March 22, 2009
Press Statement by Law Works LLC
The Law Offices of John McCall, Attorney at Law
823 Gold Avenue SW Albuquerque, NM 87102
505-256-1998 Fax: 505-255-7266
March 20, 2009
RE: WAYNE BENT/MICHAEL TRAVESSER APPEAL AND THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS CHURCH
Law Works LLC has been retained to represent Wayne Bent in his appeal of conviction for one count of Criminal Sexual Contact and two counts of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. Our analysis of this case has determined that the evidence used to convict Mr. Bent can be questioned from several legal perspectives.
First off, the evidence appears insufficient because Mr. Bent never touched what is legally determined as the “breast” of the young woman he is accused of. The testimony in Court all indicates he placed his hand on her sternum in a healing manner. How this turned into a conviction is in the realm of mystery. How his actions were interpreted (by anyone) as lascivious or as contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a mystery. Mr. Bent’s actions were of healing and creating SAFE SPACE for the two young women who came to him so they had the opportunity to enter safe space without judgment and overcome prior judgments and negative experiences. It is clear this former Seventh Day Adventist who follows a high level moral code, dresses modestly, practices the Sabbath, practices vegetarianism to avoid harm and maintain purity and who has his own well developed interpretation of history and the scriptures is a person worthy of deep and persistent analysis because his lifestyle is consistent and devoted to God.
Our office has determined that this case is more of a trial of the media and the structures in our society that are tasked with determining the truth. A deeper and less than superficial review of the community and Mr. Bent demonstrates that there are discussions and divisions over the level of divinity a man can achieve. However, these discussions have not resulted in abuse, in one shred of evidence that anyone’s free will has ever been overridden, or in any evidence that the religious, Messianic and Apocolyptic beliefs of the community are not sincere, related to their experience and powerful in guiding the personal and individual development of each spiritual acolyte in the Lord Our Righteousness Church. These concepts are protected with the utmost vigor under the First Amendment and the blood shed to preserve the concept of religious freedom in America.
John McCall, the attorney who represents Mr. Bent also known as Michael Travesser, is a graduate of Virginia Tech Polytechnic Institute and State University (with a Bachelors degree in Education), the Institute for Social Ecology at Goddard College (with a Masters degree in Cultural Anthropology) and of UNM Law School. His masters studies in Anthropology include alternative spiritual communities in New Mexico inclusive of the Christ Family, Project Tibet New Mexico and the Hanuman Temple in Taos, New Mexico. Mr. McCall has also represented Libbie Palmer a Curandera Sovradora in the New Mexico Tradition who used Hemp salve to heal arthritis pursuant to 150 year old traditions in her Catholic Land Grant Family from the Carnuel and San Antonio areas of the East Mountains near Albuquerque and he was also one of the co-founders of the Association for Public Interest Law in New Mexico with Ralph Nader and Peter Cubra.
