» Part 1

=== Rebirthing
17. Her name was Candace
18. Therapist has strong defenders, foes
19. A Tragic Life - And Death The Issue: Will Candace Newmaker's Death Mean
The Welcome End Of ''Rebirthing''?; Our View: We Hope So

=== Other News
20. Church official admits to swindle
21. Escondido to pay $750,000 to parents of 2 seized kids
22. Canadian Court--Bible Does Not Justify Beating Kids
23. Christie keeps up cult battle
24. Last Ethiopian Emperor Laid to Rest
25. Rastafarian cult still sees him as living god
26. Rastafarians Divided on Selassie
27. Rastafarian claims right to sell drug
28. 3 Teens Held in Grisly Plot
29. Psychic's info has 'some potential' in O'Keefe case
30. Daughter of God? Her parents don't think so
31. Man Fined For Making Crop Circle

=== ''Only in America'' Department
32. 'Jesus' costume wearer says he was singled out

=== The Judge Around The Corner
33. Judge threatens girls with `hell'


=== Rebirthing

17. Her name was Candace
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 29, 2000
http://www.insidedenver.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Her name was Candace, a 10-year-old girl with long brown hair, a shy smile and a sprinkle of freckles across her nose.
(...)

When she was 5, she was plucked away by social services and given to a well-to-do nurse who wanted a child to love.
(...)

Candace embraced the good times her new life brought. But there was trouble behind the doors of Jeane Newmaker's home.

Jeane tried everything for Candace - doctors, counselors, drugs. Finally, in April, she brought Candace west to Evergreen for two weeks of a controversial psychotherapy called rebirthing.

Therapists curled Candace into the fetal position inside a flannel sheet and pushed against her from all sides.

She gasped for air. She begged them to stop.

She cried out that she was dying. They said go ahead.

And then she did.

Now her mother, two unlicensed therapists and their two assistants face criminal charges, the evidence a videotape they made of Candace's final, tortured hour.
(...)

The records of Candace's adoption, which took more than a year to be finalized, are tightly sealed. North Carolina has one of the nation's strictest adoption secrecy laws, and no one from social services will talk about Candace's life.

The adoption was filed in Orange County, adjacent to Jeane's home county of Durham, three hours northeast of Candace's birthplace in Lincolnton.

Jeane took two months off work when Candace came to live with her. By all accounts, she became a supermom. Her tireless devotion to Candace impressed the parents of children in Candace's new circle of friends.

''There was nothing that child did not have,'' said neighbor Margaret Addison. ''There was nothing that child did not do.''
(...)

She enrolled Candace with a Duke pediatrician who was studying children with attention-deficit disorder.

''This kid had been through a lot,'' Dr. Ave Lachiewicz said. ''I don't think she was a normal, happy kid. She could smile and be real cute, then she could be mean.

''It was like having the average 18-year-old adolescent in your house.''

Lachiewicz met with Candace's teacher, either second or third grade as best she remembers. She learned that Candace tried hard in class, was truly ''invested'' in herself.

Yes, she was stingy with affection. There was a frostiness about her. But Lachiewicz saw that as ''her defense mechanism for being through so many placements.''

Jeane investigated other therapeutic options and treatments. She took Candace to traditional therapists, and consulted with experts in depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Candace saw two other Duke doctors and at least one other mental health professional.

She was given an assortment of mood-altering drugs - an anti-depressant, an anti-psychotic to calm her, an amphetamine to combat attention deficit disorder. But the regimens of medication and therapies weren't working.

Finally, Jeane came upon a new buzz word being bandied about in adoption and foster family circles - attachment disorder.

The term describes a child's inability to bond with his or her new parents.

While the concept has been around for some time, defining it as a condition unto itself has grown dramatically since the boom in international adoptions in the late 1980s.

Well-meaning adoptive parents have found themselves living with volatile, even vicious, children. These parents have described their mounting guilt as they grow to fear and hate their adopted children. They say it was naive to believe that love could cure any problem.

At an attachment disorder workshop in North Carolina, Jeane heard symptoms discussed that sounded identical to Candace's. Her research led her to the Internet, where she found a Web site for a group called ATTACh, the Association for the Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children.

Jeane attended an ATTACh national conference in Alexandria, Va., in 1999. There, she met therapist Bill Goble, who had her fill out an inventory sheet of Candace's behaviors.

Goble would say later that Jeane had already concluded that Candace suffered from attachment disorder. Although he never met Candace, Goble determined her case ''fairly severe.''

He suggested Connell Watkins in Colorado.

Watkins, an unlicensed psychotherapist in Evergreen, and her mentor, Dr. Foster Cline, are Colorado's pioneers in attachment disorder.

According to Cline's theories - the gospel for attachment therapists - the disorder can be traced to infancy. Everything is a crisis. Hunger, pain, a wet diaper. If your parents did not respond to those needs, the chunk of your brain that tells you to trust people close to you never develops.

These infants grow into cunning, dangerous children, Cline says. Some lie about everything and seem to have no conscience, he says.

Cline believes the best therapy involves turning back the clock and recreating what the child missed as an infant. Therapies that restrict movement and force the child to surrender control come into play.

During this ''holding'' therapy, a child lies across the laps of parents or therapists or both. Often, the youngster's arms and legs are restrained. If he or she flies into a rage, the parent or therapist tightens the grip.

The goal is to show the child that someone can control them, and that they can feel safe at the same time. The techniques are not pretty to watch, ''just like heart surgery isn't,'' Cline says.

