» Continued from Part 1

=== Other News
19. Death sentence for cult leader reduced
20. Vampire-cult killer gets life sentence Why? Age
21. Wenatchee abuse-case trial to be held in King County
22. Cult leader charged with rape
23. Nuwaubians win appeals court decision
24. Self-proclaimed Mexican faith healer denies raping patients
25. Rwandan Police Dismantle Network Of Cannibals
26. Healers warned against sacrifice
27. Scandal engulfs guru's empire
28. Divine downfall
29. When this cult took over my husband, it was like losing him to another woman
30. Baha'is gather to celebrate birth of prophet, founder

=== The Psychic's Friend Around The Corner
31. Man busted for making calls to psychic hotline friend from work



=== Other News

19. Death sentence for cult leader reduced
Sun-Sentinel/AP, Nov. 9, 2000
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TALLAHASSEE -- The death sentence of a cult leader condemned for fatally beating a Eustis couple in 1996 was reduced to life in prison Thursday by the state Supreme Court.

The decision was expected because Florida's high court ruled more than a year ago that the state can not execute killers who committed their crime before they reached age 17.

That July 1999 decision said allowing such a rare punishment would be cruel and unusual and therefore unconstitutional. The 4-3 opinion came in the case of a killer who murdered just eight days before his 17th birthday.

Rod Ferrell, now 20, was 16 when he killed Richard Wendorf and Naoma Ruth Queen on Nov. 25, 1996. The couple were beaten with crowbars in their home in Eustis, about 30 miles northwest of Orlando.

Ferrell was the leader of a vampire cult from Murray, Ky. He and three followers came to Florida to help the couple's daughter run away.
(...)

The state Supreme Court refused to outlaw executions of 17-year-old killers a decade ago. Five years ago, the court said the Florida Constitution barred the execution of killers who murdered at age 15.

Of the 40 states with capital punishment, 15 already explicitly bar execution of killers who murder at age 16. Of the remaining 25, only four have upheld death sentences imposed on killers that young.

In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the execution of a killer who murdered at age 15. A year later, the nation's high court refused to raise that bar to include killers who were 16 and 17 when they murdered.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

Note:
International human rights treaties prohibit anyone under 18 years old at the time of the crime being sentenced to death. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child all have provisions to this effect. More than 110 countries whose laws still provide for the death penalty for at least some offences have laws specifically excluding the execution of child offenders or may be presumed to exclude such executions by being parties to one or another of the above treaties. A small number of countries, however, continue to execute child offenders.

Six countries since 1990 are known to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of the crime - Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA and Yemen. The country which carried out the greatest number of known executions of child offenders was the USA (13 since 1990). - Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty, Amnesty International

20. Vampire-cult killer gets life sentence Why? Age
The Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TAVARES -- The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday commuted the death sentence of vampire-cult leader Rod Ferrell to life in prison without parole in the bludgeoning deaths of a Eustis couple.

The reason?

Ferrell was 16 when he beat Richard and Ruth Wendorf to death, stole their Ford Explorer and ran off with their 15-year-old daughter, Heather, on Nov. 25, 1996. The high court decided in another case last year that defendants must be 17 or older before they can be executed.

In July, the Florida Supreme Court commuted Jeffrey Farina`s death sentence because he was 16 when he committed a capital crime. He and his brother, Anthony, were sentenced to death for the slaying of Michelle Van Ness and for trying to kill three of her co-workers during a robbery at a Daytona Beach Taco Bell eight years ago.
(...)

The Supreme Court`s ruling was not unexpected after last year`s decision in another case, but it was still frustrating for the State Attorney`s Office, which prosecuted the case.

''How arbitrary,'' said Jim McCune, an assistant state attorney who worked on the case with State Attorney Brad King. Some other states still execute defendants who were 16 when they committed heinous crimes, McCune said. If prosecutors had known the Supreme Court was going to change the rules, it would not have gone to all the expense and extra work to seek the death penalty, he said.

Ferrell has had some powerful allies. The Rutherford Institute, a conservative law group best known for representing Paula Jones in her sexual-harassment claim against President Clinton, has filed court briefs on his behalf.

Ferrell`s public defender also argued that the death sentence was unconstitutional.
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21. Wenatchee abuse-case trial to be held in King County
Seattle Post-Intelligencer/AP, Nov. 9, 2000
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WENATCHEE -- A Spokane County judge has decided that a lawsuit accusing Wenatchee-area law enforcement of negligence in the 1994-95 child sex-abuse investigations will be heard next summer in King County.
(...)

In September, the state Supreme Court, in a precedent-setting decision, unanimously upheld a state Court of Appeals decision that law-enforcement agencies could be held financially liable for conducting faulty child-abuse investigations.

