House of Yahweh

Attorneys for House of Yahweh leader Yisrayl Hawkins, set to stand trial for bigamy, argued for a change of venue during a pretrial hearing in the 42nd District Court in Baird Wednesday.

During the hearing, Hawkins’ attorneys presented the results of a poll taken in mid-August from 511 residents in Callahan, Taylor and Coleman counties, part of the 42nd District.

Hawkins’ attorneys contended a fair and impartial jury could not be seated from those counties.
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Sixty-eight percent of those polled said the believed he was guilty of bigamy, but 63 percent said they would be able to give Hawkins a fair trial.
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Hawkins stands charged with four counts of promoting bigamy and one count of practicing bigamy. Each bigamy charge is considered a second-degree felony and carries a penalty of two to 20 years in prison with a $10,000 fine.

He also is charged with breaking child-labor laws, a Class B misdemeanor. According to court documents, up to 40 children spent 40 hours a week working on the House of Yahweh property in Callahan County.

Source/Full Story:: Abilene Reporter News
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Source: Arkansas News

Embattled evangelist Tony Alamo’s lawyer has asked that “immaterial, impertinent or scandalous” language be removed from a civil lawsuit targeting Alamo in federal court.

The language was included in the suit only in an attempt “to stigmatize the defendant,” Alamo lawyer John Wesley Hall of Little Rock said in a filing last week. Hall also asked in a Sunday filing that one claim made in the lawsuit be dismissed altogether.

The suit was filed Nov. 25 in federal district court at Texarkana on behalf of Seth Calagna and Spencer Ondrisek, two men who grew up in the church’s compound in Fouke in western Arkansas. The suit asks for more than $75,000 for damages “in the form of physical pain and suffering, emotional distress and scarring/disfigurement.”

Alamo, 74, also faces criminal charges in federal court. He was jailed without bond while awaiting trial in February on counts that accuse him of raping and sexually abusing girls in the ministry, and taking them across state lines for purposes of sex. Alamo has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.

In a filing last week, Hall objected to language used in the civil suit, citing federal court rules that allow a judge to delete from a suit “any redundant, immaterial, impertinent or scandalous material.”

Among passages that Hall claimed were objectionable was one that said:
“Alamo’s theology is known for its virulent paranoia and anti-Catholicism views. Alamo claims the Vatican controls the American White House, the United Nations and the media. His views have led (Alamo’s ministry) to be named as a ’hate group’ by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

Hall posed a question about that passage: “What possible relevance is any of this to the allegations of the complaint?”

He also objected to sections of the suit that cited Alamo’s criminal record, saying “these references are almost certainly inadmissible at trial.” Likewise, Hall objected to the suit’s citation of the current criminal indictment against Alamo, which Hall said was “irrelevant to plaintiffs’ cause of action.”

In the separate filing over the weekend, Hall asked the court to dismiss a part of the suit that accused Alamo of civil conspiracy. Alamo’s lawyer said “a civil conspiracy is not a separate tort under Arkansas law.” A tort is a wrongful act.

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Source: BostonHerald.com

ABILENE, Texas — A judge sentenced a religious sect’s elder to 30 years in prison for molesting an 11-year-old girl during a phony cervical cancer exam.

Yedidiyah Hawkins, 41, a House of Yahweh elder, faced a maximum penalty of life in prison after being convicted in October of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Hawkins earlier decided that a judge would assess the punishment if jurors found him guilty.

Hawkins has no medical training but used a gynecological medical instrument to examine the girl at a home in 2005, according to trial testimony. A former House of Yahweh member testified that Hawkins actually was worried the girl was not a virgin.

Some defense witnesses testified at last week’s sentencing hearing that they never saw Hawkins abuse children. Several became emotional and teary when pleading for leniency.

“We need him,” Erica Hawkins, a teenage sect member, told state District Judge John Weeks.

“I know and believe him to be innocent. … He would never do anything like that,” former sect member Meleana Segura said.

But Callahan County District Attorney Shane Deel read some of Hawkins’ jailhouse letters showing a growing obsession with another young House of Yahweh member he has chosen as his fifth bride, Deel said.

“He not only abused … (this victim) with the speculum he bought from a sex toy Web site — he’s got an eye on another girl. He’s got four wives, all on welfare because he doesn’t support them, and he wants to add the girl,” Deel said.

Defense attorney C. Tony Wright told the judge that Hawkins has turned his troubled childhood into a useful adulthood but is being vilified because of his religious beliefs.

“He is capable of doing good and deserves a sentence on the low end of the guideline,” Wright said, suggesting five to six years, before the sentencing Wednesday.