There are parents who swear by the holding therapies and Cline's work, describing it as the miracle they had prayed for.

But some mainstream child psychologists and pediatricians are alarmed by the escalating use of the attachment diagnosis. They say it gives false hope to parents, and holding therapies may further damage already troubled children.

''I don't think it's been extensively researched and I think a lot of the date for this disorder comes largely from anecdotes rather than from systematic studies,'' said Scott Lilienfeld, a psychology professor at Emory University in Atlanta.

In any case, teachers, neighbors and other adults who knew Candace insist her public behavior was nowhere near the extremes associated with attachment disorder.

''I did not have any idea she was a disturbed child,'' said Wade Marlett, the catechism teacher. ''I never witnessed anything vaguely like that or even a tendency like that in Candace.''

The one person who can say with any certainty, Jeane Newmaker, isn't talking.

But Jeane believed she had found her answer.

On Jan. 20, she signed a contract with Connell Watkins, agreeing to pay $7,000 for a two-week rebirthing therapy.

Watkins' practice appealed to Jeane, in part, because they would stay in a private home with one of Watkins' assistants. She didn't want to stay alone in a Colorado hotel with her daughter for two weeks.

''She felt that Candace Newmaker would become more enraged during the therapy than what she had been at home with her,'' Jefferson County sheriff's investigator Diane Obbema wrote in an affidavit.

Jeane described Candace's behavior at home to the investigator as ''assaultive,'' but did not offer specifics.

The years of dealing with a troubled child were wearing on Jeane, who told Obbema that the entire process was ''so frustrating and emotionally laden.'' Still, she was ''trying to hold it together,'' and was relieved to arrive in Colorado. She was finally going to get help.

The therapy began on April 10 when Candace met with Dr. John Alston, a psychiatrist in private practice, who also works with The Attachment Center at Evergreen, one of the best known attachment treatment clinics in the country.

Alston declined comment.

Prosecutors said the powerful drugs Candace took to control her moods and behavior were changed repeatedly in the two weeks before her death.

Just before arriving in Evergreen, Jeane took her off Dexadrine, the amphetamine being used to combat attention deficit disorder.

Alston stopped Candace's use of Effexor, an anti-depressant, investigators said.

Candace's dosage of Risperdal, a calming medication, was doubled on April 11. Jeane told investigators the anti-psychotic drug was to counteract Candace's history of assaultive behavior - again without providing specifics.

Although Alston had stopped the Effexor, Candace began taking it again the day before she died because her therapy hadn't progressed as they'd hoped, Jeane told investigators.

The drugs were dispensed to Candace each day by Brita St. Clair, Watkins' office manager, who hosted the Newmakers during their stay in Evergreen. St. Clair was engaged to Jack McDaniel, whom Candace was told to call ''Daddy Jack.''

McDaniel, a high school graduate with no medical or therapy training, was to be paid $700 to write a report about Candace's two weeks with Watkins and Julie Ponder, a California therapist.

Watkins later told investigators that the drugged Candace had ''a look in her eye like nobody's home.''

Prosecutor Steve Jensen charged that the therapists modified Candace's drug intake in order to manipulate her.

''They went so far as to control even the mental state of the child,'' Jensen said during a hearing in August.

A week into the program, Jeane and Candace were led through ''compression'' therapy - a breakthrough. Candace, wrapped in a sheet but with her head exposed, was directed to lie down on the floor.

Two cushions from a nearby couch were placed on either side of her. Then, Jeane lay across the cushions and Candace, making a cross with their bodies.

The goal was control, for Candace to become compliant and for Jeane to be in charge. If all went well, Candace would connect visually or in some other way with Jeane, the therapists said.

As Candace was unwrapped after the three-hour session, Jeane moved to a chair. The therapists told Candace to crawl to the chair, to lie in her mother's arms like an infant, and to let her mother feed her from a plate.

Candace did as she was told. She looked into Jeane's eyes and let her mother hold her. Jeane was so happy she began to sob uncontrollably.

''The child actually connected,'' said David Savitz, one of the defense lawyers who has viewed the videotaped session. ''How thrilled Jeane Newmaker was.''


''I can't do it. I can't breathe.''
Evergreen - It is 9:35 a.m. on Tuesday, April 18, Candace is in a first-floor room at Watkins' home in Evergreen with therapist Julie Ponder.

The videotape is rolling asPonder tells Candace what is about to take place.

This account is drawn from preliminary hearing testimony by Jefferson County investigators and prosecutors, as well as the criminal affidavit used to bring charges in the case.

Ponder notices that Candace is yawning repeatedly.

Candace says she had the nightmare again last night, the one in which she was being murdered. She has a vague memory about her birth mother. Maybe when she was a very little girl, Candace says, her mama dropped her from a two-story window.

Ponder reassures her, telling Candace that her new mom loves her. Do you want to be reborn to your new mom, Ponder asks.

Candace says she does. That she wants to be safe, and not fall out the window.

Ponder tells her about being reborn. Being a baby is hard, being born is hard, she says, you must scream and cry because that's how a baby does it. Then, you must look for your mother, reach for her out of the womb.

''You will have lots of air to breathe,'' she says.

Ponder tells her to take off her shoes. Candace is dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, sitting on a pad on the floor.

Ponder tells Candace that the sheet will be wrapped around her to represent the womb, that it will be tight around her, that she will have to work hard to wriggle out and be born to her mother.

''You're going to go through the birth canal. While you're in the womb, you'll have plenty of air to breathe,'' she says again.