Police traditionally have been immune from such actions.

The sex-abuse investigations have been heavily criticized by the courts. Since 1997, 11 convictions have been overturned.

Six other people have been freed from long prison terms by pleading guilty to lesser or unrelated charges. Of the 26 who were convicted of felonies, only two remain in prison.

The state Court of Appeals had found that Donohue, appointed by the state to preside over the case, erred before a 1998 civil trial when he dismissed a negligent-investigation claim brought by East Wenatchee Pentecostal preacher Roby Roberson and others against the city of Wenatchee and Douglas County.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature imposed a responsibility on police and social workers to protect children and their parents and to not harm the parent-child relationship with poor investigations.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

Sidebar

Developments continue in the wake of the P-I's February 1998 investigation into civil rights violations during the Wenatchee sex ring prosecutions.

See more followups

22. Cult leader charged with rape
Australian News Network/AAP (Australia), Nov. 13, 2000
http://news.com.au/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
15:43(AEDT) The high priest of a religious cult faced court today charged with two counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault on a female member of another cult.

The 32-year-old Melbourne man, who works for an Internet company, did not speak during a brief appearance in the Southport Magistrates Court.

However in extradition proceedings last week, the Melbourne Magistrates Court was told that the man was the leader of the Brisbane-based religious group and he was duty bound to have sex with his high priestess.

The court was told that the man, who cannot be named under Queensland law, and a member of another cult allegedly raped the woman twice in 1997.

Investigators said the woman, aged 22 or 23 at the time, also would allege that she was to be used as a human sacrifice.
(...)

According to the cult's official website, the group practices witchcraft and generally takes in 10 new members a year.
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23. Nuwaubians win appeals court decision
Macon Telegraph, Nov. 11, 2000
http://web.philly.com/
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EATONTON - A Georgia Court of Appeals decision will prevent Putnam County from suing members of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors for damages in the ongoing zoning and building permit lawsuit.

The Oct. 25 decision also handed the fraternal organization one of its first victories in the group's three-year battle with county officials.

Ralph Goldberg, the attorney representing the more than 200 Nuwaubians named as defendants in the suit, said Friday the end to the lawsuit may be in sight.
(...)

Frank Ford, the attorney representing the county, said the county will not appeal.

But Ford was not as confident that the issue has reached an end.

Much of the dispute, and the resulting court proceedings, has centered around a structure permitted in 1997 as a storage building. The county contends the storage building was turned into a nightclub against county zoning laws and in violation of the initial building permit.
(...)

The county contends that the Nuwaubians, as a group, have shown a pattern of violating the zoning ordinance. Under Georgia RICO, the county may attempt to get money damages against some of the Nuwaubians.

''It may be we don't even pursue that,'' Ford said. ''We need to figure out where to go now that this decision is in. We may end up abandoning all money damages claims, but I'm not prepared to say that right now.''

Goldberg said he is optimistic the RICO case against his clients will be unsuccessful if pursued.
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24. Self-proclaimed Mexican faith healer denies raping patients
San Diego Union-Tribune/AP, Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.uniontrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
FRESNO - Prosecutors say a self-proclaimed Mexican faith healer raped a Hanford woman after an anesthesia-soaked cloth was pressed to her face, causing her to black out.

Fernando Magdalano Flores, 54, pleaded innocent Thursday in Kings County Municipal Court to a single count of drugging and raping the woman, who is in her 20s.
(...)

Flores, who calls himself a Mexican faith healer, or curandero, had sex with girls and young women, claiming he could remove evil spirits from their bodies, said Patrick Hart, chief deputy district attorney for Kings County.

A curandero heals people with prayers, chants and songs.

But authorities say Flores is not a true curandero. They believe he is a scam artist who would earn the victims' trust and tell them they would become ill or die if they refused sex.
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25. Rwandan Police Dismantle Network Of Cannibals
Panafrican News Agency, Nov. 8, 2000
http://allafrica.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The Rwandan police have dismantled a network of several people who abducted, killed and then ate their victims in Rusumo commune, in the Kigina sector.

Radio Rwanda reported Wednesday that the police action was prompted by the mysterious disappearance of at least five people and the desecration of several tombs, amid rumours that cannibalism and witchcraft were being practised in the area.

It sad the police at Kibungo then visited and searched a house in Rugando owned by Valerie Zaninka and Ntoni Theonestre, where they discovered a 20-year-old girl, Ariette Nyiransanga, who had been hidden for 10 days and was being prepared for slaughter during the New Year eve feast.

