------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library and preservational electronic archive. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 221ST STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format. Proprietary to the United Press International 1982 November 10, 1982, Wednesday, AM cycle SECTION: Domestic News LENGTH: 279 words DATELINE: GUILDHALL, Vt. KEYWORD: Church BODY: Juan Mattatall won temporary custody of his five children Wednesday from a judge who heard testimony that children in the religious community to which the youngsters' mother belongs were whipped. Superior Court Judge Ernest Gibson III said testimony from former members of Northeast Kingdom Community Church about child abuse in the church community "was a large factor" in his decision. "I was concerned about the best interests of the children and I thought they'd be better off with their father," said Gibson. During a daylong hearing in the Mattatall custody dispute, several former members of the Vermont church community testified children as young as 3 years old were beaten with rods or belts, sometimes until blood ran down their legs. Mattatall, 40, and his wife Cynthia, 26, are each seeking permanent custody, which will not be decided until the resolution of their divorce proceeding -- sometime after April. Mattatall's attorneys argued his children -- aged 1 to 8 years old -- were being reared in an environment where youngsters were routinely disciplined by beatings. The fundamentalist religious sect, which migrated to Island Pond from Chattanooga, Tenn. in 1978, has recently come under the scrutiny of state and law enforcement officials. Vermont social services officials say they are probing various reports of alleged child abuse. State Police, meanwhile, raided an Island Pond delicatessen by the church group and seized financial records. State prosecutors say they are checking allegations of tax fraud, as well as reports that members of the group are unlawfully dispensing prescription drugs. No arrests have been made. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- 222ND STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format. Proprietary to the United Press International 1982 November 10, 1982, Wednesday, AM cycle SECTION: Regional News DISTRIBUTION: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, NewHampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont LENGTH: 416 words DATELINE: GUILDHALL, Vt. KEYWORD: Vt-Church BODY: A Newport father Wednesday was awarded temporary custody of his five children by a judge who heard ex-members of their mother's church group testify that tots as young as 3 in their religious community were whipped until blood dripped down their legs. Superior Court Judge Ernest Gibson III said testimony on the allegations of child abuse by members of the Northeast Kingdom Community Church "was a large factor" in his decision. "I was concerned about the best interests of the children and I thought they'd be better off with their father," said Gibson. Juan Mattatall, 40, and his wife Cynthia, 26, are each seeking permanent custody, which will not be decided until the resolution of their divorce proceeding sometime after April. Mattatall's attorneys argued his children -- aged 1 to 8 years old - were being reared in an environment where youngsters were routinely disciplined by beatings. The fundamental religious sect, which migrated to Island Pond from Chattanooga, Tenn. in 1978, has recently come under the scrutiny of state and law enforcement officials. Vermont social services officials say they are probing various reports of alleged child abuse. State Police, meanwhile, raided an Island Pond delicatessen by the church group and seized financial records. State prosecutors say they are checking allegations of tax fraud, as well as reports that members of the group are unlawfully dispensing prescription drugs. No arrests have been made. During a daylong hearing in the Mattatall custody dispute, several former members of the Vermont church community testified that toddlers were beaten with rods or belts. David Anderson, 24, said he comforted one mother as a church member whipped her 3-year-old son on his legs, chest and arms for about 40 minutes. He said he also saw two other youngsters the same age beaten until blood flowed down their legs. "These children were crying in fear and in horror," said Anderson, a ten-year veteran of the church. He said that he was beaten with a thick paddle while he was a teenager. Mrs. Mattatall's lawyer, Duncan Kilmartin, told Gibson that all the testimony involved the church and did not specifically address the custody issue at hand. "This has become the world versus the religious freedom of my client," Kilmartin said. Gibson said either party in the custody action may request additional hearings before the divorce settlement is reached. Kilmartin could not be reached Wednesday for comment. ------------------------------------------------------------------ PAGE 2 Copyright 1982 Newsweek Newsweek November 29, 1982, UNITED STATES EDITION SECTION: NATIONAL AFFAIRS; Pg. 53 LENGTH: 780 words HEADLINE: The Kingdom at Island Pond BYLINE: MARK STARR with MARSHA ZABARSKY in Island Pond BODY: Folks in the tiny Vermont village of Island Pond (population: 1,542), nestled in rugged mountains near the Canadian border, like to say they live in "God's country." But lately residents have begun to fear that some of their neighbors may be confusing