Jehovah's Witnesses Criminal Cases Page 5 of 7

OREGON v. SUNG KOO KIM, OREGON v. SUNG K. KIM, OREGON v. SUNG KIM, and OREGON v. KIM was a series of 2004-6 Oregon criminal court cases. The Sung Koo Kim Saga received tons of media coverage from the time it first made the news in mid-2004, when the 30 year-old was first arrested, until mid-2006, after Sung Koo Kim had pleaded "guilty" to the second set of charges relating to the thefts of 1000s of pairs of used women's undergarments, and other items described below, from the laundry rooms of apartment buildings and college dormitories, and was eventually sentenced to a total of more than 11 years in prison. The cases are somewhat confusing to follow given that Kim faced and/or still faces property theft charges, and even child porn charges, in four different Oregon counties.

Unfortunately, only a small percentage of those media reports ever focused on what caused Sung Koo Kim to do what he did. Atthe first sentencing hearing, in November 2005, Kim read a lengthy statement in which h apologized for the fear that he had "unintentionally" instilled in his many victims, and the ill repute that he had brought on his parents and younger sister. Kim claimed that he never stalked anyone, nor had he ever posed a threat to the community. He stated that he simply had developed a fetish for women's undergarments. Kim blamed his mental illness on the isolation he experienced while growing up as a member of the strict, insular Jehovah's Witness community:

While some would argue that thousands of JW Children have experience the same issues as did Sung Koo Kim, and did not turn out as did Kim, others would acknowledge that no two children have the same genetics, nor experience the exact same formative environment, and thus do not turn out the same.

In fact, Kim's parents reportedly eventually acknowledged the damage which had been done to their son, and they eventually left the WatchTower religion. Joo Kim, Dong Kim, and their two young children immigrated from Korea to Los Angeles in the late 1970s. There, they eventually joined the small community of Koreans who were members of the Jehovah's Witnesses. At some point, there in LA, or after the family had relocated to Beaverton, Oregon, Joo Kim even was appointed a "Congregation Elder", which required the parents to place even more pressure on their children. When Sung Koo Kim entered his high school years, the "honors student" complained to his parents that he felt like he was being "chained". Sung Koo experienced teasing and bullying due to both his race and his religion. He couldn't celebrate holidays. He couldn't play sports. He couldn't attend dances and other social events. He couldn't date girls. He had no friends. He had no social life.

Having developed no social skills, Sung Koo Kim's college experience was no better. Kim first earned an Associate's degree in computers from Portland Community College, and thereafter worked one year at Intel. Kim then enrolled at Washington State University, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in genetics and cellular biology, in 2001. However, Kim never was employed after graduating. Kim moved back in with his parents, and began to live a life about which still may not all be known.

Among Kim's personal effects, investigators reportedly found seven or more assault rifles and handguns. Police also seized three computers containing 40,000 images of women being mutilated, raped and dismembered. Police also found more than two dozen suitcases, backpacks, cardboard boxes and plastic bags, which contained 3400 pairs of women's used panties and bras -- clean and dirty. Police also found used toilet paper and feminine hygiene products. They also found packaged dryer lint, and even human hair. Many of the items were marked as to when/where obtained. Police also found one secretly made video of two female college students marked with intimate personal identity info. Needless to say, police suspected Kim of being guilty of much more than "property theft", but evidently have not been able to tie Kim to more than these prosecutions. Time will tell.

CALIFORNIA v. ANGEL AGUERO was a 2004 California criminal case. In February 2004, a Jehovah's Witness, named Angel Aguero, 31, was stopped by a Gilroy, California police officer during the noon hour for a routine traffic violation. Aguero exited his 1988 Cadillac with a long metal pipe in his hand, and advanced toward the officer, who pulled his pistol, and ordered Aguero to stop, and for Aguero to drop the pipe, several times, but Aguero continued his approach. A male passenger exited the Cadillac, and unsuccessfully tried to convince Aguero to drop the pipe. That passenger eventually ran from the scene.

That police officer radioed for back-up, and several other officers responded. Aguero also refused their orders for him to drop the pipe, and even told them, "You're going to have to shoot me," and "You're going to have to kill me." An officer fired a rubber baton round at Aguero hitting him on the front of his body, but he still held onto the pipe. They then pepper-sprayed him, and shot him with a second rubber round, and pepper-sprayed him again, at which point Aguero dropped the pipe and was placed under arrest.