The radio quoted the police as saying that the couple had employed the services of a witch, Marceline Mukagakili, who bewitched Ariette to prevent her from escaping.

It said that the Kibungo police had launched a manhunt for accomplices of the suspected cannibalistic couple.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. Healers warned against sacrifice
New Vision (Uganda), Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.newvision.co.ug/11_10_st16.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Traditional healers and herbalists have been warned against sacrificing human beings for medicinal purposes.

Gender, social welfare and culture deputy minister Vincent Nyanzi told traditional healers and herbalists on Friday not to use heads and other parts of human beings in their attempts to make medicine for the rich people.

He was addressing members of the National Council of Traditional Healers and Herbalists Association (NACOTHA) at their Jubilee Park headquarters in Katwe.

''Do not sacrifice human beings in your attempts to make medicine for rich people and to appease small gods,'' said Nyanzi.
(...)

He announced that the Traditional Herbalists and Healers Bill 2000 will soon come up for debate in Parliament.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Scandal engulfs guru's empire
The Age (Australia), Nov. 12, 2000
http://www.theage.com.au/news/20001112/A43335-2000Nov11.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
For Hans de Kraker, a trip to India to see Sathya Sai Baba, a self-proclaimed god with a following of up to 25 million devotees, was a spiritual quest. But he said the pilgrimage ended when the 73-year-old guru tried to force him to perform oral sex.

Mr de Kraker, who now lives in Sydney, has gone public to alert devotees to a sex scandal that is threatening to undo Sai Baba, by far the most popular of India's new-age gurus.

''It is devastating to realise the man you see as a spiritual master is simply conning people for his own sexual gratification,'' Mr de Kraker, 32, said. ''After a while you notice that the people chosen for private interviews tend to be good-looking young males.''

Mr de Kraker, who first visited Sai Baba's ashram in 1992, said the guru would regularly rub oil on his genitals, claiming it was a religious cleansing, and eventually tried to force him to perform oral sex. He was kicked out of the ashram after alerting senior officials in 1996.

Mr de Kraker's story is not an isolated one, and a growing list of alleged victims is threatening to engulf the Sai Baba organisation, which has an estimated worth of $6billion. Droves have left after allegations of paedophilia and the rape of male followers.
(...)

The organisation has been shut down in Sweden after revelations that Conny Larson, now a film star in that country, was molested by Sai Baba. The FBI is looking into similar allegations made by American children and there are investigations into the sect in France and Germany.

Both UNESCO and Flinders University in South Australia and Flinders University in South Australia pulled out of a conference organised by Sai Baba in September because of concerns about the guru's sexual conduct.

In Australia, the sect is estimated to have up to 5000 followers. It runs schools in northern NSW and Western Australia, and has meditation centres across the country.

Now Australian victims are preparing documents to present to federal authorities about the guru's activities.
(...)

The sexual exploits of the guru were exposed 30 years ago by Tal Brooke, a former high-ranked devotee who now runs a cult-watch group in the US. ''It appears that now he is out of control. The problem is that people have such faith that these allegations would kill them spiritually,'' he said from his home in California.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


28. Divine downfall
The Age/Telegraph Magazine (Australia), Nov. 12, 2000
http://www.theage.com.au/news/20001112/A41321-2000Nov10.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) The Youngs were what Americans call ''straight arrows'': honest, decent and truthful. A handsome, clean-cut couple in their mid-40s; both worked in the computer industry. The past year, said Jeff, had been difficult, what with all that had happened, but they were pulling things together.

A year ago, their son Sam had come to them with a shocking assertion: Sathya Sai Baba, he told them - the man the Youngs had revered as God for more than 20 years - was, in fact, a sexual abuser. Over the course of four years, in his ashram, while Sam's parents sat a few metres away - thrilled that their son should be in such close proximity to the divine, secure in their belief that the god-man was ministering to their son's spiritual welfare - Sai Baba was actually subjecting him to sustained and systematic sexual abuse.
(...)

For more than 50 years, Sai Baba has been India's most famous and most powerful holy man - a worker of miracles, it is said, an instrument of the divine. His following extends not only to every corner of the Indian sub-continent, but to Europe, America, Australia, South America and throughout Asia. Estimates of the total number of Baba devotees around the world vary between 10 and 50 million.

To even begin to appreciate the scale and intensity of his following, it is necessary to have some understanding of what his devotees believe him to be, and of the powers that are attributed to him. Among his devotees, Sai Baba is believed to be an avatar: literally, an incarnation of the divine, one of a rare body of divine beings - such as Krishna or Christ - who, it is said, take human form to further man's spiritual evolution.

