SYDNEY, Aus --Susan Sotelo, who stabbed her baby daughter, Zoe, to death, cut out the infant's heart and dumped her tiny corpse in a garbage bin has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The judge accepted psychiatric evidence that our Heroine "did not know that what she was doing was wrong" -- fully believing she was Jesus Christ and that her family was "celestial".

On the day of the killing, Suzy had attempted to smother the baby with a pillow but was interrupted by a visit from a friend. After the friend left, Suzy "heard a voice" telling her she "had to sacrifice Zoe", so she finished the job (and a bit more, eh?) with a kitchen knife.

MILWAUKEE -- Elise Ledvina, who had stopped taking her anti-psych medication, tonight stands accused of brutally beating her two sons with a 33-in. baseball bat, snuffing one and critically maiming the other.

8-year-old John was declared dead of multiple skull frac- tures at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. 9-year-old Joseph was in critical condition at press time.

Police say the father, who was outside repairing a bicycle, heard a strange, steady "thumping noise" eminating from the basement. When he entered the house, he found our Heroine beating the bejesus out of little Johnny Jr. with the bat, yelling her desire that the boys to "go to heaven... because they will not be productive members of society."

Cops say John Sr. grabbed his wife and tried at the same time to call the police but she broke free, ran upstairs and proceeded to attacked the second boy, who was in bed reading a bedtime story.

The father eventually disarmed his wife and held her down until cops arrived. Elise was arrested at the scene Tuesday; charges -- most likely first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first- degree intentional homicide-- are expected later this week.

36-year-old Julia Ann Olivas and 43-year-old Esther Rebecca Griggs have been convicted of the paddling death of a 5-year-old girl they believed was possessed by the devil.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury found our god-fearing Heroines guilty today of first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with little Breean Spickard's 1996 merciless beating death in Baldwin Park.

The jury deadlocked on the special circumstance of intentional infliction of torture against Olivas and found it not to be true in Griggs' case. That charge would have made the gals eligible for the Magic Needle. Oh darn.

On a brighter note, both broads are expected to face 26 years to life in prison when they're sentenced on Nov. 12th.

Prosecutors say Olivas told Spickard's mother, 34-year-old Deborah Elizabeth Reynolds, to beat her daughter because she was possessed by Satan, and that Griggs provided the paddle used in the beating.

Deputy District Attorney Steven Slavitt said, "Griggs stuck her foot in the girl's mouth to prevent her from crying during the beating... It was the worst beating I have ever seen. They just left her there to die."

Reynolds pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last week and testified against the other two women. She's expected to face a prison term of 15 years to life in state prison when a judge sentences her Nov. 7th.

DALLAS -- A South Dallas pastor awaiting trial on a charge of sexually molesting a girl has been arrested again, this time in connection with the attempted sexual assault of a 3-year-old girl.

The Rev. Ronroyal Owens was arrested Monday afternoon after a friend who had invited Mr. Owens to her house reported that she found him nude and in bed with her 3-year-old daughter.

Mr. Owens, arrested at his office at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, was charged with attempted aggravated sexual assault. He was in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center late Tuesday in lieu of $300,000 bail and could not be reached for comment.

Officials at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church did not return calls. Mr. Owens' attorney, State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, said he would not comment on the latest charge against his client.

"There is still a presumption in America that people are innocent until proven guilty," Mr. West said. "People should not be too quick to jump to conclusions... Let the legal system work and then make a decision."

At the time of his Monday arrest, he was awaiting trial on an aggravated sexual assault charge stemming from a March incident in which an 11-year-old girl reported that she was lured into the church rectory and molested. Mr. Owens was arrested a week later and released two days after that on a $35,000

Police said Tuesday that they had not determined the extent of the 3-year-old's injuries. Her mother, who is not being identified to protect the identity of her daughter, called police to her Mountain Creek home around 1:30 a.m. Monday. She told police she had just put her child to bed and went to sleep in the living room of her home, along with Mr. Owens, whom police described as a friend of hers. The woman said she woke up alone several minutes later and went to her child's room, where she found Mr. Owens nude and touching the girl's leg, officials said. The woman reported that the child's panties had been pulled down and her nightgown was raised.

