Category: Michael Travesser

The New Mexico Court of Appeals on Tuesday tossed out the convictions of a religious group’s leader who had been found guilty of sexual misconduct with teenage followers.

The court ruled a grand jury’s term had expired months before it returned an indictment against Wayne Bent and that a district judge didn’t have the power to extend its term.

Nearly two years after the arrest of self proclaimed messiah Wayne Bent, a New Mexico TV news station became the first media allowed inside his cult’s compound.

If you spend a day walking around the remote property of the Lord Our Righteousness Church you wouldn’t believe you were amongst what State Police call an apocalyptic cult.

New Mexico attorney General Gary King’s office is opposing cult leader Wayne Bent‘s petition to the state Supreme Court for bond while awaiting appeal.

Bent’s previous filings on district and state levels were both denied. Assistant Attorney General Margaret McLean asks the Supreme Court to uphold the previous courts’ rulings.

She cites no “clear and convincing” evidence that Bent, Strong City leader, won’t flee or pose danger to another person or community. She also says a reversal or order for a new trial is unlikely and argues there are no grounds to revisit granting an appeal bond.

Imprisoned cult leader Wayne Bent, who is on a hunger strike, won’t be getting home-cooked meals from his followers and instead may be force fed through a tube, a District Court judge decided Wednesday.

A doctor testified that if the fast continues, Bent’s vital organs will shut down and he would die in a matter of days.

Convicted church leader Wayne Bent has said he no longer wants to eat, and the self-proclaimed messiah could die in prison if he carries out his plan.

In an online statement posted on his church’s Web site, Bent outlined his plan to starve himself.

A New Mexico cult member who was taken from the cult‘s compound near Clayton more than two ago after a hunger strike is back at the compound.

The 25-year-old woman, known as Esther, stopped eating in protest of the 10-year prison sentence given to the cult leader, Wayne Bent.

A member of a northeastern New Mexico religious sect has been removed from the sect’s compound near Clayton by sheriff’s deputies so they can convince her to eat.

The woman has been starving herself since the day cult leader Wayne Bent entered prison on a 10-years sentence.

According to an entry on the Strong City Web site of The Lord Our Righteousness Church, a woman named Esther was taken by Union County deputies late Wednesday night, a day after they had checked on her condition at the sect’s compound.