God with Elbert Eugene Spriggs. A Chattanooga carnival barker turned self-proclaimed Christian apostle, Spriggs has established a fundamentalist Christian community -- the Northeast Kingdom Community Church -- in Island Pond and settled 300 devoted followers there. And although the town originally welcomed the Kingdom, a bitter child-custody dispute between an ex-Spriggs follower and his wife -- still a group member -- has unleashed charges of widespread child abuse among members of the Kingdom and triggered a boycott of half a dozen church-owned businesses by some locals. Outwardly, subjects of the Kingdom are a tranquil lot -- quiet young men and modest women with kerchiefs on their heads. The charges against them became public at a hearing in which former church member Juan Mattatall -- excommunicated for questioning the gospel according to Spriggs -- sought custody of his five children, still living with his wife in one of the 13 Victorian homes that serve as communes. Witnesses testified that all the Kingdom's children, from tots to teens, received frequent and lengthy bare-bottom thrashings with wooden rods -- during which they were supposed to smile and thank their elders. The beatings so upset Charles and Tommye Brown, a couple recruited personally by Spriggs in Wyoming, that they quit the Kingdom only a few months after hitchhiking for two weeks to reach it. "I couldn't stand what they were doing to their children," said Tommye. "I couldn't stand listening to them cry." The Kingdom defends its "spare the rod, spoil the child" philosophy as Old Testament discipline that drives out the Devil and renders the youngsters pure of heart. "We're just trying to live a quiet, godly life," says Bill Hinchliffe, a cheerful, young deacon. Local authorities have not been able to confirm child-abuse charges because the Kingdom is virtually a closed society that shuns contact with the outside world. Vermont state trooper Kathy Cunningham has followed the case closely, but says the police cannot do much. "They've taken away all our normal ways to detect child abuse," she says. "There are no teachers to report scars, no doctors to report anything funny." Deaths: There are also no doctors to save lives. Local officials say that the Kingdom's reliance on paramedics and a makeshift health facility may have led to the deaths of three infants, including one whose spinal meningitis was misdiagnosed as an ear infection. Cunningham says one of the dead babies weighed only 13 pounds at eight months but had never been brought to a hospital. Elbert Spriggs could hardly have imagined such problems in 1972 when he founded a shelter for runaways, drug abusers and other alienated youths in Chattanooga. But when he discovered that his troubled flock was unwelcome in a local church, he simply began one of his own -- and it soon became a potent force. "Gene started feeling his oats, and we were working so hard toward the Kingdom of God that we started to feel like a superior people," recalls Cliff Daniels, who joined the church at 17 after a long talking session with Spriggs and later became his right-hand man. Daniels, who quit the church in 1976 before it left Tennessee, charges that Spriggs "is a father in the truest meaning of the word . . . he has manipulated people's emotions, life-style and thoughts, and used the Bible to do this." Yankee Thrift: If Spriggs is manipulating his flock in Island Pond, he is doing it mostly from afar these days. Seldom seen in Vermont, he is reportedly camping with his fourth wife and one of Mattatall's children in Portugal, where followers say he contemplates establishing another Kingdom. Back in Vermont the Kingdom appears to be thriving despite the boycott, thanks in part to two traditional New England virtues: a reluctance to interfere in the affairs of neighbors, and good, old-fashioned Yankee thrift. "They do fine work," says one local, "and they charge a whole lot less than most folks around here." Others believe that in any case, the controversy is overblown. "I think the whole disadvantage for the group is that the Jonestown incident has sort of influenced townsfolk," says Beverly Pepin, a local hairdresser. "The only comparison between Jim Jones and Gene Spriggs is that when Jones started, he felt he was the disciple of Christ too." Says one of the church's members: "We really trust in the Lord to vindicate us." GRAPHIC: Picture 1, Kingdom members: 'Trying to live a quiet, godly life', Elaine Isaacson -- Burlington Free Press; Picture 2, The Browns with trooper Cunningham: 'I couldn't stand listening to them cry', Ira Wyman; Picture 3, Spriggs: Seldom seen, John W. Coniglio -- Chattanooga Times ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- 215TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format. Proprietary to the United Press International 1983 January 6, 1983, Thursday, AM cycle SECTION: Regional News DISTRIBUTION: connecticut, Maine, MassacHUSETTS, new Hampshire, Rhode Island, vermont LENGTH: 309 words DATELINE: MONTPELIER, Vt. KEYWORD: Vt-Nocults BODY: Prompted by a controversial religious sect in Island Pond, a statewide group has been formed to provide support and assistance to people trying to flee cults that use alleged mind control techniques on their members. Spokesman Alan Bouffard of Winooski said this week the organization - dubbed The Individual Freedom Association -- is intended to help would-be defectors of groups such as the fundamentalist Northeast