Both police and bystanders related that Angel Aguero had declared that he was a Jehovah's Witness, and that he was"preaching" and "calling to Jehovah" throughout the standoff.

MISSOURI v. AIMEE SATTERFIELD was a 2003-5 Missouri criminal court decision. At exactly 7:00 PM, on Sunday, June 29, 2003, a 22 year-old Jehovah's Witness "Pioneer" (full-time door-knocker), named Aimee Satterfield, of Elkland, Missouri, telephoned 9-1-1 and reported that she had been beaten, slashed, and raped at knife-point in her auto after she had stopped alongside a busy highway to fix a flat tire. As soon as the supposed perpetrator left, Satterfield first telephoned her mother, Connie Satterfield, from her cell phone, and thereafter telephoned 9-1-1. A Sheriff's Deputy responded. Satterfield was found bruised, with her clothes cut and torn, and with superficial knife slashes to her chest and breasts. A rape exam at a Mount Vernon, Missouri area hospital disclosed that Satterfield had recently had sexual intercourse.

Local authorities were shocked that such an attack could have occurred in broad daylight alongside a well-traveled highway near an interstate exchange. Roadblocks were set up around the area during the following two weekends, including the Fourth of July, looking for the described suspect and for his described pickup truck, and questioning locals who lived in the area, or who had been driving in the area at the time of the attack. Over 2000 law enforcement man-hours were expended on this case, rather than on other pending matters. Fear of the uncaught perpetrator swept females throughout the locale.

However, the more investigating that was done, the more that Satterfield's story did not make sense. Although there were other inconsistencies with Satterfield's story, one major issue was that a security video showed Satterfield leaving a truck stop store, where she had purchased a drink, at 6:53 PM, which was 2.5 to 4 minutes away from the scene of the alleged rape. There simply had not been enough time for Satterfield to have gotten in her station wagon, have driven to the scene, have stopped, have gotten out her spare tire, have been assaulted by a man offering to help change her tire, have telephoned Connie Satterfield, and then telephoned 9-1-1 -- all in seven minutes. After weeks of investigation, and agonizing with the idea of having to charge a supposed rape victim with lying about such, on September 24, 2003, the Sheriff finally charged Satterfield with filing a false report.

Warren Satterfield and Connie Satterfield were outraged, and stated that their daughter had been betrayed, and effectively assaulted a second time -- this time by the Sheriff. Aimee Satterfield denied that she had lied. Satterfield stated that she had been a"virgin' until the rape; that pre-marital sex was forbidden to Jehovah's Witnesses (a disfellowshipping offense); and she even denied having a boyfriend at the time. Satterfield told a reporter:

In July 2005, the case against Satterfield went to "trial on the record" -- during which the prosecutor read into the court record what his witnesses would have testified. Satterfield's attorneys did not present a defense. According to her attorneys, Satterfield had married and wanted to move on with her new life. Satterfield's attorneys also mentioned that Satterfield, who reportedly suffered from fibromyalgia, depression, and two suicide attempts, had been receiving "counseling". Satterfield was found "guilty", and sentenced to 6 months in jail. However, the judge suspended the sentence, placed Satterfield on 2 years of unsupervised probation. Additionally, Satterfield was ordered to pay restitution to the Sheriff's office of $7500.00.

COLORADO v. NATHAN GOAD, COLORADO v. RICHARD KEMP, and COLORADO v. LEVI BONES were related 2004-5 Colorado criminal court cases. On December 13, 2004, three "overage juvenile" Jehovah's Witnesses, named Levi Bones, 23, Richard Kemp, 26, and Nathan Goad, 29, vandalized a 9 foot tall Menorah, which had been erected in Aspen's Paepcke Park as part of the local Jewish community's celebration of Hanukkah. Per Jewish tradition, the lights on the Menorah are lit individually during each of the eight days of Hanukkah. The ignorant Jehovah's Witness "juveniles" stated that they thought that the Menorah was a "broken Christmas ornament", because not all of its lights were lit, as if they would have had the right to destroy such. Arresting police officers stated that some of the JW trio had been drinking. Goad and Kemp pleaded "guilty", and were fined and placed on two years probation, plus ordered to pay for the damages. Bones initially declined to plead guilty. Outcome of his case is unknown.

PHILIPPINES v. RAFAEL DIOPITA GUZMAN was the 1995-2000 Philipines RAPE prosecution and conviction court case of a Jehovah's Witness MINISTERIAL SERVANT, who was sentenced to LIFE IN PRISON. That conviction and sentence was reviewed by the Philippines Supreme Court and affirmed.