It's 9:44 a.m. Candace is told to stand up. Ponder puts a queen-size blue flannel sheet on the floor. Candace lies down on her left side and folds herself into the fetal position. Ponder wraps her tightly, gathering the four corners of the sheet at the top of Candace's head and twisting them together.

Watkins enters the room and props four pillows tent-like over Candace's body.

Jeane Newmaker and Jack McDaniel enter the room. Brita St. Clair pushes Tammy, her wheelchair-bound adult foster daughter, into the room. Tammy, who is mentally and physically handicapped, is placed in the corner. No one says why.

Watkins sits at Candace's feet. St. Clair leans her back against Candace's knees. McDaniel lies next to St. Clair, along Candace's chest. Ponder is at Candace's head, holding the sheet tightly closed in her left hand.

Jeane is told to stay near Candace's head, where she is supposed to emerge, and to aim her words to Candace through the top of the sheet.

The four adults, with a cumulative weight of 673 pounds, begin pushing against the 70-pound girl.

Candace is uncomfortable and confused.

''Whoever is pushing on my head, it's not helping,'' she says, exasperated.

Ten minutes in, Candace is ready to give up.

''I can't do it, I can't do it,'' she says. ''I can't breathe. I can't breathe.''

A minute later, Candace says she is going to die. She begs for air.

Watkins and Ponder keep pushing, telling Candace that being reborn is ''the hardest thing that you do.''

The adults reposition themselves, Watkins bracing her feet against a couch, Ponder pushing from a brick hearth. ''Please,'' Candace says, ''please stop pushing, I can't breathe.

''OK, I'm dying. I'm sorry,'' Candace says.

Watkins and Ponder yell back at Candace. ''You want to die? OK, then die. Go ahead, die right now.''

It goes on. All four are pushing, sometimes sitting up against Candace, sometimes reclining, placing more weight on top of her.

Jeane begins to feel rejected. Candace isn't trying to be reborn to her.

Watkins had warned Jeane it would be like this. The kids try to get out of it by saying they can't breathe, that they have to go to the bathroom. The unattached child is manipulative. You must show who's in control.

''Please, you said you would give me some oxygen,'' Candace says after 20 minutes.

A minute later, Candace gags and vomits. ''I'm throwing up. I just threw up. I gotta poop. I gotta poop.''

''Go ahead,'' Ponder says.

''Uh, I'm going in my pants,'' Candace says.

''Stay there with the poop and vomit,'' Watkins says.

A half-hour into it, Candace becomes quiet. Ponder and Watkins order her to scream for her life. She's gagging, but says no. Ponder digs in, repositions herself, breathing hard and grunting while pushing on Candace with her hands and body. Candace gasps for air, then whimpers.

''She needs more pressure over here so she can't ... so she really needs to fight if she wants air,'' Ponder says.

McDaniel obeys, and repositions himself on the pillow over Candace's head. She whimpers again.

''Getting pretty tight in here,'' Watkins says.

''Yep, getting tighter and tighter and getting less and less air,'' Ponder says.

Ten minutes pass.

''Baby, do you want to be reborn?'' Jeane asks.

A weak response. ''No.''

It is Candace's last word.

''She's stuck there in her own puke and poop,'' Ponder says.

Another 10 minutes go by. Ponder reaches inside the sheet.

''I got my hand right in front of her face,'' she says.

''No, she's breathing fine,'' Watkins says.

Candace stays quiet. Seven minutes pass, and Ponder places her hand inside again.

''She's pretty sweaty, which is good,'' Ponder says. ''It is wet inside there.''

Watkins gestures to Ponder, putting her hand to her face, as if to ask, is Candace breathing?

''Oh, I'm not sure. I touched her face and it's just sweaty,'' Ponder says. ''She's not answered. We could do this forever, just stay here.''

Another minute and Watkins decides Jeane must leave the room. Candace is able to pick up on your sorrow, Watkins says. Jeane goes to an upstairs room to watch on a TV monitor. She cries. Watkins joins Jeane, encouraging her not to give up, and then goes back to the rebirthing room.

Watkins asks McDaniel and St. Clair to leave six minutes later. They join Jeane to watch the session on the monitor, taking Tammy with them.

Watkins and Ponder are alone in the room with Candace, bundled in the sheet, still and quiet. They work for four more minutes, then decide to check on her. They unwrap her.

''Oh, there she is,'' Watkins says. ''She's sleeping in her vomit.''

Candace doesn't move. She's lying on the floor, still and quiet.

''Candace?'' Watkins says. ''Candace,'' she repeats, louder.

It's 10:53 a.m. and the videotape continues to roll. Jeane runs into the room. Candace is not breathing. Her face is blue. Jeane and Ponder start CPR. Watkins calls 911 at 10:56 a.m.

The paramedics arrive in 10 minutes. McDaniel meets Larry Ferree and Joe Yordt of the Evergreen Fire Protection District at the front door. He tells the medics that Candace was left alone for five minutes during a rebirthing session and she isn't breathing.

Ferree and Yordt find Candace on the floor. Two women are doing CPR. A sheet is at Candace's feet, there's vomit on her face and a smear of blood around her nose. She's blue and cool to the touch. Both paramedics think, she's been ''down'' - unconscious and possibly not breathing - for some time.

The two men cut off her T-shirt, do chest compressions, wipe the bile from around her lips and perform mouth-to-mouth.

''No heartbeat, no nothing,'' Ferree says.

Ferree finds her pupils fixed and dilated, with some redness in her eyes, often a sign of asphyxia.

