The Raid in Island Pond
In the pre-dawn hours of June 22, 1984, a swarm of police officers and social workers, with the approval of state officials all the way to the governor’s office (Governor Snelling was the governor at the time), raided the Island Pond group. They seized 112 of the group’s children and bused them to Newport with hopes that the judge would give the state temporary custody of the children so they could interview the children and look for signs of abuse. However, later that same day Orleans District Court Judge Frank Mahady ruled the raid unconstitutional and sent the children home with their parents.
Newspaper Accounts of the Raid
Following are portions of an article that appeared in the June 25, 1984 issue of the Newport Daily Express. It was written by Kenn Stokes.
Residents’ Reactions Range from Grim to Outrage
Friday’s confrontation between church and state in Newport ranged the spectrum of emotions from outrage to grim, if not reluctant support of the mass round up and court order appearance of 112 children of the Northeast Kingdom Community Church.
One woman bystander allowed that she’d never “seen anything like this in my life,” while another passerby likened the scene to the mass confinement of Japanese U.S. Citizens in the wake of Pearl Harbor and this country’s entrance into World War II.
Of the local attorneys called upon by the Newport District Court to serve as counsel for the accused church families, one Duncan Kilmartin, was particularly outspoken and moved to action by what he termed “the state’s conspiracy to violate these people’s constitutional rights.”
Kilmartin stated flatly that he had telephoned the Attorney Generals off in Washington, D.C. requesting as a citizen, that a federal investigation be launched into Friday’s actions by Vermont state officials.
He said further that he suggested in his request made Friday that what he’d seen warranted investigation by both the FBI and a federal grand jury.
In comments to the press, Kilmartin called the event “a day of infamy for Vermont….” adding, in reference to the church members under detention in the city gymnasium, “These people are not criminals… the real criminals are the ones who signed (and gave) the order to perpetrate this outrage. It’s reminiscent of the persecution of Jews in Poland during (the thirties)” the lawyer intoned. When he likened the Friday proceedings to religious persecution, a press question was put as to what the remedy should be. To this Kilmartin responded: “The ones who should be arrested start with the (state) attorney and work right on down.”
“And if the governor was involved, then he should be included,” he added in response to a follow-up query about Richard Snelling’s apparent prior knowledge….
But not all passersby and on-hand observers were in agreement that the church members were victims of a heavy-handed state inquisition.
Some openly supported the state’s action, extraordinary or not, in attempting to find out the truth, if any, to longstanding suspicions of child abuse and neglect due to ordained church practices.
“It’s something they should have done a year ago,” said one observer.
“It’s about time someone did something to try and protect those children,” noted another bystander….
Town Constable Ted Miller sipped coffee with friends at Jennifer’s Restaurant. “You know what I think?” he said. “I think somebody didn’t do their homework. This whole thing will end up a big waste of taxpayers’ money and nothing will be done.”
The burley lawman said townspeople were divided about the massive raid, much as they have been divided about the church since it arrived four years ago and began buying up property.
“Some people think it (the raid) is the best thing that could have happened,” he said. “Others compare it to the Gestapo or how we locked up the Japanese when World War II started.”
For his part, Miller said he has never had any problems with church members, only with people damaging their property.
And he added, he has seen no firsthand evidence of child abuse.
“They discipline their children, sure,” he said. “We all do. And maybe they’re a little harsh.
“It’s a crazy thing,” Miller said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just wish it would be over and things would get back to normal.”
The following article appears in the June 27, 1984 issue of the Newport Daily Express. No author is noted.
Gov. Snelling Judge Clash On Roundup
State officials who said they raided a religious commune to rescue battered children from their abusive parents did not have “a single piece of evidence” to support their charges, a judge says.
But Gov. Richard Snelling claims the raid on the Northeast Kingdom Community Church near the Canadian border was warranted and says he’ll take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
The clash between Snelling and District Court Judge Frank Mahady came Tuesday, four days after a 100 state police and social workers armed with search warrants converged on the church shortly after dawn Friday in the rural town of Island Pond.
A total of 112 children and their parents were routed from 20 church occupied homes, herded into buses and taken to nearby Newport while officials sought a court order to detain them for examination and questions.
Mahady, who ordered the children released 16 hours after the raid, also told state police Tuesday to turn over to the court pictures of the youngsters, apparently taken to support claims of abuse.
In a strongly worded attack on the raid, Mahady accused state officials of trying to hold the children “hostage” in order to get information about the secretive sect from their parents.
“There is not a single piece of evidence in the material submitted that documents a single act of abuse or neglect with regard to any of 112 children,” he wrote.
“The theory is that there is some evidence of some abuse at some time in the past of some children in the past in the community. The same, of course, may be shown of Middlebury, Burlington, Rutland, Newport, or any other community. Such generalized assumptions do not warrant mass raids.”
The fundamentalist sect, which moved from Tennessee in 1978, and now numbers about 400 members, advocates what it considers biblically mandated corporal punishment to discipline its children.
Mahady noted church parents were told their children would be returned to them if no signs of abuse were found provided the parents cooperated by giving information to police.
“Thus, not only were the children to be treated the same as mere pieces of evidence, there were also to be held hostage to the ransom demand of information from their parents,” the judge said.
“One’s right to the care, custody and control of one’s children is a fundamental liberty,” the judge said. “Had the court issued the detention order requested by the state, it would have made itself a party to this grossly unlawful scheme.”
Snelling, facing the harshest criticism of his eight years in office over the incident, defended the raid to protect the children from what he said were allegations of widespread abuse by church parents.
He said the state would pursue every legal remedy to safeguard the children, including appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.
“Clearly, there are rights here that appear to be in conflict,” the governor said. But he said, “The action that we took made it possible to secure and protect the rights of the children. We did not deprive adults of any rights.
“I believe it is entirely possible that the action we have taken will contribute to the safety and protection of those children,” he said.
Snelling also denied charges the state’s action infringed on the religious freedom of the sect, whose members generally live at arm’s length from non-church members, and to not send their children to school or to doctors.
“I am not believing that membership in a church changes the responsibility of parents towards minor children,” he said.
He also said it was legal for the state to seize a large group of children whose names were not listed on the search warrants, and to take custody of a group of children it has evidence that only a few of them are being abused.
Snelling denounced characterizations of the roundup as a “raid,” as well as suggestions it was akin to methods used by the Nazis during World War II.
“The Nazis seized people in the middle of the night without a court order. They acted as judge and a jury and an executioner,” he said. “We asked a judge for permission to take some children before another judge.”
Twenty-four years after the raid, members of the Twelve Tribes, as they call themselves now, still call Island Pond their home, just in smaller numbers, about 35 members total. They are an important part of the community. One of their businesses, Simon the Tanner, a shoe and clothing store, is one of the centerpieces of that community. Now with about 3,000 members, Twelve Tribes has more than 50 communities including in Brattleboro, and Rutland, Vermont, and Lancaster, New Hampshire. In addition they have communities in such widespread places as Canada, Australia, England, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Argentina. No matter how big the group has grown and spread, they have never forgotten the man who, through his interpretation of the Constitution, set their children free—the late Judge Frank Mahady.