Shortly after sundown, on Friday evening, April 14, 1995, Jehovah's Witnesses around the world -- including those living in the Philippines -- gathered for one hour to celebrate the only "holiday" celebrated by the WatchTower Cult, their annual LORD'S EVENING MEAL. This WatchTower Cult "holiday" is typically always celebrated within a few days of EASTER, which Jehovah's Witnesses condemn as a "pagan".

Two nights later, at around 9:00 P.M., on EASTER Sunday night, April 16, 1995, while walking home from work, a 24 year-old woman named Dominga Pikit-pikit was physically attacked, robbed, and then raped. After the attack, the woman went straight home, where her neighbors called the police. The victim was taken to the police station, where she gave her statement. The victim was taken to the hospital, where intercourse was confirmed. A single shoe was recovered from the crime scene within 8 hours of the attack, and it was eventually found to fit the accused. Police quickly detained 4 suspects from homes near the crime scene, and around 6:00 A.M., the next morning, the victim readily picked from a police lineup the Jehovah's Witness MINISTERIAL SERVANT as her attacker, given that the rape had been committed outside in the light of a FULL MOON.

At the trial, the Jehovah's Witness MINISTERIAL SERVANT produced FIVE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES as "alibi witnesses" -- his wife and son, as well as 3 adult male Jehovah's Witnesses. This "coven" of five JWs all testified that they had gathered at a private home near the crime scene on that EASTER Sunday evening to conduct a "Bible Study" -- conveniently from 8:30 P.M. until midnight. The FIVE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES testified that the accused never left the home during those hours. Both the trial and appellate courts completely dismissed the false testimony of this "coven" of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Here is an excerpt from that Decision of the Philippines Supreme Court -- which we GUARANTEE you will never find quoted in one of the plethora of WATCHTOWER magazine articles boasting about the superior morals and ethics of Jehovah's Witnesses:

[THE ACCUSED] tenaciously maintains that it was impossible for him to have committed the crime charged since he is a person of good moral character, holding as he does the position of "Ministerial Servant" in the congregation of Jehovahs Witnesses, and that he is a godly man, a righteous person, a responsible family man and a good Christian who preaches the word of God.
We are not impressed. The fact that accused-appellant is endowed with such qualities hardly justifies the conclusion that he is innocent of the crime charged. Similarly, his having attained the position of "Ministerial Servant" in his faith is no guarantee against any sexual perversion and plunderous proclivity on his part. Indeed, religiosity is not always an emblem of good conduct, and it is not the unreligious alone who succumbs to the impulse to rob and rape. An accused is not entitled to an acquittal simply because of his previous good moral character and exemplary conduct. The affirmance or reversal of his conviction must be resolved on the basic issue of whether the prosecution had discharged its duty of proving his guilt beyond any peradventure of doubt. Since the evidence of the crime in the instant case is more than sufficient to convict, the evidence of good moral character of accused-appellant is unavailing.
Accused-appellant likewise bewails and assigns as reversible error the failure of the trial court to give credence to the testimonies of the defense witnesses. He argues that these are Jehovahs Witnesses, and as such, they are God-fearing people who would never lie as to his whereabouts at the time in question. This argument is as puerile as the first. ...

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KENNETH HAWTHORNE v. GOLDFINCH and KENNETH HAWTHORNE v. ADELAIDE CONGREGATION OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES were related 2001-3 Australian civil court cases. Although I typically avoid posting JW cases from foreign countries, even those which were sufficiently notorious so as to garner international media attention, there is the occasional case which simply demands to be posted here. These cases from Australia are such. They involve a Jehovah's WitnessTRESPASSER, who ended up injured, and then had the nerve to sue the property owners, and amusingly, even the local Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, of which the JW Trespasser was a member.

In July 2001, Kenneth Hawthorne and his wife, Pamela Hawthorne, then of Tea Tree Gully, were out in "field service" sellingWATCHTOWERS door-to-door, when they came to the small farm of Ronald and Julie Goldfinch, near Paracombe. The Goldfinch's property was fenced, and on the closed gate at the entrance near the farmhouse was a posted sign which read:"PRIVATE - KEEP OUT".

Typically, the JW Couple ignored the property owners' sign, and entered private property that they had no legal right to enter. As the trespassing JW Couple proceeded toward the farmhouse, a four year-old ram ran at and repeatedly butted Kenneth Hawthorne -- fracturing one his legs.