By 11:20 a.m. they have a faint pulse, so they put Candace on a backboard to transfer her to the Flight for Life helicopter.

The little girl who dreamed of being murdered survives the night on life support at Children's Hospital.

But at 9 a.m. the following day, Dr. Kurt Stenmark pronounces her brain dead.

Candace dies from brainstem herniation and cerebral edema, brought on by mechanical asphyxiation.

She was smothered, the doctor wrote, when she ''was restrained during therapy session.''
(...)

Lachiewicz, one of the few professionals to speak out, now says she would have advised Jeane to get Candace into a more traditional therapy. Talk, play games.

''If I knew she was taking this kid to some wackos in Colorado, I'd say, 'Don't do it.'''

Candace's problems were no different than you'd expect from a 10-year-old who'd been bounced around in foster care, she said. She thought Jeane had not allowed Candace enough time to overcome her problems.
(...)

Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder, the two therapists, and their assistants, Jack McDaniel and Brita St. Clair, have been charged with ''knowingly or recklessly'' committing child abuse resulting in death. They face prison sentences of 16 to 48 years.

The four have pleaded not guilty. Jefferson County District Judge Jane Tidball has ordered one trial for Watkins and Ponder, and a second for St. Clair and McDaniel. Both are set for next year.

Jeane Newmaker was charged with child abuse resulting in death, a lesser felony. If convicted, she faces four to 16 years in prison.
(...)

The centerpiece of the case - the videotape of the rebirthing session - has been placed under a gag order. Jefferson County Court Judge Charles Hoppen feared a public outcry if it was released.

Watkins and Ponder wanted the tape to demonstrate rebirthing within the attachment community. Watkins often taped her sessions to highlight moments of success - and value - to the parents who had paid for it.

Now, the Candace tape will be an indictment of rebirthing at the trials.

Some Jefferson County law enforcement officers agreed with charging Jeane, while others argued that she had been punished enough, that she had lost a daughter, every parent's nightmare.
(...)

As the criminal case against her accused killers proceeds, people who knew Candace have questions.

Why would Jeane Newmaker, a trained medical professional, place her trust in unlicensed therapists? And why would she stand by while her child begged for air?

Why would all five adults ignore the common wisdom that binding a child in a sheet and covering her face with pillows could be dangerous, even deadly?

Who is really protected by confidentiality laws that shield government decisions to remove children from their parents? The children? Or the judges and social workers allowed to make those calls in secret?

And what of Colorado's rules and regulations governing therapists, who exert life and death control over children? Are they strong enough? Some states have much tougher laws.

Wade Marlett, Candace's cathechism teacher, is among those in Durham who are angry and confused about Candace's death.

''To what degree do we have the right to make people in our own image?'' he demands.

Marlett would like to see a ''Candace's Law.'' It would outlaw rebirthing, or any restraining therapy.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The story includes a photo gallery

18. Therapist has strong defenders, foes
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 29, 2000
http://www.insidedenver.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Connell Watkins is a hero to her defenders, a New Age quack to her detractors.

The nationally renowned therapist explained ''rebirthing'' therapy to the Jefferson County sheriff's detectives who responded to the 911 call on April 18.

But she just as quickly became worried that people viewing a videotape of the fatal therapy session wouldn't understand.

''The video's going to hang us,'' she said.

Vintage Watkins. Blunt, outspoken, unafraid of authority.

Many in the attachment community call her a gifted therapist who works miracles on children.

''Families sing her praises up and down,'' said Gregory Keck, director of the Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio. ''Their kids end up normal, and they can keep them.''

But Watkins' critics accuse her of taking $100 an hour from desperate parents willing to try anything.
(...)

State law required nothing of unlicensed therapists until 1988, when a regulation was passed requiring them to be listed with the Mental Health Grievance Board.
(...)

But even after the law changed, Watkins didn't register.
(...)

When Watkins finally submitted her listing, she said she hadn't registered under her own name because she'd been in training under other therapists.

She probably practiced illegally until 1995, Martinez said, but the board couldn't prove it and never took action. At the time of Candace's death, Watkins' listing with the board had lapsed.

Martinez guesses that there may be as many as 200 Colorado therapists with expired listings, but the board rarely goes after them.
(...)

Watkins is charged with felony child abuse in Candace Newmaker's death. She also faces charges of impersonation for using another therapist's license number, of deceiving Jeane Newmaker about that license and of practicing without being listed in the state's database.

Julie Ponder, 40, the other therapist involved in Candace Newmaker's death, is licensed in California but not Colorado.

Watkins and Ponder, as well as Brita St. Clair, 41, and Jack McDaniel, 47, the assistants in the Newmaker case, have been banned by the board from practicing in the state.
(...)

Cline and Watkins began focusing on the problems some adopted children have in bonding and showing love.

Their work grew in reputation, but at least one earlier case went bad.

Cline, Watkins and another therapist were working on an aggressive 11-year-old boy in 1988.

They cursed at him, restrained him, and twisted him into a painful position, the attorney general's office found. Cline, according to the attorney general, had engaged in ''grossly negligent medical practice.''

Although criminal charges were ultimately dropped, the state banned Cline from practicing holding therapy in Colorado. He moved to Idaho in 1995.

Watkins was allowed to continue working with children.

Krulisky, the California adoption advocate, has known Watkins for a decade. In the mid-90s, she sought help for a friend's child.

Watkins called the boy ''stupid,'' wrapped him in blankets ''like a burrito,'' Krulisky said, and told his mother to yell at him.

