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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Naked Girls for 'Healing'

By Bruce Daniels
Journal Staff Writer
       The defense attorney for northeastern New Mexico cult leader Wayne Bent told a state district judge at Bent's arraignment in Raton that the practice of lying with naked children is a "religious healing practice" and has nothing to do with sex.
    The Raton Range also reported that Bent's attorney, Sarah Montoya of Raton, on Friday asked state District Judge Gerald Baca to throw out the grand jury indictment charging the 67-year-old Bent with two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
    Baca, a Las Vegas, N.M., judge who is presiding over the case after state District judges John Paternoster and Sam Sanchez were excused, said he will hear Montoya's motion at a later date, according to the Range.
    Baca also told the prosecution and defense that the case will go to trial in December and will be tried in Clayton, unless the case is moved from Union County, where Bent and his followers live in a compound about 30 miles northeast of Des Moines near the Colorado state line.
    Bent, who is known to his followers in The Lord Our Righteousness Church as Michael Travesser, was arrested May 6 after State Police and social workers removed three teenagers from the compound known as Strong City.
    According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Bent allegedly inappropriately touched girls when they "lay naked" with him on three occasions — on July 31, 2006; Aug. 2, 2006; and April 13, 2007, when the girls were 16, 17 and 12 years old at the time.
    Bent has allegedly admitted on the group's Web site that he lay with girls on the July 13 and Aug. 2 dates while each was naked and where he put "my hand on their heart," the Range reported.
    Montoya told the judge on Friday that Bent's actions with the girls had only religious purposes and that she believes one of the alleged victims will testify there was "no sexual touching" during the incidents, according to the Range.
    Montoya also argued that Bent's religious freedom should not be compromised by charging him with crimes.
    Bent himself has denied any criminal action, claiming the girls came to him without his prompting them and that each of the girls claimed to be directed by God to lie naked with him, according to the Range.
    The paper reported that Bent also has written on the group's Web site before it was recently taken down that "this was not about sex, but about healing."
    Bent remains free on an unsecured $150,000 bond.