(Attribution: Arizona Daily Star - Tucson, AZ Feb 24, 1998)

PIMA COUNTY, Az -- Minister William Roush gave one last fiery speech yesterday before a judge sentenced him to 29 years in prison for brutalizing his two stepsons.

"I ask for leniency because I did not do anything wrong," a defiant Roush told Judge John Leonardo.

A jury convicted Roush of breaking his 13-year-old step-son's arm with a *shovel*, threatening the boy with knives and beating his 10-year-old stepson with a rake handle so hard it broke.

"Everything has been taken away by the injustice of this United States court," Roush said as he argued that his wife concocted tales of abuse to get revenge against him.

According to court records, Mr. Wonderful attacked the boysafter one of them failed to rake the yard. After taking them into the garage, he locked the door and pummeled 'em with a rake handle until it broke on the younger boy.

About an hour later, Roush and the older boy were in the family's kitchen when the minister kicked the teen in the stomach, grabbed a knife and put the boy's head down on the counter with the knife to his neck.

9:34 PM 3/2/1998

Mom believed demon in baby, court is told

By ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA
Copyright 1998 Houston Chronicle

Evonne Rodriguez's mother testified Monday her daughter believed her infant son was possessed by demons when she killed him.

Victoria Rodriguez said her daughter told her on the phone Jan. 29, 1997, that demons had entered her baby and she had tried to pull them out.

"Mama, I'm trying to get the demons out of the baby. Mama, I'm like an instrument," the elder Rodriguez testified.

She said her daughter described a harrowing scene in her north Houston home in which "she heard a lot of screaming, screeching voices, pounding on the windows."

"Just awful, worse than hell, worse than Halloween, just like hell, mom," she said her daughter told her.

Later that night, Evonne Rodriguez, then 20, was charged with capital murder after confessing the day before to killing her 4-month-old son, Ramiro Isabel Valdez Jr., by beating him with her hand and choking him with a rosary.

Rodriguez reported to police Jan. 28 her baby had been kidnapped from a downtown mall restroom.

The next morning, she took suspicious investigators to Buffalo Bayou and showed them how she threw the baby, whom she had wrapped in a plastic bag, into the water. The infant's body was never found.

Mac Secrest, Rodriguez's attorney, is basing her defense on temporary insanity, saying she had been distraught over a bad relationship with her son's father.

The defendant's mother, who broke down several times, testified her daughter had bouts of depression and low self-esteem.

The elder Rodriguez never said her daughter admitted the killing during the phone conversation but she had asked her why she had concocted the kidnapping story.

She said her daughter believed authorities would accept the story.

Later in their conversation, the mother said, her daughter said everything was under control.

"She had a very strange tone, a very sickly tone in her voice," Victoria Rodriguez said.

From "The New Hampshire" Nov 25, 1997 (c) University of NH

NASHUA -Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua well re-examine its student safety policies following the arrest of a teacher charged with illegally teaching after an earlier sex conviction.

State law bans sex offenders from working with children.

Guertin officials knew of Brother Shawn McEnany's criminal record in Maine when they offered him a teaching position at the school in 1990.

Brother Leo Labbe, Guertin's headmaster, has defended that decision, but in a letter to parents he acknowledged that some parents and students at the school have disagreed with the choice.

He said that in hindsight, he perhaps should have considered that perspective.

-=-=-

(Gleaned elsewhere:)

A school spokesperson said that McEnany was not a risky hire because in 1990, the school was for boys only, and McEnany's 1988 conviction involved a girl.

-=-=-

And from "Education Week" January 1998:

Back For More?

A teacher in a Roman Catholic high school could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of breaking a New Hampshire law that bars convicted sexual offenders from working with children. The Hillsborough County attorney's office says that Brother Shawn McEnany broke the state prohibition by taking a job at the 800-student Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, two years after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor sexual-contact charge involving a 15-year-old female parochial school student in Maine.

Following a local journalist's inquiry, Nashua police investigated the matter and arrested Brother McEnany. A lawyer representing Brother McEnany says the teacher did not believe that the New Hampshire law, which went into effect after his Maine conviction, applied to a misdemeanor.

... Lord, save me from your followers!
* Origin: From the Northwest Corner of Nowhere (1:123/67.5)

* According to a September federal indictment in Des Moines, Iowa, Kenneth Ray Bruner (who is the stepson of a Pentacostal minister in Oklahoma City) led his seven accomplices in prayer three weeks earlier, asking for God's protection just before they set out to knock off Hermans Fine Jewelry. Bruner acknowledged, according to the indictment, "that they were going to do bad things but that they were not bad people." No one was hurt in the robbery, and everyone was behind bars by the following day.