He wet his pants, but Watkins wouldn't stop, even when the mother begged to end the session.

Watkins lashed out, saying ''Do you want to bond with him or not?''

After two days, Krulisky's friend ended the therapy despite Watkins' rebukes, paying Watkins $1,200.

Now, Krulisky marvels at how Watkins' loyalists are taking up for her, starting a legal defense fund and sending her prayers through Web sites and online newsgroups. She calls it the ''cult of Connell.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. A Tragic Life - And Death The Issue: Will Candace Newmaker's Death Mean The Welcome End Of ''Rebirthing''?; Our View: We Hope So
Denver Rocky Mountain News, Nov. 4, 2000 (Editorial)
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
You couldn't read Peggy Lowe and Carla Crowder's detailed, devastating, horrific story last Sunday on the short and unhappy life of Candace Newmaker without wondering what can be done to prevent the brutish ''rebirthing'' procedure in the future.
(...)

Wade Marlett, who taught Candace catechism when she lived in Durham, N.C., suggests the passage of a ''Candace's Law,'' which would simply outlaw rebirthing or any restraining therapy.

But it won't necessarily be easy to pass. It may be hard to define ''rebirthing'' in law, or to distinguish it from other forms of restraint. And for better or worse, restraint has fans in the psychotherapy community.

Even if enacted, would a new law make any difference? We can certainly hope so. But it's as hard to stop the practice of psychoquackery as it is the trade in illegal narcotics. There's such an appetite for both.

Some adults have an itch for what to most of us sounds like masochism - witness periodic fads like Z-therapy, ''rolfing'' and what used to be called ''est.'' That's fine for adults, but when they subject their hapless children to coercive therapies, their personal preference may become child abuse.

Parents with difficult children resort to these techniques because they have such a strong desire to have their love returned that they will risk almost anything, even dangerous therapies, for a chance to establish a stronger bond.

And that makes them easy prey for untrained therapists with unproven, even dangerous, routines.

Would stronger licensing laws help? Maybe, but it's hardly a certainty.
(...)

We suspect that the so-called ''attachment disorder'' from which Candace allegedly suffered is overdiagnosed. And we're not convinced that it inevitably leads down the path to defiance, conduct disorder and finally an anti-social personality. You have to know when to stop the therapy.
(...)

If licensing or flat-out prohibition wouldn't stop dangerous practices, perhaps public education could help. For that reason alone we think the video of Candace's rebirthing should ultimately be made available.

Prosecutors aren't releasing it now; perhaps they don't want to taint the jury pool. But once the trial is over it should be made public.

This doesn't mean local television stations are going to want to air it. Apparently it is so brutal even hardened prosecutors wept while watching it. But if it isn't played on TV, at least it should be made available on the Internet, so that desperate parents who are tempted to try ''rebirthing'' can understand what might happen.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

20. Church official admits to swindle
St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 3, 2000
http://www.sptimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TAMPA -- James R. Chambers on Thursday admitted bilking Christian investors out of more than $1-million dollars and became the first of seven defendants to plead guilty to taking part in an elaborate swindle run by officials of the Tampa-based church, Greater Ministries International.

Chambers, 68, of Altamonte Springs acknowledged marketing a scam originating in 1993 called ''Double Your Money Gift Exchange Program,'' in which parishioners were told they could double cash investments within 17 months.

Chambers and other church elders claimed the improbable returns were made possible by shrewd investments in gold and platinum mines and overseas banks paying sky-high interest.

Greater Ministries officials promised investment returns would be regarded as tax-free gifts from the church and represented that investments would generate profits used to feed the homeless, provide rehabilitation for addicts and support foreign missions.

In fact, prosecutors say, the church merely operated a Ponzi scheme, in which payments to initial investors were made with funds forwarded by later waves of investors. Money actually spent on evangelical missions was ''minuscule,'' and some church faithful lost their life savings.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Mosakowski said Thursday the scheme enabled Greater Ministries to collect ''several hundred million dollars,'' with church elders such as Chambers pocketing 5-percent commissions they referred to as ''gas money.''

The program was so successful that church officials decided in 1998 to cap gas money payments to each elder at $40,000 per month. In all, Chambers' take in gas money amounted to more than $1.3-million, Mosakowski said.

The prosecutor also said that during the course of the scheme, Chambers knew three Greater Ministry elders were being prosecuted on fraud charges and was aware that other church elders continued to market the investment scam in violation of orders from state regulators.

California, Ohio and Pennsylvania all opened investigations into Greater Ministries and claimed in one instance that the church was involved in the illegal sale of securities. Last year, a Pennsylvania judge levied against the church a $6.4-million fine, which arose from a contempt of court citation against Greater Ministries president Gerald Payne.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Escondido to pay $750,000 to parents of 2 seized kids
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 2, 2000
http://www.uniontrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ESCONDIDO -- Police officers came in the middle of the night to take the two young children away. The boy's third birthday coincided with the impending fall equinox, and officials believed his family planned to kill him that day as a sacrifice to Satan.

Now, nine years after their son and 5-year-old daughter were taken from their beds, Bill and Becky Wallis will collect $750,000 from the city of Escondido.

Perhaps fittingly, news of the federal court judgment arrived on Halloween.

The money comes as a result of a lawsuit the family filed in 1992 against Escondido police, county social workers and a physician for violating their constitutional rights to be free from ''unreasonable intrusions on their privacy, person and home.''

Twice, a U.S. District Court judge ruled against the Wallises and dismissed their lawsuit, and twice they appealed to a higher court and had it reinstated.
(...)