Thereafter, Kenneth Hawthorne filed a civil lawsuit against the Goldfinches seeking damages for his injuries and loss of earnings due to his supposed inability to earn a living while recovering. The lawsuit was settled just prior to trial in January 2003 -- probably by the Goldfinch's insurance company.

More interesting was the fact that Kenneth Hawthorne even sued his own local Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses for its' alleged failure to provide proper instructions about door-knocking in rural areas. Outcome unknown.

Amusingly, the Australian media reported that the ram's name was "SH*T-FOR-BRAINS". I doubt that such was true. It was more likely that the Aussie reporters simply felt that someone in this story needed to be labeled as such, and only the ram could not sue them.

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COLORADO v. JOEL STOVALL and COLORADO v. MICHAEL STOVALL were related 2001 Colorado murder court cases which are recounted on Crime TV programs. In November 2001, twin brothers, Joel Stovall and Michael Stovall, 24, pleaded guilty to the murder of a Deputy Sheriff, 18 counts of attempted murder against police officers, and one count of aggravated robbery, in exchange for sentences of "life plus 896 years".

On September 28, 2001, Joel Stovall was arrested in Penrose, Colorado, after shooting a neighbor's dog, and Michael Stovall was arrested for interfering with his brother's arrest. The Deputy Sheriff failed to search the brothers before placing them in the backseat of his patrol car. While on the way to county jail, Michael Stovall used a concealed handcuff key to free himself, and then used one of two concealed pistols to shoot out the rear right side window. Michael then stuck one of the pistols out the window and back toward the Deputy's front passenger side window. When the Deputy refused to stop, and went for his own pistol, Michael shot the Deputy multiple times. When that Deputy's body was found, it had 12 shots to the head, and 4 shots to the body, and two different pistols had been used. Later, in Florence, Colorado, the brothers carjacked at gunpoint a pickup truck. Three hours later, the brothers ambushed a moving city patrol car striking the driver, Officer Bethel, three times and leaving him paralyzed. Toby Bethel also lost his spleen, liver, and a kidney. During the subsequent chase, they wounded another Deputy in the arm, and even a fourth officer was slightly injured by flying glass as his windshield was shot out. The brothers peacefully surrendered to police the next day.

The brothers attitude during all this was beyond belief. Not only did they exchange gunfire with police on a number of occasions with some degree of fearlessness, but after shooting up Bethel's patrol car, which contained a second uninjured officer, they returned when they saw the EMTs arrive, and they proceeded to taunt and threaten them from a short distance. After their arrest, the brothers reportedly threatened to kill a guard if given the chance. Joel Stovall even gave a jail house television interview in which he smiled, joked, and mocked the audience for having to support him for the rest of his life.

Robert Stovall and Linda Stovall had reared Joel Stovall and Michael Stovall as Jehovah's Witnesses, and at the time of the rampage, they were living with and caring for an ailing grandmother who called them "good boys" who were "perfect in her book". Until these events, the brothers had had no trouble with the law since the time that the two then Sophomores were arrested at Florence High School after they climbed into the ceiling above the choir room and dropped burning pieces of paper down onto the choir causing minor fire damage and evacuation of the school. Also, while the brothers were still in high school, one shot the other near the collarbone with a bow and arrow. The boys reportedly did not use drugs, and were light social drinkers.

Some of the brothers' issues likely resulted from the separation of their parents (at some uncertain time), and then being reared by a father who apparently was an outdoorsman, who introduced them to everything that goes along with such. Most of the twins "issues" were likely from all the baggage that results from being reared as a Jehovah's Witness. Locals who had went to school with the twins described them as "loners", who kept to themselves, and who didn't hang out with other students, and thus had few friends. One local who had went to school with the twins since kindergarten stated that their fellow classmates had made fun of the boys and picked on them for years because of their religion. The boys were not permitted to participate in any holiday festivities, nor even sex-ed classes. After a while, "they just sort of withdrew". After Joel Stovall was suspended for the fire incident, neither boy returned to high school. However, the twins apparently finished high school either via homeschooling and/or GED, because they both attended community college for one semester before dropping out.

Evidently, as the boys got older, hunting and survivalism gradually became their energy outlet as they also likely consciously and subconsciously came to the understanding that their WatchTower religion was the cause rather than the solution to many of their problems. At some point, the brothers came to hate the police, despite the fact that their mother worked as a prison guard, and that Michael had enrolled in the community college's criminal justice program before dropping out, and that both twins had worked as security guards.