Hawkins’ other charges — including aggravated perjury, indecency with a child and bigamy — will remain pending until his appeals on this case are exhausted, Deel said.

The sect’s leader, self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl Hawkins, faces trial next year on bigamy and child labor charges. He is accused of having more than 20 wives, performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children to work at his 44-acre compound in rural Clyde near Abilene. Hundreds of his followers have legally changed their last names to Hawkins.

Technorati Tags: Yedidiyah Hawkins, House of Yahweh, Yisrayl Hawkins

Source: Chron.com

A religious sect’s elder who molested a girl under the guise of checking her for cervical cancer faces up to life in prison.

Yedidiyah Hawkins, 40, a House of Yahweh elder, was convicted Monday of aggravated sexual assault of a child. A judge will set the sentence, expected within 45 days. Hawkins earlier decided that he wanted a judge to assess the punishment if jurors found him guilty.

The sect’s leader, self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl Hawkins, faces trial later this year on bigamy and child labor charges. He is accused of having more than 20 wives, performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children to work jobs at his 44-acre compound in rural Clyde near Abilene. Hundreds of his followers have legally changed their last names to Hawkins.

At Yedidiyah Hawkins’ trial, a 15-year-old girl testified that she was 11 when he claimed to be checking her for cervical cancer with an instrument used by gynecologists — although other witnesses said he has no medical training. A former Yahweh member testified that Hawkins was worried the girl was no longer a virgin.

Rachel Hawkins, referred to by a witness as one of his wives, testified that she was not home at the time but found out and falsely told him video cameras recorded the incident. She said he repeatedly told her he would do anything to get the tapes.

Rachel Hawkins — who is no longer in the sect — said she did record Hawkins admitting to the assault but that it was later erased by a House of Yahweh elder.

Full Story

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Source: Abilene Reporter-News

Jury selection for the trial of House of Yahweh leader Yisrayl Hawkins has been pushed back.

According to 42nd District clerks, the trial was “not ready” for the originally set date.

Hawkins, 73, is charged with bigamy in Callahan County and was seeking a venue change for his pending trial.

Judge John Weeks decided Aug. 20 to carry forward the hearing to jury selection.

No new date was set for the pending jury selection and trial, but district clerks said the selection could be as late as November.

Source: Abilene Reporter-News

Judge John Weeks decided Wednesday afternoon to carry forward the change-of-venue hearing to jury selection for House of Yahweh leader Yisrayl Hawkins.

Members of the Abilene media testified at the hearing of Hawkins, 73, is charged with bigamy in Callahan County and seeks a venue change for his pending trial.

The judge’s decision Wednesday means he will wait until the jury selection process to determine whether or not to grant the change.

Source: WorldWide Religious News

In his first sermon since being freed from jail, Texas sect leader Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins said his followers are getting ready for global tribulation.

Hawkins is the leader of the House of Yahweh, a religious group that believes in brimstone prophecies, adheres to a lifestyle of abject poverty and is suspected of practicing polygamy, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.

“No, we’re not getting ready to kill ourselves,” Hawkins said. “We’re getting ready to live through the greatest tribulation that ever will be.”

The 73-year-old Hawkins was arrested and indicted in February. He is facing four counts of promoting bigamy.

Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, believes the Callahan County case will be the first prosecution of a polygamy suspect under bigamy statutes that were strengthened in 2005.

“They can be very difficult cases to prove because there is no CSI-type evidence. There’s no blood. There’s no DNA,” Edmonds said.

Hawkins also faces a misdemeanor charge of breaking child labor laws, accused of having up to 40 children working weekdays “in the fields, in a canning operation, in a cafeteria and in the butter making process.”

“They didn’t get Al Capone because of all the people he murdered and
all the organized crime. They got him for tax evasion,” Deel said.

Detroit Free Press

In his first sermon after leaving jail, Yisrayl (Buffalo Bill) Hawkins was folksy, paternal and apocalyptic.
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“No, we’re not getting ready to kill ourselves,” said the man who calls himself the prophet of the House of Yahweh, a barbed-wire kingdom of brimstone prophecies and abject poverty 15 miles southeast of Abilene, Texas.

“We’re getting ready to live through the greatest tribulation that ever will be.”

The troubles facing Hawkins may soon provide Texas’ first major test of strengthened anti-polygamy laws, just 150 miles from the spotlight on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Eldorado.

The 73-year-old Hawkins was arrested and indicted in February — less than two months before raids on the Eldorado compound — and charged with promoting bigamy, which was made a felony in 2005 after the unrelated FLDS group arrived from Utah.

“This will probably be the first case of its kind,” said Callahan County Attorney Shane Deel, who began investigating the House of Yahweh after taking office in 2005.