The Wallis case was the product of a satanic scare that swept through San Diego and many other communities a decade ago.

It was a time when certain psychotherapists, social workers, police officers and prosecutors became convinced that secret cults were subjecting children to all sorts of evil rituals, even murder.

The threat here was considered so dire that San Diego County established a Ritual Abuse Task Force. But finding evidence was another matter, and the task force disbanded without fanfare.

Court documents show that the Wallises' ordeal began during a September 1991 session in a psychiatric hospital between Becky Wallis' sister, a schizophrenic with a history of severe mental illness, and Candace Young, a psychotherapist who served on the Ritual Abuse Task Force.

The sister -- from whom the Wallises were estranged following her unsubstantiated claim against Bill Wallis of abuse in 1990 -- reported through one of her multiple personalities that a terrible thing was about to happen: Bill Wallis would sacrifice his young son during the ''Fall Equinox ritual,'' and the killing would be masked by a car accident in which the boy's body would be incinerated.

The sister based this on her recently recovered ''memory'' from 20 years earlier of her father, Dave Stecks, wearing a cult robe and chanting hypnotically, ''On the first full moon after two blue moons a child will be killed.''

Young, a marriage and family counselor, reported this to Child Protective Services.

Sue Plante, a CPS social worker involved with other alleged satanic-abuse cases, launched an investigation. Escondido police were notified, along with a deputy district attorney, Jane Via.

According to court documents, Plante was told by Via that ''we have enough to pick up the kids.'' But social workers never formally petitioned a judge, and no court order was ever issued to take the children into protective custody.
(...)

Becky Wallis said the judgment sends a message to social workers, prosecutors, police officers and others with power over the lives of parents and children.

''I think such people are a lot more cautious when making such critical decisions then they were back then. At least we hope so,'' she said.

''We were pretty trusting people once. We thought that bad things don't happen to good people. But our kids learned at age 3 and 5 that life sometimes is horribly unfair. We have all been through a terrible experience and our lives will never be what they once were because of all this.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. Canadian Court--Bible Does Not Justify Beating Kids
Reuters, Nov. 3, 2000
http://ca.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
CRANBROOK, British Columbia (Reuters) - A British Columbia man who said the Bible gave him the right to discipline his family with a 30-inch (1-meter) wooden rod has been found guilty of assault, court officials said on Friday.

They said a British Columbia Provincial Court judge ruled on Thursday that Darryl McDowell broke the law by repeatedly punishing his step-children with the rod, which McDowell said the scriptures gave him the right to use.

``Religious beliefs do not excuse a system of physical discipline which is unforgiving of any breach of any rule for such young children as here, and which results in such frequent administration of the discipline,'' Judge Don Carlgren ruled.

Carlgren said in his written decision that the four- and 10-year-old children were beaten with the rod for any offense they committed, and during a six-month period one child had only 10 days ``free of rodding.''

McDowell, 34, was cleared of charges he assaulted his common-law wife with the same rod, which he called his ''Biblical rod.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Christie keeps up cult battle
The Mercury (Australia), Nov. 4, 2000
http://themercury.com.au/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Former Hobart City Council alderman Ron Christie has vowed to continue his campaign to expose the Infinity health cult and will press for a counselling service to be set up in Tasmania.

Mr Christie, who lost his council seat in this week's local government elections, said he had received another three calls from people who had been approached by cult members and offered miracle cures.

The Mercury revealed yesterday a registered nurse in the psychiatric ward of the St Helens Private Hospital, in Hobart, carried Infinity magical wands and pendants during her rounds.

Salsa Headrock Junior - who changed her name by deed pole - said she would only supply information and products from Infinity Forms of Yellow Remembrance outside the hospital.

However, she said many patients would ask her questions about items she carried and she would tell them they could contact her outside of work.

Mr Christie had written to the State Government with his concerns patients were being enticed into the cult, by first being offered miracle cures during hospital stays. A State Government spokesman said there was no evidence of the group's activities in the public hospital system.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Last Ethiopian Emperor Laid to Rest
Associated Press, Nov. 5, 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Bells tolled and thousands of Ethiopians wailed and applauded Sunday as Haile Selassie, their last emperor, was finally laid to rest 25 years after his mysterious death.
(...)

Haile Selassie, who assumed the throne in 1930, was the last in a line of emperors who forged the modern Ethiopian state out of an ancient land of feuding chieftains. To his supporters, his rule was a time of peace and stability during which modern education was introduced in the oldest independent state in Africa. Critics say he was too slow in reforming a feudal society.
(...)

But the late emperor was not only important to Ethiopians. Hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans embraced him as their living god and head of the Rastafarian religious movement. Dozens, wearing red, gold and green caps covering their dreadlocks, attended the funeral.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. Rastafarian cult still sees him as living god
The Daily Telegraph (England), Nov. 4, 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
For the million-strong Rastafarian community around the world, the Ethiopian Emperor remains alive and well.

When Haile Selassie was enthroned in 1930, not only did he become Emperor of Ethiopia but god to the fledgling Rastafarian movement in Jamaica. They took their name from the Emperor known as Ras Tafari, who became their living messiah, or Jah.

In the ghettos of Kingston, the Jamaican capital, people had been captivated by the speeches of a local black nationalist, Marcus Garvey, who advocated the ''Back to Africa'' movement. He had told them in 1920 that they should look to Africa ''when a black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is at hand''.

