More arrested in cult case

Baton Rouge Advocate ^ | 05/21/05 | Steven Ward

[Graybeard58]

Tangipahoa sheriff alleges devil worship in child rape, animal sex case

Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards said Friday that members of a Ponchatoula church cult accused of sexually abusing children and animals told detectives they carried out the practices for years as part of a devil-worshipping ritual involving cat blood.

"This is hard to talk about and harder to believe, but some of the suspects have told us their intention in all of this was devil worshipping," Edwards said.

Investigators arrested four more people on Thursday who are allegedly implicated in the child and animal sex ring, one of them a woman who is married to the already arrested minister of the church.

Thursday's four arrests brought to eight the number of people arrested so far after a six-week investigation into a Hosanna Church splinter group.

Edwards said earlier in the week that the people involved in the cult reportedly had sex with children and animals from 1999 until the church disbanded in 2003.

The investigation by the Livingston and Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's offices, the FBI and the Ponchatoula Police Department is continuing, he said.

Edwards said Friday there might be as many as 25 possible victims, and that he knows of at least one more suspect in the case to be arrested and booked with aggravated rape. He identified her only as a woman who is living out of state.

Edwards said the victims in the case range from toddlers to teenagers and some of the victims are dogs and cats.

"We know of one dog. That was a pet and the dog is dead now," Edwards said. The sheriff said one of the suspects had sex with that dog, and that blood from a cat was used in the cult's rituals. The dog and cat victims apparently were pets belonging to members of the church's congregation, he added.

The sheriff said that there may be more arrests ahead.

"We feel like we have the core group, but I can't say there won't be more arrests," Edwards said.

The Tangipahoa Sheriff's Office, Edwards said, has been receiving calls every hour from people who either know the suspects involved or who knew that something strange was going on.

"It's mind-boggling to us that nobody came forward before this," Edwards said, "that it wasn't somehow common knowledge in Ponchatoula."

Robbin D. Lamonica, 45, 25735 Oak Alley Drive, Holden, was booked Thursday night on one count of aggravated rape.

The male victim in the case told Livingston Parish deputies that he had been having sex with Robbin Lamonica from the time he was 4 years of age until he was 13, Livingston Parish Sheriff's Detective Stan Carpenter said Friday.

Robbin Lamonica's husband, Louis Lamonica, 45, was arrested Monday and booked with aggravated rape and one count of crimes against nature. Louis Lamonica, the former minister of the Hosanna Church, confessed to Livingston Parish deputies that he had sex with children and animals, investigators said. Louis Lamonica is the first of the eight to be arrested.

Also arrested Thursday is Nicole Bernard, 36 of Columbus, Ohio. FBI agents arrested Nicole Bernard in Ohio on a warrant from the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office, spokeswoman Laura Covington of the Tangipahoa Sheriff's Office said Friday.

Nicole Bernard was booked with aggravated rape of a juvenile under the age of 13, Covington said.

Nicole Bernard is the former wife of another suspect, Austin Bernard III, 36, Southwest Railroad Avenue, Hammond. Austin Bernard III was arrested Wednesday and booked with aggravated rape after he confessed to having sex with a child under 13, Covington said.

Paul Fontenot, 21, 550 West Pine St., Apt. 29, was arrested Thursday and booked by Tangipahoa deputies with aggravated rape of a juvenile under the age of 13.

Covington said that Fontenot confessed to deputies that he had sex with a juvenile and admitted to having knowledge of the incidents at Hosanna Church.

Lois Ann Mowbray, 54, 39133 Keaghey Road, Ponchatoula, is the fourth suspect arrested Thursday.

Tangipahoa deputies booked Mowbray with obstruction of justice, failure to report a felony and accessory after the fact to aggravated rape, Covington said.

Investigators searched Mowbray's home Thursday night, seizing photo albums, computers and other items, Covington said.

