. The president of the Bhaktivedanta Manor in Watford — the biggest International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple in Britain — Gauri Dasa is believed to have hit children when he was teaching at an ashram in India.

Leading the campaign against Dasa is another Hindu group called the Hindu Human Rights. “We have received e-mails for a while now, expressing concerns about allegations that Gauri Dasa used to beat children,” said Arjun Malik, spokesman for HHR. “Parents will obviously not feel safe sending their children to a school where such a man is involved,” he added.

Corporal punishment in schools was banned in British school in the 1970s and since then teachers who hit children can find themselves in court. Gauri Dasa defended himself arguing that “corporal punishment was part of the disciplinary plans of ISKCON in the 1970s and ’80s in schools in India and the US.”

“It was stopped over a decade ago. We run a very successful school as part of the Bhaktivedanta temple,” said Dasa.

“None of the allegations against Gauri Dasa have been proven, but ISKCON has a poor reputation when it come to the child-abuse lawsuits filed in the US,” said Jay Dilip Lakhani, coordinator of Vivekananda Centre.

Harrow Council in Middlesex, which has one of the largest Hindu populations in the country, has received £9.8 million from the government to build the first Hindu school. Hindu charity I-Foundation is setting up the school for the Council is waiting for permission before it begins building the primary school on five and half acres of playing fields in Edgware in 2008.

This too has come under fire with locals in the area vowing to stop construction because it would mean the loss of pitches used by amateur football club Belmont FC. They have formed the William Ellis Action Group and have asked Sir Trevor Brooking, the Football Association chief and England football legend for support. The Action Group also argues that traffic congestion, pollution and noise will all lead to a fall in the value of houses in the area.

Nitish Gor, director of I-Foundation argued that the opposition was simply racist. “There have been paedophilia charges against the Roman Catholic Church as well, but that doesn’t mean the entire institution must be boycotted,” added Gor.

Posted by Perry at 03:22 PM

October 25, 2006

Un condamné à mort exécuté/Cult Leader Executed

[The English translation that follows was performed by Google Language. It is not 100% accurate and is only included to assist researchers.]

Aux États-Unis, un ancien membre d'une branche dissidente des mormons a été exécuté en Ohio.

Jeffrey Lundgren, 56 ans, avait été condamné en 1989 pour l'assassinat d'un couple de fidèles et de leurs trois enfants, qui le considéraient comme un gourou.

Le condamné à mort a été exécuté par injection létale à Lucasville. Il s'agit du 46e condamné exécuté cette année aux États-Unis.

Lundgren était devenu guide spirituel en 1984 et donnait des cours sur la Bible. À la tête d'un petit groupe de fidèles, il avait interprété une supposée vision comme étant une invitation à tuer un certain nombre des membres de son groupe.

Le chef spirituel a été arrêté quand un membre de la secte a dénoncé l'affaire à la police.

http://lcn.canoe.com/lcn/infos/lemonde/archives/2006/10/20061025-102916.html

CULT LEADER EXECUTED

In the United States, the execution of a former member of a dissenting branch of the Mormons was carried out in Ohio. Jeffrey Lundgren, 56 years, had been condemned in 1989 for the assassination of a couple and their three children, who regarded him as a prophet. Execution was carried out by lethal injection in Lucasville, Ohio. It is about the 46th execution carried out this year in the United States. Lundgren had become spiritual guide in 1984 and gave courses on the Bible. As the head of a small group of faithful, he had interpreted one supposed vision as being an invitation to kill a certain number of the members of its group. The spiritual chief was stopped when a member of the sect denounced the business with the police force.

Posted by Perry at 01:00 PM

Cult Leader Executed

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Maggi Martin
The Plain Dealer
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1161765403260920.xml&coll=2

Lucasville, Ohio -- Jeffrey Lundgren, the self-professed prophet who killed five people in what he said was a sacrifice demanded by a higher power, died by lethal injection Tuesday in a death demanded by the state.

Lundgren walked the 17 steps to the death chamber without the well- worn Bible that he used to control his cult, which formed after he broke from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

As a dozen people watched from the other side of a glass wall, Lundgren issued a 15-second statement that mentioned fellow cult member Kathryn Johnson, his second wife.

"I want to profess my love for God, my family, my children and my beloved Kathryn," he said while staring at the ceiling. "I am because you are."

Moments after the lethal combination of three drugs was injected into his beefy arms, Lundgren heaved a big sigh, his eyes fluttered, and then he was still. Minutes later, at 10:26 a.m., he was pronounced dead.

He died more gently than his victims. Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their daughters, Trina, 15, Becky, 13, and Karen, 7, were led one by one past a buzzing chain saw to a muddy pit, where they were bound with duct tape, shot and dumped into a common grave.

Lundgren claimed that the 1989 slayings were commanded by God.

Continue reading "Cult Leader Executed"

Posted by Perry at 12:51 PM

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

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.

Continue reading "WOFF-related custody saga continues"

Posted by Perry at 01:54 PM

June 22, 2005

Setting Him Straight?

By Mubarak Dahir, AlterNet. Posted June 21, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/rights/22280/


For at least two weeks in June, Zach, a 16-year-old gay teen from Bartlett, Tennessee, was a hostage held against his will.

He wasn't kidnapped by a child molester or abducted by international terrorists, though what he has been through, in his own words, has been "torture." Indeed, Zach's captivity has been completely legal, if horrific. He's been interred by the authority of his parents. And his captors have been a group with the ironic name, "Love In Action."

"Love In Action" is one of the so-called "ex-gay" ministries. It runs what it calls a "youth program," named Refuge, which is essentially a "camp" to allegedly "de-gay" homosexual teens.

Continue reading "Setting Him Straight?"

Posted by Perry at 10:01 PM

April 21, 2005

Utah-based group under fire: Legislation targets association of schools for troubled youths

A Utah-based organization affiliated with schools for troubled youths is stirring controversy in at least three states and is the target of congressional legislation unveiled Wednesday.

Continue reading "Utah-based group under fire: Legislation targets association of schools for troubled youths"

Posted by Julia at 05:42 PM