Satanic Ritual Abuse: Hosanna Church, 2005

2005: Hosanna Church, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana

Many people don’t believe in Satanic Ritual Abuse. They think these are one-off cases that happen occasionally, get sensationalized by media, and are used for clickbait. They don’t believe in extremes or that true evil can exist.

I am sitting on a bunch of cases and no idea what to do with them. They all involve Satanic Ritual Abuse. So, in order to show some light on the subject, I have sanitized the facts a bit to make the subject more palatable and less sensationalized. (Don’t worry. I have included links. If you want to read what I have redacted, you can click on them and see for yourself.) In order to actually have civil and reasoned conversations about this topic, we need to take some of the more extreme elements out to focus on the facts.

Then, you can decide for yourself the following:

• Does Satanic Ritual Abuse actually exist? Or is it just the delusions of some overly paranoid helicopter parents and church-goers?

• Was it all just a handful of sensationalized stories that got blown out of proportion and sensationalized by the media?

• Do such incidents happen more frequently than we originally are led to believe?

This is just one story of many. Hopefully, I will be posting up many of these. These are not really deep dives. Instead they are the introduction to deeper topics that we as a society should maybe having.

My goal here is to open up dialogue and not have people shut it down because something is “too far out there” or unbelievable.

I will note that this particular church closed down after the incidents described below. It is no longer in existence.

Hosanna Church, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana

This is what happens when a church collapses.

Hosanna Church in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana was once a thriving church. But then there was a falling out between church leaders. Many of the congregation left the church until approximately 12 families were left out of the once 1,000 church membership.

In 2005, 2 years after that fight, many of those members were arrested. This included a deputy sheriff who was a member of the church. The accusations? [REDACTED] abuse.

Nobody had a clue about what was going on until one frantic mother fled the state.

The authorities — who got the first whiff of trouble six weeks ago when a woman, Nicole Bernard, 36, called the Sheriff's Office from Ohio to say she had fled the town to save her child from [REDACTED] abuse — are still trying to piece together what happened.

Nine people have been arrested in the past week. A dozen computers have been seized, at least some of which the police believe contain child [REDACTED], as well as dozens of videotapes, hundreds of computer disks and eight large boxes of documents and photographs. Inside the shuttered church compound, in a "youth hall" behind the sanctuary, the police found the faint imprint of pentagrams on the floor that someone had apparently tried to scrub away. Some of those arrested, the police said, described rituals within those pentagrams involving cats' [REDACTED] and people dressed in black robes.

The abuse victims ranged in age from 1 to 16, the police said. Several are in protective custody, and a search is under way for others, who may have moved or are known to the police only by first name or nickname. On Tuesday, the police were at the church grounds with dogs, though they would not say what they sought.

Sheriff Daniel H. Edwards of Tangipahoa said that as many as 25 children -- about evenly split between boys and girls -- might have been involved in [REDACTED] at the youth center, in cars and in the homes of at least two of those charged. The abuse seems to have begun in 1999, he said, and stopped occurring on the church grounds after 2003.

Internet Archives: New York Times: Sex Charges Follow a Church's Collapse

Here is the weird thing. That initial phone call wasn't just a report of abuse. It was also a confession. Nicole Bernard was also one of many who were implicated and arrested. In fact, if it weren't for the confessions of many of those involved trying to "explain the situation," no one would have known what was going on.

Ponchatoula was in the midst of its annual Strawberry Festival when Ms. Bernard called the sheriff. She was reluctant to discuss specifics, the sheriff said. "We'd call her and she'd say, oh, the dog's barking or somebody's knocking on my door right now, I'll call you back," Sheriff Edwards said. Two weekends ago, she began to name names.

The next day, the younger Louis Lamonica walked into the sheriff's office in neighboring Livingston Parish, where he lives, and proceeded to describe all manner of [REDACTED] offenses.

"He didn't come to turn himself in, he came to talk with us," said Stan Carpenter, the detective supervisor in Livingston Parish.

Mr. Lamonica, 45, matter-of-factly told them of having [REDACTED] with at least two boys, from the time they were 4 until they were 12 or 13, as well as having [REDACTED] with a dog, Mr. Carpenter said, adding that Mr. Lamonica did not act as though he was confessing to crimes. He was just trying to be helpful.

