Not sure if these people are afiliated with it but...
By Lisa Sweetingham
Court TV
MILWAUKEE ? A jury found minister Ray Hemphill guilty of felony child abuse Friday after he suffocated an 8-year-old child during an exorcism at his strip mall-based church.
Hemphill stared wide-eyed at County Circuit Judge Jean DiMotto as she read the verdict, but he did not speak or betray emotion. DiMotto set bail at $10,000, and Hemphill was handcuffed and led from the courtroom.
"It's minor justice to me," the boy's father, Terrance Cottrell Sr., told reporters.
Hemphill, 47, faces up to five years in prison for his role in the death of Terrance Cottrell Jr., an autistic boy who died last summer during an intense "spiritual healing" ritual at the Faith Temple of the Apostolic Faith Church.
Prosecutors argued Hemphill, who has no formal theological training, knowingly put Terrance at risk when he lay chest-to-chest across him for two hours in an 80-degree room, praying and singing, while the boy struggled to break free.
It was the 12th in a series of exorcisms he had performed on the autistic boy in a three-week period, and his defense argued that prescription drugs the boy was taking, not the prayer service, caused his death.
"The state did a good job, but they could have charged higher," Terrance's father said, referring to the fact that the district attorney, Michael McCann, did not press for more than felony physical child abuse. McCann has said he did not believe his team could prove the minister realized his actions would result in the boy's death.
Terrance's mother, Patricia Cooper, and two other parishioners helped to restrain the child during the exorcism on the night of Aug. 22, 2003. They were allowed not to testify during the trial after successfully pleading the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination.
Cooper did not return to the church after her son's death, and she sat on the opposite side of the gallery from the two female parishioners, Monica Tarver and Tamara Tolefree, who joined the defendant's family behind the defense table.
McCann has not decided whether he will charge the three women for their role in Terrance's death.
The jury of six men and six women reached a verdict after about four hours of deliberations.
When the verdict was read, the victim's cousin, Pelar Joy, thrust her fists in the air triumphantly.
Cooper held her hands to her face, and later cried in the bathroom as a dozen of the victim's aunts, cousins and nieces gathered around to comfort her.
"[Five] years is not enough for a life," said Cottrell Sr., who told Courttv.com he was looking for someone to write a book about his and Terrance's story. According to Joy and other Cooper-family members, Cottrell was not present in his son's life.
Hemphill's family declined to discuss the verdict. "On behalf of my client and his church," public defender Thomas Harris said, "we want to extend our condolences to Terrance Cottrell's family. We're disappointed with the jury's verdict and we have no further comment."
Sentencing was set for Aug. 18. The official maximum sentence Hemphill may receive is five years in prison with five years' probation. If he violates terms of the probation, however, the sentence could reach 10 years.
link at:
http://courttv.com/trials/exorcist/0709 ... t_ctv.html