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Monday, September 07, 2009

Bent May Be Forced To Eat

By Vic Vela
Journal Staff Writer
          Self-proclaimed messiah and convicted child molester Wayne Bent has been warned: eat in prison or you may be forced to do so.
        The northern New Mexico cult leader — who is serving a 10-year sentence with the state Department of Corrections after a Taos jury in December found him guilty of having improper contact with children — has promised to stop eating food or drinking water after a recent decision by the state Court of Appeals did not go his way.
        The court recently rejected a bond request by Bent as his appeal of the conviction makes its way through the judicial system. On the heels of that decision, Bent — with his usual flair for the dramatic — told his followers in a letter that he plans to begin a fast.
        "I must now refuse to take any sustenance from the State," he wrote in an Aug. 19 letter from the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas. "I will eat none of their food, or drink none of their water. I will cut off this hypocrisy. I refuse to be the State's 'head on a pole.' I do not belong to the State and, no, I am not its property. I have a heart, soul, and mind that belong only to God."
        Bent said in the letter that he was to begin eating one meal a day for a week, then would drink only juice the next seven days "if the prison provides it. Otherwise, only water will be taken." After that, Bent said he would only drink water until the fourth week of the fast, when he then would consume nothing.
        However, Bent did say that he would accept food from his followers if they are allowed to bring some to him.
        In his letter, Bent acknowledged that "the mocking crowd" might consider his fast a suicide attempt.
        "But they misperceive the issues, as they always do," he wrote. "They would have called Samson's act of pulling down a heathen temple an act of suicide. But the Book of Hebrews names Samson a man of faith. He brought down the heathen temple, but it cost him his life. In his death he destroyed more of the mocking revelers than in his life."
        Bent also wrote that he himself was molested as a young child and that, "Now, in my old age, I have been molested again by a dirty old man. He is the state of New Mexico."
        "So this is the issue," Bent wrote. "For me, taking food from criminals who put me here falsely, seems disingenuous. I cannot connect with this strange relationship. Should I accept food from my accusers, to extend my life and to cause them to feel that they are interested in my health and welfare, so I let them go on believing that they are doing us a favor?"
        Jeff Bent, Wayne's son, told the Journal last week that he and other members of The Lord Our Righteousness Church — which his father leads — were planning to spend the next month in Los Lunas so they could be close to Wayne Bent as he embarks on the fast.
        At his sentencing hearing in December, Bent suggested that he would not live very long in prison.
        "He sees himself as being true to that promise now," Jeff Bent told the Journal.
        Wayne Bent has promised this type of action in the past, but in the end has always come back around toward eating.
        Jeff Bent said he believes his father is sincere this time. "I just don't know what the outcome will be," he said. "If the state sticks him with (feeding) tubes, I imagine he'll live."
        Jeff Bent said his father had a meeting with Anthony Romero, the warden of the Los Lunas facility, where Romero said "if he fasted they would force-feed him."
        DOC spokeswoman Tia Bland confirmed that the meeting took place but said no determination was made by the department as to how to proceed if Bent goes forward with his planned fast.
        "At the very least, the warden told him if this religious fast progresses into the extent of a hunger strike, force-feeding could be on the table," Bland said.
        But Bland said the prison has never faced this issue before and that "right now, I don't know how we would handle it."
        "We would probably seek guidance from the courts on how to proceed," she said.
        For now, Bent has been moved from his dormitory-style living quarters in the prison's geriatric ward to his own cell so he can be more closely monitored, Bland said.
        Jeff Bent said he is torn about his father's recent decision.
        "He is stating that 'I have got to make a stand,' " he said. "I have seen someone involved in a fast. I don't wish that on another person. It's an uncomfortable and miserable state to be in."
        Wayne Bent was found guilty of one count of criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts each of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for separate incidents that took place with two underage girls in the summer of 2006. The incidents took place at the church's Strong City Compound in rural Union County, where the Bents and about 45 of his followers resided.
        Both girls — sisters who were 16 and 14 at the time — testified at his trial that they "lay naked" with Bent. However, they gave different accounts of their experiences with him, and the jury found him guilty of having criminal sexual contact with only one of them. The younger girl who testified that she loved Bent and that the experience was a positive one is now 18 and is expected to return to the compound soon, Jeff Bent said.
        Though the appeals court denied Bent's request for a bond, the actual appeal of his conviction has yet to be heard.