Kingdom Community Church in Island Pond. Bouffard, who Tuesday was elected president of the association, said its activities will not be limited to the Island Pond sect, however. He said he nearly joined the communal religious group in 1979, but turned away "by the grace of God" when church elders refused to answer his questions about discipline of children and church finances. Suzanne Cloutier of Orleans has been named director of the group. Ms. Cloutier last fall began organizing opposition to the Island Pond church after a former member, during the course of a child custody case, charged the sect routinely uses abusive methods to discipline its children. The charges received widespread publicity, and gunshots were fired into a church-owned restaurant last month shortly after an emotional meeting organized by Ms. Cloutier. The church and its roughly 300 Island Pond members, meanwhile, have drawn a curtain of silence around themselves -- quietly operating their businesses, declining interviews and refusing to respond directly to charges by their critics. Other officers of the new organization include Rene Berard of South Burlington, vice president: Dan Lynch of St. Albans, secretary and legal counsel; Sally Boutin of Williston, vice-secretary; and Frank Hammond of Wolchester, [town name uncertain] treasurer. Bouffard said the association will be formally incorporated with the Secretary of State's office later this week. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- 207TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format. Proprietary to the United Press International 1983 March 7, 1983, Monday, BC cycle SECTION: Regional News DISTRIBUTION: New Hampshire LENGTH: 173 words HEADLINE: Church Discipline DATELINE: BARRE, Vt. KEYWORD: Vt-Briefs BODY: A judge has ordered that a woman involved in a bitter custody battle be allowed to have her children visit -- as long as she does not use any instruments "such as rods or other weapons" to discipline them. District Court Judge Frank Mahady also gave Cynthia Mattatell [sic], the mother, and officials of the controversial Island Pond Church to which she belongs, two weeks to locate the fifth Mattatell [sic] child and turn the girl over to her father. Last fall, the Mattatall case focused public attention on the Northeast Kingdom Community Church's practice of using rods and sticks to punish small children. The Mattatell [sic] children had visited their mother once, but their father refused to take let them go back when he learned they had been beaten again. A lawyer for the children's father said he doesn't think the church intends to turn over the missing daughter, who is believed to be in Portugal with the church leader, to her father. He said Mrs. Mattatell [sic] may face contempt of court charges if she does not comply with the order. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Boston Globe, Sunday, April 17, 1983 [A photograph by Elaine Isaacson is displayed, showing a smiling father with four children. The title below the picture says: "Juan Mattatall and his children (from left) Anna, 7, Heather, 5, Sam, 18 months, and Jennifer, 8.] A bold headline says: WHERE IS LYDIA MATTATALL? A smaller headline says: Father battles sect over custody of girl By Colin Nickerson Globe STaff ISLAND POND, Vt. - lt's been a year now since Juan Mattatall last saw his youngest daughter, Lydia, 3 years old. He knows where she is: Europe. And he knows who she's with: Gene Spriggs, self-anointed "apostle" of a Vermont- based fundamentalist Christian sect called the Northeast Kingdom Communi- ty Church, to which Mattatall belonged for eight years. What he does not know is whether he will ever see Lydia again. Or, should he find her, whether she would even recog- nize him. Since last April, when, accord- ing to former members, her mother "gave" her to Spriggs as a faith gesture, the child has been taught to consider Spriggs and his wife Marsha her parents. "She's been stolen from me. She's be- ing taught to call another man 'Papa,'" Mattatall said in an interview last week. A Vermont judge awarded Mattatall custody of his five children after an acri- monious court battle last fall that pitted the 41-year-old native of Chile against not only his wife but the entire membership of the church. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [A picture of a small girl has this title: LYDIA MATTATAL, Taken to Europe a year ago.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mattatall was able to reclaim four of his children -- three girls and a boy ranging in age from 8 years to 15 months -- last October, just before they were to board a plane for Portugal with members of the sect. But Lydia had been taken across the Atlantic months earlier, and the church has ignored a court order to return her. Custody battles are usually ugly, but the one between Mattatall and a church that considers itself the only true expression of Christ on earth has taken on ominous overtones. Shortly after the court ruling, Mattatall's former brothers and sisters in Christ were told to pray for his death. One elder of the sect rose during a "body meeting" of baptized members and described a dream in which Juan's throat was slit and his head lopped off. The elder suggested the gruesome vision must surely represent the will of the Lord, according to a sect member who was present at the meeting. "Yes, I feel my life is in danger," said Mattatall, who spends his days working and his nights