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NEW JERSEY v. SAEED SCOTT was a 2002 New Jersey court case. In May 2002, 23 year-old Saeed Scott was arrested in a wooded area of Burlington Township after eluding and fighting with police officers who had been chasing the naked Scott. Saeed Scott was reported to the police by a group of children at a bus stop, who told police that Scott initially approached them talking about his Jehovah's Witness religion, but then stripped off all his clothes. Outcome unknown.

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JW SUICIDE BY COP. In June 2002, a "home-schooled" 21 year-old inactive Jehovah's Witness, named Yukio Allen, who reportedly had no history of violent behavior, committed "suicide-by-cop" in Inverness, Florida, after a series of negatives in his life, which evidently caused his depression.

In what may have been a poorly thought out plea for help, Yukio Allen walked to a nearby convenience store to supposedly make copies of a suicide letter that he had composed. While there, Allen flashed a pistol at the clerk, and dared her to "call the cops." Allen returned home, where cops said he later wielded two guns, one in each hand, and confronted them, and told them that he had turned on the gas in the house, and was going to blow himself up. However, when Allen refused to surrender the two guns he was waving around, the cops took him out.

While being reared as a JW in Detroit, an older brother, named Patrick Allen, had been shot and killed by another youth with whom he was having unspecified issues in 1993.

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CALIFORNIA v. ENRIQUE PANIQUA COLIN was a 2001-02 California murder court case. Sometime during 2000-2001, the 10-year marriage of a 32 year-old Watsonville, California Jehovah's Witness, named Enrique Paniqua Colin, fell apart, and thereafter, so did his life. Like a farm animal born and reared inside a barn that does not know how to behave outside the barn when eventually let out, Enrique P. Colin went "crazy" after the breakup of his marriage and his divorce from his wife, and after his "excommunication" from the JWs.

Enrique Colin was referred to by the media as having been a JW "lay minister". Whether this meant that Colin had been an "elder", "ministerial servant", or merely a lowly congregation publisher is not known. At his December 2002 sentencing, Colin accepted full responsibility for his crimes, and he apologized to his victims. His sister, Norma Colin, described her brother as a loving father to his two sons, and a loving brother to his JW family members (six siblings with numerous children of their own). She cautioned those who did not know Colin to not judge him by his past couple years, and spoke for the Colin family: "We know he is a man of God -- no matter what anybody else says."

In June 2001, Colin was convicted of violating a restraining order, and was placed on three years probation. At the time, Colin was already on probation after being convicted of spousal battery.

On Christmas Eve, 2001, Colin drove to pickup his male roommate from work at the Watsonville KFC. From there, Colin drove to Village Liquors, where his roommate wanted to re-stock after the previous night's alleged marathon session of drinking and methamphetamine smoking. While the roommate was in Village Liquors, Colin went into nearby Pacific Rim Buffet, which had already closed. There, Colin, pulled a pistol, and attempted to rob the owners. However, the owner verbally refused Colin's demand for money. Whether he recognized Colin as the JW son of Jose Colin and Maria Colin, who owned the Watsonville Mexican restaurant known as Mi Rancho is not known. Colin responded to the refusal by shooting Khoon Shao "Sean" Koay, 40, in the chest and head as his wife and 3 year-old daughter looked on. When Koay's 65 year-old father, Shang-eng Koay, came to his son's aid, Colin shot him three times. While the father survived with only losing the partial use of an arm, Sean Koay died.

On December 29, 2001, two sheriff's deputies went to a home in an adjacent county as part of a separate burglary investigation, and there discovered a stolen vehicle parked in the driveway. Enrique Colin ran out of that house and started firing his .38 pistol at the deputies, who returned fire striking Colin in the chest, shoulder, and hip. Colin was charged with attempted murder, vehicle theft, and possession of stolen property in that county.

Colin's roommate, who reportedly had not known that Colin was going to stickup the restaurant while he was buying booze, "gave up" Colin, and he was thereafter charged with the Xmas Eve crimes. In December 2002, Colin agreed to a plea deal in which he received life without the possibility of parole. He was also ordered to pay $137,241.00 in restitution. It is not known whether the separate charges from the December 29, 2001 shooting were dropped or later prosecuted.

