State Police this morning arrested cult leader Wayne C. Bent, 67, and charged him with three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and are now interviewing Bent in Clayton, state Department of Public Safety spokesman Peter Olson told the Journal's Thomas J. Cole.

Bent, who is being held at the Union County Detention Center in Clayton, is also charged with three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Clayton Police Sgt. Bobbie Long told The Associated Press. 

Cole broke the story last week that New Mexico child welfare workers removed several children from a northeastern New Mexico doomsday cult run by Bent, who was known to his followers as Michael Travesser, for alleged inappropriate contact.

Bent, who last Oct. 31 predicted the end of the world, says he is the second coming of Jesus, according to Cole's earlier story.

He has acknowledged having sex with followers and being with "virgins that laid upon my bed, naked," but denied having sex with the young girls, the Journal has reported.

Bent and some 50 followers in The Lord Our Righteousness Church relocated from Arizona in 2000 to rural Union County to establish a community called Strong City, or Travesser, Cole reported.

Strong City is the subject of a National Geographic Channel documentary titled "Inside a Cult World" that will be broadcast Wednesday at 8 p.m. local time on Comcast Channel 52.

The documentary shows two young females who tell of lying naked with Bent but whose ages were not disclosed, the Journal reported.

Here is a list of Journal stories dealing with the Strong City cult. 

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