Strong City

On Thursday, October 15th, the New Mexico Attorney General’s office published this press release announcing the State’s response to our petition for my father’s bond pending his appeal.

In August the New Mexico Court of Appeals virtually ignored our extensive and well documented motion requesting a bond for my father, Wayne Bent. The appeals court denied the motion without comment, and without requiring a response from the State. Soon afterward we filed a petition with the New Mexico Supreme Court, which ordered the State a couple of weeks ago to file a written response to our petition. Hence the fanfare and press release by the NM AG’s office, which would have never occurred without the Supreme Court ordering them to do their job and respond.

The State of New Mexico maintains its absurd and ridiculous charade of justice, pretending still that my father, Wayne Bent, is a child molester. We will fight them with the truth on every level until their vain fantasies are exposed for what they are.

Now it appears the NM Supreme Court is going to give our petition a thorough review. Will they follow the law, or will they hew toward political expediency and self-interest? We will wait and see what the outcome will be.

We have had a couple of contacts from members of the media over the past few days, asking for our response to the AG’s press release. I received a copy of the following answer from John McCall, my father’s attorney, in a reply he sent to a reporter this evening. I feel it addresses all of the issues concerning our petition for my father’s bond in an excellent manner, and that it should be made available to anyone else who would like to read or quote from it.

Hi _____,

Yes, we do have response. Mr. Bent’s defense filed a 35 page Brief (in the Court of Appeals) with 185 pages of exhibits, including 15 affidavits from individuals around the country who know Mr. Bent to be a person of impeccable integrity worthy of a bond pending resolution of his appeal. In addition to this, we note that Mr. Bent was a Seventh Day Adventist Pastor since the early 1970s, he is 68 years old now and he has basically never broken the law in his life or spent a day in jail until now.

Given that sex offenders either show signs of being a sex offender over time or, if they are older science shows they almost always have dementia or brain degeneration associated with late in life molesting, it is clear that Mr. Bent does not come close to fitting the profile of a molester in any way and there was a major misinterpretation of what happened at Strong City in this case. Mr. Bent’s case is clearly about the controversial religious aspect of the healing ritual he performed with two members of his church who were 14 and 15 respectively. This information is in the record and will be presented on appeal and should give pause for us to reconsider what price was paid for freedom of religious practice in this country and how hysterical we have become with regard to issues dealing with children.

The trial judge stated in this case, during discussions with Defense counsel and the prosecutor during closing argument “there was no touching of the breast” as the law would seek to prohibit. Given this fact and the fact that the Defense was not allowed to give a jury instruction that would allow a not guilty for a religious touching of the heart, there are many significant issues in this case which has completely maligned and misjudged the Lord Our Righteousness Church and its members, including Mr. Bent.

This case was taken to trial quickly, in a rush to judgment. The experts did not know the nature of the members of the Church and how independent their thinking is, how deeply spiritual their meditations are, and how purely removed, like a monastery, they are from our decadent society. (Only two church members were allowed to testify in Mr. Bent’s defense). Now that the truth is starting to actually come out, and the record is examined, it is clear that each of the two young women in this matter went to Mr. Bent because they believed this was a spiritual event and he believed it as well. They chose of their own volition to do what they did. His case challenges the decadence of our society and challenges each of us to determine whether we are willing to admit that God can be contacted on the inside by each person, young or old, Baptist or Methodist, conformist or non-conformist.

Given the record on Appeal and the fact that Mr. Bent was free (without incident) on a $150,000 unsecured bond after the jury found him guilty and until he was sentenced, it is clear that there are reasons to review his Appeal Bond and to really examine who this man is and how this ever could have happened in a modern society rooted in the First Amendment tradition. Therefore, Mr. Bent’s case moves forward, undoing the injustices of the last two years going back to the days when the Texas Department of Children Youth and Families raided the FLDS compound and just a few days later the New Mexico Department of Children Youth and Families went into Strong City. Those injustices mainly center around how anyone like Mr. Bent could ever be thrown in with the likes of child molesters and serious criminals (seen in the news often these days) when his life has been all about respect for others and religious freedom and autonomy.

John McCall
Attorney at Law

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