Garvey also called for all blacks to return to their ancestral home and, more specifically, to Ethiopia. When, in 1930, Ras Tafari was crowned Emperor, he was proclaimed: ''King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and the conquering lion of the Tribe of Judah.'' At this point many thought the prophecy was fulfilled.
(...)

Curiously, the Rastafarian movement experienced substantial growth only after the death of Haile Selassie in 1975 following his overthrow by Marxists the previous year. In Ethiopia itself, the movement was not tolerated by the Marxists. The present government tolerates it but does not glorify the Emperor in any way.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. Rastafarians Divided on Selassie
Associated Press, Nov. 5, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- Rastafarians in Jamaica were divided over the reburial of the remains of former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, with some applauding Sunday's ceremony and others claiming that he never died.

Followers of Rastafarianism believe Haile Selassie was a god, and some sects question his death in 1975 while under house arrest following a Marxist coup in 1974.

''Clearly, they don't have a semblance of respect for people's minds,'' Miguel Lorne, a Rastafarian and Kingston-based publisher, said of the reburial by members of the Ethiopian royal family. He said he believes the discovery of the bones is a hoax.
(...)

Haile Selassie himself was a Christian and denied he was a god.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Rastafarian claims right to sell drug
The Daily Telegraph (England), Nov. 4, 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A Rastafarian is using the Human Rights Act in an attempt to escape a drug dealing charge, claiming that marijuana is an aid to worship and a ''sacred commodity''.

In what is believed to be the first case of its kind since the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into British law last month, Rasta Brown, 38, says he is entitled to smoke and sell the drug under Article 9 of the Act which states: ''Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.''
(...)

During a hearing yesterday Brown's counsel, Rufus D'Cruz, read passages from the book Rasta: Emperor Haile Selassie and the Rastafarians. Mr D'Cruz said marijuana was considered ''an aid to worship, medicine and as a source of income''. The case was adjourned until Nov 17.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


28. 3 Teens Held in Grisly Plot
New York Daily News, Nov. 4, 2000
http://www.nydailynews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Two make-believe vampires with a real taste for blood were extradited from New Jersey yesterday to face charges they tried to kill the father of a teenage girl one of them was dating, police said.
(...)

The motive? Dad didn't approve of of her boyfriend, Desmond Figueroa, 17.
(...)

The suspects told police they were members of something called the O'Mallie Vampire Cult, but investigators suggested it was mostly a product of the suspects' imaginations.

Fisher lives in a dark and eerie Gothic-like apartment in Canarsie, which cops found decorated with spooky symbols including a cushioned pine coffin bed and sets of porcelain vampire teeth.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


29. Psychic's info has 'some potential' in O'Keefe case
Antelope Valley Press, Nov. 3, 2000
http://www.avpress.com
[Story no longer online? Read this]
PALMDALE - Though information gathered through psychic impressions is not admissible in court, detectives investigating the shooting death of Michelle O'Keefe say psychic Sylvia Browne said some interesting things on Thursday's ''Montel'' show.

''The information that she provided has some similarity to information we have and it has some potential in helping us with the investigation,'' said Sgt. Richard Longshore, who has been investigating the killing of Michelle O'Keefe since her death.

The brutal shooting of O'Keefe in a Palmdale park-and-ride lot the night of Feb. 22 has prompted eight months of investigation, a $55,000 reward fund, a billboard advertising campaign and a spot on ''America's Most Wanted'' TV show. Still, detectives on the case say they have no suspects.

On Oct. 11, the day that would have been Michelle's 19th birthday, Mike and Pat O'Keefe traveled to New York for a taping of the Montel Williams show with world-renowned psychic Sylvia Browne.

''They say she hits about 85%,'' said Mike O'Keefe before leaving town for the taping.

The show aired locally at 4 p.m. Thursday on KCOP Channel 13, and the segment with the O'Keefes lasted only a few minutes in the hour-long show.

Browne began by saying, ''This has happened before.''

''There have been a series of these at that same locale,'' she said. ''They don't always tell you everything.''

That statement made no sense to Longshore, who began his investigation in February by looking for similar crimes in the Valley, or any other crimes at the park-and-ride that night.

''Some of the things she said don't seem to add up, but if the person responsible for Michelle's death was watching this show and he recognized anything about himself, he must realize that it's only a matter of time,'' Longshore said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


30. Daughter of God? Her parents don't think so
St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 6, 2000
http://www.sptimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
FORT MYERS -- How exactly is it that one discovers that she is the daughter of God? That she is not just daddy's little princess but an honest-to-goodness queen, God's only begotten daughter?

It begins with a message from prophets. The blinders come off. You forsake your family and, deep breath, you forsake those ungodly designer clothes.

You attract followers, who bow before you, wipe you after you use the toilet and snatch money from restaurant cash register drawers on your behalf (because God said you should put the cash to a Higher purpose).

Maylbe there are other ways to fulfill such an important calling, but this is how it worked for Queen Shahmia. Or, for those who knew her in a previous life, this is how it worked for Richell Denise Clark Bradshaw.

Richell has strictly followed what she calls God's orders to forsake her family. She last saw her parents four years ago, when Richell and her husband visited them in Corpus Christi, Texas.

''She said the Lord told her that they shouldn't have anything to do with us,'' said June Clark, Richell's mother. ''She was convinced that I was evil and that I was not of God. Neither one of them could understand what God could have been thinking of.'' Richell did not believe in the ministry that her parents had begun.

Bitterly divided over religious beliefs, mother and daughter parted.