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Using what has become "standard operating procedure" for practically every newspaper that publishes a seasonal article about how its local residents are choosing to celebrate Christmas, or other holidays, the News-Press, of Fort Myers, Florida, on January 1, 2004, in a Christmas article, included comments from a local Jehovah's Witness Male, who had been interviewed on December 24, 2003, who related that he would not be celebrating Xmas due to his WatchTower beliefs. That JW Male, who just so happened to have so unusual a surname such that I had never heard/seen such previously, also just happened to mention as an aside (Freudian? - conscience?) that he had had plans to drive to Ohio over the Christmas holiday to visit his son, but that his plans had fallen through.

Because that JW's surname was so unusual, I googled such, and surprise of surprises: A male with the exact same name shows up on an Ohio government webpage, which indicates that a male with the exact same full name had been arrested for his 9th DUI in October 2001. That man's age was officially listed as 43 (in 2001), while the JW with the exact same unusual name, who was interviewed in 2003, told the reporter that he was 42, or at least that was the age that was published.

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JW WINDOW PEEPER SHOT. In May 2001, a self-proclaimed Jehovah's Witness, named Rutilio Gracida Castillo, 23, of Oxnard, California, was shot and killed by one of two Oxnard police officers who had responded to a complaint that Rutilio Castillo was peeping into windows at an apartment building -- possibly his own. Castillo had a history of mental illness, which had led to previous encounters with police. In particular, Castillo was paranoid that someone was trying to kill him. On the night in question, Castillo was carrying a knife. The police chased Castillo to a nearby crowded strip mall parking lot, but when he failed to heed police commands to drop the knife, and supposedly lunged at or advanced toward the officers, he was shot three times and killed. The Ventura County district attorney's office concluded that the officers had acted reasonably, and that the shooting of Castillo was a justifiable homicide.

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The following excerpts are taken from a 2002 California Appellate Court decision which reviewed and affirmed the exclusion of four African-Americans from the original murder trial jury. One of those dismissed jurors was a Jehovah's Witness Mother of six children, of Carson, California, and identified only as "P.B.", who was employed as a beautician, volunteered as a teacher's aide, and was married to a chiropractor:

"... Counsel argued that the last four peremptories the prosecutor had exercised were against African-American prospective jurors ...

"... P.B. was not 'terribly bright' and was disturbed by the nature of the case and the type of evidence that would be presented. ...

"P.B. was a married Carson resident, who worked as a hairdresser and volunteered part-time as a teacher's aide for the L.A. Unified School District. She had six children. A year previously, she and her husband were victims of a Long Beach carjacking. The carjackers were prosecuted. Her husband handled most of it. She and her husband appeared at the defendants' sentencing. She was nervous about attending the sentencing proceedings since the friends and family of the defendants were present. She is a Jehovah's Witness and sees apparent gang members when she is in different areas; that does not bother her. At age 18, one of her sons was involved in an out-of-state bank robbery. The son was released, had turned his life around and was now working for the city. Her husband is a chiropractor, and her other children are employed or married. When asked about the credibility of gang member witnesses, she replied that from her experience with her own child, sometimes it was 'just association or situations that they have been into.' She would not be prejudiced against gang witnesses. None of her children had been gang-affiliated. One daughter was incarcerated after she failed to pay tickets and, since the daughter had no money, she chose to stay in jail rather than pay a fine. P.B. knew someone who was a law enforcement officer. She would be uncomfortable about hearing that someone was killed, but would try to put aside her feelings so that she could objectively evaluate the evidence. When asked about whether she would be able to view bloody pictures, she said, 'It would be hard,' and she would not want to see such photographs.

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ALASKA v. JASON WALTER PRITCHARD was a 2001 Alaska attempted murder criminal court case. In October 2001, a 34 year-old Jehovah's Witness, named Jason Walter Pritchard, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder. Pritchard was ruled "guilty but mentally ill", and was sentenced to two concurrent 99-year prison terms, during which he will effectively never be eligible for parole.

Jason W. Pritchard became a Jehovah's Witness sometime in the early 1980s while he was still in high school. A fellow female student at Homer High School, who was a Jehovah's Witness, had used Pritchard's attraction to her as her opportunity to convert Pritchard. However, after Pritchard became a JW, their relationship was apparently terminated. This scenario possibly traumatized Pritchard and led to his mental illness given that Pritchard evidently never married, and given Pritchard's later problems with sexual issues.