"We didn't let him walk away," Mr. Carpenter said.

He also named others at the church -- including Christopher Labat, 24, a deputy sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish. Last Tuesday, Mr. Labat told detectives that they would find child [REDACTED] on his home computer, Sheriff Edwards said, but denied taking part in any abuse. He was fired, charged and placed on a suicide watch.

Last Wednesday, two other church members, Austin Trey Bernard III, 36, and Allen R. Pierson, 46, were charged with aggravated [REDACTED] of a juvenile. On Thursday, the former pastor's wife, Robbin Lamonica, 45, was arrested, along with Paul Fontenot, 21, another church member. Another parishioner, Lois Mowbray, 54, was accused of knowing about the abuse and not telling the authorities.

And then Mr. Bernard's wife, Nicole, who had made the initial call to the police and who is Mr. Fontenot's sister, was arrested and charged with aggravated [REDACTED]. Finally, on Monday night, Mr. Pierson's wife, Patricia, 54, was charged with [REDACTED] battery and being a principal in an aggravated [REDACTED].

Internet Archives: New York Times: Sex Charges Follow a Church's Collapse

Why don't we hear more about these cases?

I mean, obviously the police got confessions from the guilty who came in to "just clear some things up." The truth of the matter is most Satanic Ritual Abuse cases won't be convicted. Why? Because even when you have 3 confessions, victim testimony, and a diary detailing the abuse, people don't want to believe this happens.

So most District Attorneys or Prosecuting Attorneys won't take this case to court for conviction. They can't present half the evidence without jurors thinking "this isn't real." They just refuse to believe period.

Notice what is said here and about the jurors in this article. Unfortunately, this is all too common.

The first of seven Hosanna Church members accused of [REDACTED] children as part of a devil-worshipping ritual was in jail Tuesday after being found guilty of [REDACTED] his daughter and a boy.

A state district court jury in Amite voted unanimously Monday to convict Austin "Trey" Bernard III in the [REDACTED] of his 2-year-old daughter. All but one of the 12 jurors found him guilty in the [REDACTED] of a 12-year-old boy, District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said. Ten votes were needed to convict.

Bernard, 39, denied the charges, but three earlier confessions and a journal that seemed to detail the practices of the group were too much to overcome, said Al Bensabat, the public defender who represented him.

"He wrote a 230-page journal that had some disgusting things in it," Bensabat said Tuesday. "Once the jury read that it was all over."

The activities at the church became known when Lamonica walked into the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Department and asked to speak with a detective, said Chief of Detectives Stan Carpenter.

For almost two hours Lamonica, 49, told investigators how he and other church members had [REDACTED] children, and taught them to have [REDACTED] with each other, as well as with a dog. He told the detectives that he drank [REDACTED] and poured it on the bodies of his young victims.

"We were totally stunned," Carpenter said.

Internet Archive: KATC3: First charged in devil worshiping rituals convicted

Here is another thing. Do you remember the mattresses stacked up in the building on Epstein Island? Well, when the authorities went to go search for evidence, they found a storage shed. Inside of it was a bunch of stacked up mattresses.

Maybe something. Maybe nothing. But it is a weird coincidence.

Edwards stopped short of saying the cult consisted of devil-worshippers but said some defendants told investigators “devil worship was the reason for their participation.” Edwards added that defendants and witnesses also gave statements saying a dog was [REDACTED] and at least two cats were sacrificed.

Authorities seized 24 computers, which the FBI is checking. Sheets and carpeting were taken from the church for DNA tests. Officers spent several days digging in the back of the church but haven’t said if anything significant was found.

After Bernard was arrested, police in Ohio said they searched a storage unit and found mattresses, videos and nine garbage bags full of costumes.

Seattle Times: Cultlike rituals, sex abuse alleged at church

Further Reading

Internet Archive: New York Times: 7 Members of Louisiana Church Charged With Abuse of Children

KSLA: Minister, Cop Among those Accused of Church-based Sex Ring Involving Children, Animals

Seattle Times: Cultlike rituals, sex abuse alleged at church