''If you don't want us to stay here, we'll leave tonight,'' Mrs. Clark said her baby daughter told her. ''I said, ''Well, leave.' ''

They never talked again. They were so out of touch that nobody in the family heard about it when Richell was arrested in January and held in the Lee County jail. Nor did they know that she had been convicted in August and sentenced to prison for 25 years for her part in a string of robberies in Central Florida during the Christmas holidays. Finally finding out from a reporter, the family is puzzled as to what went wrong.
(...)

But Richell shows no sign that she plans to end her run as Queen Shahmia, and her servants are sticking by her. Her maidservant, Nirishi, still wears a necklace made of Richell's clipped fingernails. Convicted of robbery in Orange County, Nirishi was given a choice by the judge: Stay away from Richell or lose custody of your five children. Nirishi chose to stay by her queen.

One of Richell's manservants has been convicted of robbery and two others are scheduled to go to trial today. Though families of some of the servants have accused Richell of brainwashing them, the servants continue to pledge their allegiance to ''goddess Shahmia.''

The 34-year-old queen would not grant an interview, but she was required to give sworn testimony to the detectives investigating the restaurant and convenience store robberies.

She told them she considers her prosecution and prison sentence a bump in the road and expects God will see to it that she fulfills her destiny:
(...)

After Richell became Queen Shahmia, she clothed herself in fancy garments again, flowing gowns that she made herself.

She became feisty about her beliefs and would challenge ministers, right during service, if she believed they were spewing inaccuracies.
(...)

When Richell and Phillip left Washington around 1993 for last time, they stopped in California, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas. Between Texas and Florida, Richell amassed a cluster of followers that included her husband and their three children, plus a woman, three men and five children.

They would bathe their queen, rub lotion on her feet and peel her fruit.

''The power that I have is in love. It's why my children love me like they do. I am such a marvel to this state of how they obey me and they love me like they do.''

Strangers supported their ministry, she said, donating money and houses in Texas and Florida. ''Finance being brought and put in my hand was no unusual occurrence to me.''

''There's a reason I am here... . I am here to see to the comfort of the wounds that nothing that (Jesus Christ) did would ever fall to the ground. That everything he did would be honored properly. My most blessed place is in his shadow resting in his ... for his comfort.''

This did not impress her family.
(...)

Now that they know about Richell's imprisonment, her family wants to reach out to her. Mrs. Clark, 59, said she would like custody of her three grandchildren.
(...)

Richell hopes to win her appeal, be released from prison and take her ministry to Africa. The state of Florida has custody of Richell and Phillip's three children. Family members of the other children also are seeking custody and fighting legal battles.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


31. Man Fined For Making Crop Circle
Las Vegas Sun/AP, Nov. 6, 2000
http://www.lasvegassun.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
DEVIZES, England (AP) -- A self-described researcher in the paranormal told a court Monday precisely how a crop circle appeared in a field in western England.

He did it himself.

Matthew Williams, 29, said he and a friend made an intricate crop circle to prove to a competing researcher that the patterns may not be the work of space aliens.

However, his seven-pointed design angered a farmer, who told the court it caused $300 in damage to his crops.

The court fined Williams $150.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== ''Only in America'' Department

32. 'Jesus' costume wearer says he was singled out
The Tennessean, Nov. 3, 2000
http://www.tennessean.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
FRANKLIN - A Page High School student said he cannot understand why his ''Jesus'' Halloween costume caused a problem while no one at school seemed to mind the Adolf Hitler and Satan outfits on other pupils.

''I feel like I shouldn't have been called into his office because of my costume when other people dressed as demons weren't,'' said Gabriel Koppelberger, 17, who was called into Principal Joe Yeager's office Tuesday for a discussion about his Jesus costume.

Yeager said some faculty at the school had found Koppelberger's costume of sheets and a ''crown of thorns'' blasphemous. Koppelberger was not ordered to go home and change clothes, but he did so after his meeting with Yeager.

Koppelberger, a senior, said he and his girlfriend had hoped to win the ''best couple'' award in the school's Halloween costume contest by dressing as Jesus and Satan. He said his girlfriend's costume consisted of regular street clothes and a pair of fake horns she wore on her head.

There were no complaints about his girlfriend's devil horns, Koppelberger said.

''There was a kid dressed as Hitler, and nobody said anything to him, either,'' Koppelberger said.

Koppelberger's mother, Tarri Koppelberger, said her son's freedom of expression rights were violated.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== The Judge Around The Corner

33. Judge threatens girls with `hell'
Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 2, 2000
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/judg02.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[...More offbeat news...] ''If you lie, you will go to hell,'' a Cook County judge warned two girls in his court before they testified about their dead poodle.

Judge James T. Ryan once kept a woman in court until she soiled herself, and fined another woman for speeding to a hospital to give birth. The former mayor of Arlington Heights says he has since learned to control his temper.

Now, he's in trouble with Diane Tuzzolino, a Mount Prospect mother who says he scared her children, Karyn, 12, and Kara, 8.

''My older daughter went to testify,'' Tuzzolino said. ''He told her, `You realize if you lie, you will go to hell. You realize what I'm saying, you will go to hell.' ''

The judge, she says, then made a similar statement to Kara.

Ryan isn't disputing that he mentioned the afterlife in his Rolling Meadows courtroom. But he says he treated Tuzzolino's children with respect, speaking kindly to see if they were fit to testify in a heartbreaking case.

''I might have said, `It was conceivable you could go to hell,' though I don't remember exactly. Sometimes people misperceive what I'm trying to do.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]