A New Mexico State Appeals court has ordered Wayne Bent, aka Michael Travesser, to be released from prison. In short, the court ruled that the term of the grand jury that indicted Mr. Bent had been extended and that was outside of State statute. Therefore the indictment was void and there were no grounds to prosecute and sentence Mr. Bent. “Judge Rod Kennedy wrote the opinion for a unanimous three-judge panel, saying the grand jury’s term had expired but then was arbitrarily extended by the district court. “Legally speaking, there was no grand jury convened in this case. Therefore, there was no indictment under the law…” Kennedy wrote. He said the state was free to retry Bent if it chooses. From a news release found here: http://www.daily-times.com/ci_18378400 . We certainly hope the State of New Mexico decides to retry the case.
For a little background, Wayne Bent is now 70 years old and has been the leader of a small religious cult in New Mexico called “Strong City”. We have referred to his group in previous posts and have shared about one survivor of that group named Prudence Welch. Though there have been no recent updates, her blog is found here: http://www.travesser.info/ . From the National Geographic® site: “Doomsday cult leader Michael Travesser prophesied that the world would end October 31, 2007 — but what happened?” National Geographic® has also done a video series and has a page on their website about this group. Here is the link: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/inside-a-cult-3401/Overview#tab-Overview
The video is below. Within the first 20 seconds, Wayne Bent is shown saying, “I am the embodiment of God. I am divinity and humanity combined.” As mentioned before, it is the deed and not the creed. He can believe that all he wants. But, when Wayne Bent encourages young girls who were/are minors to lay naked in his bed and then hold them; I have a problem with that.