Interestingly, in 2001, Pritchard's mother told a reporter that teenage Pritchard had been confused by WatchTower teachings, since Jason had interpreted some Bible verse to mean that children should "shun" their parents. [Those familiar with WatchTower teachings know the significance and impact of the mother's vague reference -- the Jehovah's Witnesses were teaching then teenage Pritchard to limit as much as possible his relationship with his own parents, since they were not JWs.]

After high school, Pritchard worked on fishing boats and at other various jobs, and apparently saved his money. Sometime in the early 1990s, Pritchard moved to Anchorage, where he purchased a four-plex to live in and rent out for extra income. Pritchard also operated a vending machine route, while he also was employed at a carpet company. All the while, Pritchard apparently was an active Jehovah's Witness.

It was around 1994 when Jason Pritchard's life started to fall apart. From the fall of 1994 until the fall of 1996, Pritchard received 5 citations for reckless driving, DWI, and driving with a suspended license. Pritchard also lost his job due to such.

In August 1997, Pritchard was arrested for "trespassing" while he apparently was "door knocking" at an Anchorage apartment complex where both the manager and police had warned him not to solicit tenants. Pritchard also had two encounters with police due to his drinking around this same time.

At some point around 1997-8, Pritchard's drinking also led him to frequent bars, strip clubs, and massage parlors. Pritchard also began to hear voices, and Pritchard's interpretations of the Bible went off the deep end. Apparently, having started to engage in illicit sex, which troubled his conscience, a voice supposedly told Pritchard that cutting off his penis would solve his problems, which Pritchard actually partially accomplished. It was around this very time that Pritchard was "disfellowshipped" due to sexual sins.

After being disfellowshipped, Pritchard was driven to start preaching to teenagers and even children about sexual sins. In mid 1998, Pritchard started approaching teenagers and children in and around schools, and he was reported to police, who in turn investigated and reported Pritchard to all local schools. Pritchard's "sex talk" was interpreted as sexual advances toward children and teenagers, but Pritchard was actually warning the children and teens about the "evils" of sex -- as his mentally ill mind so interpreted. In June 1998, Pritchard was cited for "stalking" a 14 year-old boy.

In December 1998, Pritchard walked into Anchorage Rescue Mission and started throwing $5000.00 in cash into the air, and then left. Apparently, around $4400.00 was turned over to police by the staff. The next evening, Pritchard walked into the middle of a Kingdom Hall service and started blaring that all the JWs present needed to kill themselves, or at least that's what they told police. Pritchard was "escorted" outside twice, and was returning a third time when police arrived and placed him under arrest. Pritchard spent the next several months in jail and mental health facilities under suicide watch. In March 1999, Pritchard was placed in Alaska Psychiatric Institute for one year, after which he was released and lived with his mother.

Sometime in latter 2000, on medication, Pritchard moved to Anchor Point to live with his former stepfather. There, he worked in a cannery, and attended every Kingdom Hall meeting. Pritchard also immersed himself in "bible study".

Then, on Monday morning, May 7, 2001, Pritchard, who apparently had stopped taking his medication, showed up at Mountain View Elementary School, in Anchorage, and began attacking with a knife students who were waiting for school to open. By the time police arrived, Pritchard had attempted to cut the throats of three boys, ages 8 and 9, and he was attempting to cut a fourth student inside the school, but was being prevented by a teacher with a desk.

At gunpoint, the police ordered Pritchard to drop the filet knife and surrender, but he not only refused, but even encouraged the officers to help him kill "his little brothers and sisters", and "send them to Jehovah". At one point, he exclaimed that he wanted"strength" so that he would not "take the mark of the Beast". Rather than shooting Pritchard, the police used three shots from a beanbag gun to disarm and subdue him. During such, Pritchard exclaimed, "Strengthen me, Father, to do your will." All four young boys suffered life-threatening slashes to their throats and/or faces, but all were fortunate to survive.

CALIFORNIA v. ARMANDO TIZOK FRIAS was a 2001-2 California murder case. On May 21, 2001, Armando Tizok Frias, 19, who was a Nuestra Familia gang member, was selling drugs at a Salinas, California saloon, when Raymond Sanchez and Joseph Cantu walked in and sat at the bar. Sanchez also was a drug dealer, who also was a NF "dropout" who had stopped associating with the gang. But, more importantly, Sanchez was sporadically selling drugs in NF territory without paying the NF "tax". After Sanchez's failure to heed repeatedly warnings, NF leaders had given the "green light" to its' street soldiers to kill Sanchez. Just within the past few days, the "hit" order allegedly had been confirmed by a NF "Street General" named Daniel Hernandez.

