New York teen dies after hours-long beating at church
Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York couple was charged with manslaughter in the death of their 19-year-old son after allegedly beating him for hours during a family counseling session inside the "sanctuary room" of an upstate Christian church, police said on Wednesday.
The victim's parents, Bruce Leonard, 65, and Deborah Leonard, 59, were arraigned on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty. They were being held in lieu of $100,000 bail each.
In addition, four of the couple's fellow parishioners were charged with assaulting the teenager's younger brother on Sunday at the Word of Life Church in Chadwicks, New York, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Syracuse.
"Both brothers were continually subjected to physical punishment over the course of several hours in the hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness," Michael Inserra, chief of the New Hartford Police, said at a news conference.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/york-teen-dies-hours-long-beating-church-police-202918560.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Killing in Upstate New York Church Offers Glimpses at a Secretive Sect
By JESSE McKINLEY and BENJAMIN MUELLEROCT. 14, 2015
[font size=1]
Bruce T. Leonard and Deborah Leonard were charged on Tuesday with first-degree manslaughter in the death of their son Lucas.
Credit Mark Diorio/Observer-Dispatch, via Associated Press
[/font]
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. — To its neighbors in this upstate town, the Word of Life Christian Church presented itself as a constant curiosity: an imposing but tidy former schoolhouse whose occupants kept to themselves, almost never opening their doors or their mouths, secluded behind a closed entrance.
Over the last three days, however, the inner life of that secretive sect suddenly spilled into the outside world. On Sunday evening, the authorities said, two teenagers — brothers and the sons of two members of Word of Life — were called into a sanctuary and savagely beaten by at least a half-dozen people, including their parents and older half sister.
“Both brothers were continually subjected to physical punishment over the course of several hours, in hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness,” Chief Michael S. Inserra of the New Hartford Police Department said at a news conference on Wednesday.
It is not clear what those sins were, but for several hours, into Monday morning, punches and kicks landed on the brothers’ stomachs, genitals, backs and thighs, as the so-called counseling session turned into a case of manslaughter and assault.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/nyregion/lucas-leonard-beating-death-at-upstate-new-york-church.html?_r=0
[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Police: Brothers assaulted at Word of Life Church were being "punished"
By CNYCentral |Wednesday, October 14th 2015
[font size=1]
From left, Sarah Ferguson, 33, Linda Morey, 54, Joseph Irwin, 26, and David Morey, 26, are arraigned in front of Judge Bill M. Virkler after being charged with second-degree assault of 17-year-old Christopher T. Leonard, Teusday, Oct. 13, 2015 in New Hartford, N.Y. A central New York couple have been charged with fatally beating their 19-year-old son Lucas Leonard inside a church, and the four fellow church members have been charged with assault in an attack that also left the young man's brother Christopher severely injured, police said Tuesday. (Mark DiOrio/Observer-Dispatch via AP) ROME OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
[/font]
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. -- The brutal beatings at a New Hartford church that left one teen dead and another hospitalized were done as punishment, according to New Hartford Police Chief Michael Inserra.
Investigators say 19-year-old Lucas Leonard and 17-year-old Christopher Leonard were assaulted Monday during a counseling session at the Word Of Life Church on Oneida Street. Police declined to comment on why the teens were in a counseling session or if the sessions were routine for church members.
The investigation into the church began when family members brought Lucas to St. Luke's Hospital, where he later died.
Family members reported the teen had been shot, however, police now say Lucas suffered serious blunt force trauma to his head, chest, abdomen and genital areas.
More:
http://cnycentral.com/news/local/police-brothers-assaulted-at-word-of-life-church-were-being-punished
[center] 
The "Word of Life Church in Chadwicks, New York"[/center]