trying to track Lydia's passage through Europe. [But] this is my child, the flesh of my flesh. I will not abandon her to them." The child was reportedly spirited out of the country last April by Spriggs, who is revered as a prophet by his followers. Since 1980, he has spent much of his time overseas seeking to establish a European branch of the church. In the last year, the only word of Lydia has come from another little girl allegedly abducted by the sect in 1980 and found by her family with help from the US State Department and the Roman Catholic Church, last month in Spain. That child, Gabrielle Spring Howell, 7, bears scars on her legs and buttocks that her mother, once a member of the church, claims are the result of whippings administered by sect members. "These are sick and dangerous people who would do this io a child in the name of Jesus," the mother, Deborah Heflin, 26, said in a tele- phone interview from her home in Montgomery, Ala. A sect member denied children are abused, saying, "We are raising our children to be righ- teous in the eyes of the Lord." In Vermont since '78 Spriggs and his followers came to Vermont from Tennessee in 1978. Since then, the sect has grown to about 300 members who follow a puritanical way of life, shunning contact with outside society, except to preach the gospel, or "good news" of Christ. In recent months, however, only bad news has trickled out of the insular kingdom of Gene Spriggs. Former members tell of child abuse and the use of mind control techniques and of the harsh disciplining of adults as well as children. A believer accused of making advances to a teenage girl, for instance, was told he must sac- rifice his hand to atone. "The brother had his arm laid out on the table and [an elder] had the hatchet raised, all set to whack," but relented, said a former follower who claimed to have wit- nessed the incident. "The really disturbing thing is, the [accused] brother was going to let them do it. He didn't once protest." Just as troublesome are accounts of severe physical punishment meted out to children, in- cluding infants, for even minor infractions, such as wriggling at the supper table or talking during prayers. Former members insist that the beatings go far beyond normal spankings, re- calling instances when children were scourged for hours with wooden rods. "Children are whipped harshly, bloodily and often," said Arthur Fritog, a soft-spoken plumb- er's apprentice who quit the sect in disgust when instructed to pray for Mattatall's death. "I'd seen enough death in Vietnam," said Fritog. "I didn't want to do Satan's work in Christ's name." Frittog said he was also deeply disturbed that members of the communal sect were encour- aged to discipline each others' children. "The idea, I think, is to break down the family and make everyone subservient to Spriggs and the elders." Accused of "rebelliousness" Mattatall left the church last year after the elders accused him of "rebelliousness" and sent him to the sect's house in Boston as punishment. He was told he could not live with his wife and children in Vermont until he became more obedient. His wife, Cynthia, who now calls herself Hannah Newsong -- continues to live with the sect and regards Juan as possessed by Satan. Mattatall is caring for his other children. Despite a court order awarding Mattatall custody, the religious group refused to return Lydia just as it has refused to return other children to parents who depart the sect. And so Lydia remains in Europe, bouncing from country to country with Spriggs. He and a band of 26 German and American followers known as the "Little Flock" are on a proselytizing mission in Europe. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [A picture shows a woman giving a girl a gift. The caption reads: Deborah Heflin gives her daughter, Spring, a gift after being reunited with her following a three-year separation. AP Photo] AP PHOTO ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The chlld's mother, Cynthia/Hannah, re- cently told a Judge she did not know Lydia's ex- act whereabouts and would not ask the church elders to reveal it. Mattatall's lawyer earlier this month filed a motion seeking a contempt cita- tion against Mrs. Mattatall. A ruling is expected this week. i For another desperate parent, Deborah Hef- lin, three years of uncertainty ended last , month when Spanish and US authorities de-, scended on a tiny village in Granada province and seized her 7-year old daughter, Gabrielle, from the Little Flock. Heflin said her estranged husband, James Frank Howell, and members of the sect took the girl from her grandmother's home in Alabama three years ago. Gabrielle was taken to Island Pond and from there to Europe -- her passport shows she was in Portugal, Denmark, West Ger- many and France. "They were living In a filthy abandoned schoolhouse," said Heflin, who joined the sect while a student in Tennessee. "Her job was to mind Lydia, cook, milk the goats and gather nuts." Gabrielle's rescuers were too late to find Lydia: Spriggs had al- ready departed with the younger child. Heflin said she had called her husband, who remains with the church in lsland Pond, to demand an explanation for Gabrielle's scars. "All he said was, Deborah, why can't you look through the scars on her body and see what God has done for her soul?" (Randolph Ryan of The Globe staff also contributed to this report.) -------------------------------------------------------------------