Armando Frias telephoned his local NF leaders, who met Frias in the parking lot. Frias was given a pistol. Frias walked back into the bar, and when the opportunity arose, he walked up behind Sanchez and shot him in the back of the head. Frias also shot Cantu out in the parking lot. Sanchez died. Cantu survived.

Armando T. Frias, his girlfriend, and their 7 month-old son fled to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to hide out at the apartment of Frias' Jehovah's Witness Mother Armando Frias had been reared in the WatchTower religion in Salinas, California. Armando Frias had attended a local Kingdom Hall, and like other JW Kids, he had gone without birthdays and holidays. Frias missed such as a child, but says that he was respectful of his mother, and did not complain "too much". His mother had relocated to Oklahoma City sometime when Frias was a teenager. Frias and his girlfriend had lived with his JW Mother in Ohlahoma City for a while in 1999 and/or 2000, after Frias had been released, at age 18, from California Youth Authority, where he had been incarcerated for a robbery in which two people had been murdered. At some point during all this, Frias' father, Armando Rico Frias, who also had been a NF gangbanger, had reformed, possibly had also become a JW, and possibly had reconciled with his JW wife in Oklahoma.

In June/July 2001, Armando Frias was captured at his mother's apartment, extradited back to California, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 29 years to life for the May 2001 murder and attempted murder (sounds like a plea deal). But the story does not end there.

CALIFORNIA v. DANIEL HERNANDEZ ETC., ETC., ETC. The Sanchez "hit" order allegedly had been "green-lighted" by a NF "Street General", named Daniel "Lizard" Hernandez, who later denied that he did so. Interestingly, Daniel Hernandez, who obviously had an extensive criminal and prison history in order to have reached the level of a "Street General" in the Nuestra Familia, had been reared in a middle-class Long Beach, California family of Jehovah's Witnesses. Hernandez once told a reporter, "As a kid I didn't know anything but religion."

But, like many children reared as JWs, Hernandez rebelled against the heavy yoke of WatchTower Rules, and his JW parents sent him to live with an aunt in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hernandez eventually returned to live in California. At age 19, Hernandez was convicted of armed robbery, and while awaiting sentencing, he knifed another prisoner during a jail house fight. After that, "Lizard" became indoctrinated into the Nuestra Familia by a cousin that he met in San Quentin. Thereafter, Hernandez moved up the ranks of Norteno (after spending a short while as a Sureno) as he participated in gang-life inside various California prisons and outside on the streets of California and Pittsburgh.

FLORIDA v. JARROD LYNN CEARLEY. In April 2001, Jarrod L. Cearley, then 25 years-old, of Vero Beach, Florida, was convicted on one count of burglary and one count of trafficking in stolen property back in January 1999. Jarrod Cearley was sentenced to six years in state prison.

FLORIDA v. JARROD LYNN CEARLEY. In June 2001, Jarrod L. Cearley was convicted on one count of weapons charges committed in November 2000, and was sentenced to 3 years in state prison.

Jarrod Cearley was a member of a large extended family of Jehovah's Witnesses, and had associated with multiple Kingdom Halls in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina before dying of unknown causes in 2009 at the age of 34.

An "email contributor" reports an incident which is so "unique" and "unusual" that no JW readers will believe such even after I am able to locate the published news report -- thus, why I choose to go ahead and post a summary of the "lead" now. The "contributor" has a 100% track record thus far, but has been unable to locate and forward the article. I too have not been able to locate such -- yet. "Contributor" states their recollection of reading a news article, sometime in the early 2000s, which reported an incidence of gang violence in the Los Angeles area which involved two separate groups of youths -- and here is where the story will be denied by JWs -- who were associated with two separate Kingdom Halls of Jehovah's Witnesses.

-- Thanks to a second emailer who vaguely recalls the news report, but their recollection was that it was a fight between two groups of JW youths from two different KHs, but not necessarily "gang related". This helper recalls "California", but not necessarily LA, and indicates time period may have been in late 1990s.

Signature found on a 1994 Resolution presented to President Bill Clinton advocating the decriminalization of drug use.

Do you suppose that "Brother Huff" had a reason for such views? Farris L. Huff, of Pasadena, California, DOB: 1940, was arrested for failure to disperse (rioting) in 1965, and unspecified narcotics charges in 1967.