Priest Gets Life For Sex Assaults

.c The Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) - A suspended priest convicted of molesting altar boys was sentenced to life in prison less than a year after the scandal led to a record $119.6 million verdict against the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

Rudolph ``Rudy'' Kos, 52, was sentenced Wednesday for convictions on three counts of aggravated sexual assault. He also was sentenced to 20-year prison terms for convictions on four other counts. He had pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child.

Kos will be eligible to seek parole in 15 years.

``He's gotten what he deserved. It should be death, but he got the most that the law allows,'' said Wade Schlosstein, one of those who accused Kos of assault.

The charges arose from the claims of four former altar boys who told police they were molested about 1,350 times over five years from the time they were 10, 11 or 12 years old.

Before the sentences were announced, some of Kos' accusers addressed him in court.

``Because of you, I thought I wasn't even deserving of my own family. And I asked you why, why you should do this to me?'' Robert Hultz said. ``I hope you never forget my eyes and the pain you have caused.

``It is men like you that bedevil our society, and thank God you will no longer be a part of it.''

As one of his accusers addressed him, Kos called out: ``You're a liar.''

Some victims and their families said they will fight his attempts for parole.

``There's no more you can do to the man than put him away for life and I hope he stays there,'' said Pat Lemberger, whose 21-year-old-son Jay killed himself in 1992, allegedly after years of Kos' abuse. ``Fifteen years from now, if he's eligible for parole, I will be at the parole board, I can tell you that.''

Last year, another jury returned the multimillion-dollar verdict against the Dallas diocese in lawsuits filed on behalf of 11 men who accused the diocese of covering up for Kos' assaults at three area churches from 1981 to 1992. It was the largest clergy sexual abuse award in U.S. history.

Last month, the diocese reached a $7.5 million settlement with three of the 11 plaintiffs in the civil case. Eight plaintiffs remain in mediation with the diocese.

After the sentencing, the Diocese said in a statement: ``We hope with the conclusion of the criminal cases that all of us can move forward with the healing process.''

AP-NY-04-02-98 0316EST

Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

HARTFORD-- Former church deacon Edward Brown, Jr. has been sentenced to 18 years in the joint for raping two teenage parishioners -- one of whom had his baby.

The first victim,19-year-old Kristina Berry, was just 6 years old when Brown first started molesting her. She became pregnant in 1994 -- when she was 14.

Berry concealed the pregnancy from her parents and gave birth to a daughter --who she named Shykyla -- alone at home. She placed the baby in a doll crib in her room. One morning she awoke to find the baby "stone cold," so she put its body in a plastic bag and walked down the street.

"I threw it in a dumpster and I said, `Lord, please forgive me for this.' "

Shykyla's body was never found.

Berry's mother later discovered the truth and confronted Brown, who then confessed before his congregation.

After he pleaded guilty in Berry's case, another teen -- this time a family member -- came forward to say that she, too, had been molested -- starting at age 5.

Deacon Gets 18 Years for Rape
APRIL. 04, 03:31 EST

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A former church deacon who fathered a child with a young parishoner was sentenced to 18 years in prison for raping that girl and another.

As one of his victims watched from the gallery, Edward Brown Jr., 39, asked for forgiveness ``for all I have done to her -- to all of you who put your trust in me.''

Kristina Berry, who was 6 when Brown first started molesting her, had little sympathy. ``If I were him, I would not be concerned with what the court's done for him; I'd be concerned about what punishment God has for him,'' she said.

Berry said she was raped several times by Brown and became pregnant in 1994 at age 14. She hid the pregnancy and gave birth alone in her room. When the baby died a short time later, she threw away the body, which has never been found.

Six months after the birth, Berry said she broke down. Doctors at first could not believe the hysterical girl had a baby, but a medical examination showed she had given birth.

After Brown pleaded guilty to raping Berry, one of his family members also came forward to accuse the former deacon of molesting her since age 5.

``I don't consider you a religious person or a man of God,'' Judge Patrick Clifford told Brown. ``I don't think that someone who could do this for such a long period of time can be a man of God.''