According to the four-volume hagiography written by his late secretary and disciple, Professor N. Kasturi, Sai Baba was born ''of immaculate conception'' in the southern Indian village of Puttaparthi in 1926. As a young boy, he displayed signs of miraculous abilities, including ''materialising'' flowers and sweets from nowhere. At 13, he declared himself to be the reincarnation of a revered southern Indian saint, Shirdi Sai Baba, who died in 1918. Challenged to prove his identity, Kasturi writes, he threw a clump of jasmine flowers on the floor, which arranged themselves to spell out ''Sai Baba'' in Telugu.

In 1950, he established a small ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam (Abode of Serenity) in his home village. This has now grown to the size of a small town, accommodating up to 10,000 people, with tens of thousands more housed in the numerous hotels and apartment blocks that have sprung up around. There is a primary school, university, college, and hospital in the ashram, and innumerable other institutions around India bearing Sai Baba's name.

In India, his devotees include the former prime minister, PV Narasimha Rao, the present Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and an assortment of senior judiciary, academics, scientists and prominent politicians. Unlike other Indian gurus who have travelled in the West, cultivating a following among faith seekers and celebrities, Sai Baba has left India only once, in the '70s, to visit Uganda. His reputation in the West spread largely by word-of-mouth. His devotees tend to be drawn from the educated middle-classes.

It is said that as an instrument of the divine, Sai Baba is omniscient, capable of seeing the past, present and future of everyone; his ''miracles' include materialising various keepsakes for devotees, including watches, rings and pendants, as well as vibhuti or holy ash. Like Christ, he is said to have created food to feed multitudes; to have ''appeared'' to disciples in times of crisis or need. There are countless accounts of healings, and at least two of his having raised people from the dead.

Sai Baba's teachings resemble a synthesis of all the great faiths, with a particular emphasis on Christian charity, enshrined in his most ubiquitous aphorism, ''Love All, Serve All''.
(...)

Inevitably for such a potent figure, Sai Baba has, for years, been the subject of rumbling allegations of fakery, fraud and worse. But he has proved remarkably immune to controversy, the accusations doing little to dent his growing following or the esteem in which he is held. But all that, it appears, is about to change.

In recent months, a storm of allegations have appeared - spurred by a document called The Findings, compiled by an English former devotee named David Bailey - which threaten to shake the very foundations of Sai Baba's holy empire. Sai Baba may represent an ancient tradition of belief, but the instrument of accusation against him is an altogether modern one. Originally published in document form, The Findings quickly found its way on to the Internet, where it has become the catalyst for a raging cyberspace debate about whether Sai Baba is truly divine or, as one disenchanted former devotee describes him, ''a dangerous paedophile''.
(...)

One of the most remarkable facets of this controversy has been the role of the Internet. Even 10 years ago, it is doubtful whether the allegations against Sai Baba would have spread so far and so fast.

Conny Larsson has set up a support group for those claiming abuse by Sai Baba, and says he receives some 20-30 e-mails a day from victims ''crying out for help. You cannot leave these people in the desert''.

In America, the campaign organised by Glen Meloy has concentrated on ''e-bombing'' copies of the allegations to senators, the White House, the FBI and Indian newspapers. The most conspicuous success of the campaign came in September when Unesco withdrew its co-sponsorship and participation from an education conference at Puttaparthi, citing ''deep concern'' over the allegations of sexual abuse.

For all the allegations laid against him over the years, Sai Baba has never been charged with any crime, sexual or otherwise. And his exalted position in India has until now kept him safely insulated from any kind of public inquiry.

Among former devotees, there is a sense of shock, betrayal, anger - a hunger, if not for revenge, then for accountability. ''We know that many victims have been physically molested,'' Glen Meloy told me, ''but in reality all the former devotees have been spiritually raped because we chose to believe that this man was the highest. I certainly considered him to be the God of gods, the creator of all creation, my friend, my everything. The intense desire I have to expose him now is directly proportionate to the amount of devotion I gave him.''
(...)

Whether he is divine, ''a demonic force'', as Glen Meloy describes him, or simply an accomplished fakir and confidence trickster, Sai Baba has said nothing publicly about the allegations. When contacted, K. Chakravarthi, secretary of the Puttaparthi ashram, said, ''We have no time for these matters. I have nothing to say.''
(...)