Two earlier arrests in the unfolding investigation are those of Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Deputy Christopher Blair Lebat, 24, Lumino Lane, Hammond. Lebat was booked with aggravated rape and malfeasance in office. The Sheriff's Office fired Labat on Tuesday, the same day he was arrested in the cult investigation.

Tangipahoa deputies booked Allen R. Pierson, 46, 2575 Southwest Railroad Avenue, Hammond, on Wednesday night with one count of aggravated rape. Pierson is accused of raping a girl under the age of 11, the Sheriff's Office said.

[weegee]

Presbyterian Church USA (and they are not the only ones)

http://www.pcusa.org/101/101-abortion.htm

[weegee]

Bill Clinton was researching racial bigotry as a cause behind church fires. There was no racial motivation in the 1990s. Some may have been antiChristian bigotry. Others were insurance claims.

The FBI determined that there was no systematic harassment.

[horsebraker]

No racial motivation? you are not from the south are you? around here Motivation is not needed.

as for this case, I think the "satanic ritual" is a cop-out for being sick ass bastages. Thinking "the devil made me do it" plea will keep them from the death penalty. Frankly if the men end up in Angola, which is where they will go, they will wish they had gotten the death penalty. If they survive the first few days.

[darkangel82]

I'd gladly spend the next 20 years of my life in a lonely prison cell picking out of my teeth the pieces of bone and flesh of the person I killed with my bare hands claws after learning the person wrongly touched my Sons.

I don't think any jury would convict you.

[conservonator]

If only satanist ministers were allowed to marry... Oh wait.

[weegee]

Firestorm -- A Review of the 1996 Church Fire Scare

"During the summer of 1996, Americans were deluged with thousands of newspaper, magazine and television reports that racists were torching black churches* throughout the South. This article traces the origins and events of what appears to have been a remarkably effective campaign of disinformation."

[Muleteam1]

>>How do you know that these groups are real and that they burned churches? <<

I apologize for my late reply but I have been away for the past week. I have to be discrete here, but my information comes directly to me from a Federal investigator whose duties included these investigations. As far as knowing that these groups are real, one would have to be very naive to think they are not since most of us have had direct encounters with members.

Muleteam1

[wideminded]

my information comes directly to me from a Federal investigator whose duties included these investigations.

In searching online I did find that a self-identified "Luciferian" named Jay Scott Ballinger, and some associates, were arrested and sentenced in connection with church burnings. I did not find any mention of other convictions of satanists or satanic groups for church burnings in the US.

As far as knowing that these groups are real, one would have to be very naive to think they are not since most of us have had direct encounters with members.

I have never had any contact with anyone I knew to be a Satanist. If you have, how did you know that is what they were?

[Muleteam1]

>>I did not find any mention of other convictions of satanists or satanic groups for church burnings in the US.<<

The fact that these investigations are still ongoing may have produced some effect in your internet search. However, it is more likely that a Federal conviction, or even an indictment, would not mention that the arsonist was a Satanist. To the logical minded, it might lend some credence to a motive for burning a Christian church but as an investigator I would be inclined to pursue a safer line of prosecution. Religious belief is the sort of information journalists dig up and report. They may not have been privy to these facts or they simply felt it did not warrant reporting.

>>I have never had any contact with anyone I knew to be a Satanist. If you have, how did you know that is what they were?<<

Possibly my life has not been as sheltered as your own, but I have personally met several admitted Satanists in my life. Some were quite serious about their foolishness and some were obviously just being rebellious. In truth, Christians have as much to fear of chastisement in modern-day American society as Satanists. Meeting either in public is not an odd event. The lack of having met admitted Satanists in one's life should not overshadow the fact that, if Christians, Muslims, Budhists, and other religions are real in America, logic dictates that Satanists also exists.

I once had a friend who didn't bother to look to his right as he entered an intersection. The fact that he did not see the car fast approaching from his right did nothing to eliminate its existence nor did it soften the fatal blow.

Muleteam1