Some names have been changed.
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29. When this cult took over my husband, it was like losing him to another woman
Daily Express (England), Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.lineone.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Last night, actor Linus Roache (the son of Coronation Street star Bill Roache) hosted a charity premiere party for his latest film Siam Sunset. But the 'charity' set to receive the proceeds of the £50-a-ticket bash is an alleged cult run by self-styled New York guru Andrew Cohen whose movement FACE, or Friends of Andrew Cohen Everywhere, is attracting millions of supporters around the globe. Helen McClellan's much loved ex-husband Mike became involved with Cohen and quickly became barely recognisable as the fun-loving, homely man she married. Helen is now alone with their 14-year-old son Alex. Here, she tells her story exclusively to LYNNE WALLIS
(...)

Helen believes Mike had already changed and that the Swiss trip affirmed everything he'd learned about Cohen and his movement. ''Cult groups typically split people up from families and partners, those they feel won't be susceptible, and my instinct told me it didn't make sense. We were being divided.''
(...)

She explains: ''He sees Alex every couple of weeks, but I worry about it a lot for obvious reasons. Soon, he'll be old enough to work, and that's when I'll really worry. Cults like Andrew Cohen's are basically all about money, and they recruit anyone with a means to earn it and hand it over to them. I don't want that to be Alex.''

After Mike left the family home in 1998, he moved to London where he works as a music teacher. Once a thoughtful, middle-class man with a GP brother who thought nothing of dating a cleaner, he now boasts about how two famous actors - Linus Roache and Jerome Flynn - are part of the same movement as him.

Helen says: ''It makes me so mad! I tell him, they're just two blokes.''

Joseph D'Morais, the managing director of the film company Blue Dolphin which is producing Roache's film Siam Sunset, denies that the movie is funding an alleged cult's mouthpiece by raising money for the magazine which Cohen founded called What Is Enlightenment?

D'Morais claims: ''It is just a small film to benefit a small magazine. It will probably generate £6,000 to £10,000. I don't think that Andrew Cohen is involved in a cult - the only person to have said that is his mother. I have been reading the Enlightenment magazine for the past 10 years, long before they approached me with the idea, and I have no problems with the fellowship. I think the people going to see this film will know exactly where the money is going. The magazine just details information about meditation and philosophy - nothing sinister.''

Among Cohen's critics, who are mainly ex-members and families of members, his mother Luna is his harshest. She wrote a book about him, The Mother of God, in which she writes: ''I loved this boy then he became this creature I no longer recognised as my child...we had a great relationship. Then he met a guru who 'enlightened' him. That was the end of the person that I knew.''

For information on cults, telephone The Cult Information Centre on 0l689 833800 or contact the cult help group FAIR, BCM Box 3535, PO Box l2, London WClN 3XX.
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30. Baha'is gather to celebrate birth of prophet, founder
Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.suntimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Hundreds of followers of the Baha'i religion from across the region are expected to gather in their grand house of worship in Wilmette Saturday evening to mark the Birth of Baha'u'llah, one of the most important celebrations on their religious calendar.

Baha'u'llah, the founder of Baha'i, was born in Persia (now Iran) 183 years ago Sunday.

Saturday's services will be a mix of reflection and celebration with prayers, Scripture readings and song, much like Christmas Eve vigils in the Christian tradition.

Baha'i is a monotheistic religion that worships Allah. Baha'u'llah, who is not worshipped, is its prophet, but the religion teaches that eternal truths have been revealed through many prophets, including Jesus Christ, explained Lorelei McClure, spokeswoman for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States in Evanston.

''We don't demean, denegrate or deny other religions,'' McClure said. ''We believe in oneness: one god that we know by these different names.''
(...)

Baha'i, still considered a heretical religion in the Muslim world, has an estimated 5 million followers worldwide, with about 150,000 in the United States, McClure said.

In the Chicago area, Baha'is number about 1,400.

The Baha'i house of worship in Wilmette is a North Shore architectural touchstone that was built over a span of years from the 1920s to the 1950s. It is the only one in North America. It was built by followers who were introduced to Baha'i at the 1893 Parliament of World Religions at Chicago's Columbian Exposition. The Parliament is credited with introducing several Eastern religions to the West, including Hinduism.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== The Psychic's Friend Around The Corner

31. Man busted for making calls to psychic hotline friend from work
Court TV, Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.courttv.com/people/2000/1110/hotline_ap.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
[...More offbeat news...]
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Presumably, she knows how he feels.

The friend of a psychic hot line employee was sentenced Thursday to a year in custody after admitting that he boosted her income by making 153 calls to her ''900'' number from the bank where he worked as a contractor.

Yarneiser ''John'' Perez was also ordered to repay $164,378.74 to Bankers Trust Co., the amount it was charged for the 546 hours and 30 minutes of calls he made to Teleamigos, in the Dominican Republic.

Perez, 25, was in charge of changing computer data tapes at the bank. Prosecutors said he would make the unauthorized calls and leave the phone off the hook for hours.
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