Extreme abuse recalled by mom
SCRIBA – During the mid- 1980s, newspapers from coast to coast carried reports on court actions taken against the Northeast Community Church for the alleged beating of children as well as truancy.
Ex-church members were coming forward with detailed accounts of how church children were being punished; stripped naked, boys and girls, from toddlers to teens, and beaten for hours upon hours with a thin wooden stick. Reports said the children were beaten from neck to ankle.
With search warrants in hand, Vermont state officials and police raided the communal homes of the church members and rounded up all the children for physical and psychological exams. However, before the examinations could take place, a Vermont district judge stepped in and refused the state permission to conduct the examinations. According to court reports, the judge felt there was far from enough evidence to warrant a mass raid on the church people.
During her two years with the cult, Laurie Marrano Johnson said she was aware that such beatings were taking place.
I remember this one mother whose baby son would cry at the (communal) dinner table,” the former church member recalled. “She would take the child out of the room and beg him with tears in her eyes to stop crying … She was terrified (the elders) would beat her one-year old son.”
She remembers with great pain witnessing the punishment of a six-year-old boy whose father had recently died.
“His father had been known as a liar in the community. The elders wanted everyone to believe his death was caused by his lying … No one really knows how he died; some kind of accident,” Laurie said. “They continually told the boy he was destined to be a liar because his father was. One day the little boy told a meaningless fib … As punishment, he was laid in a box (used to symbolize a coffin), the lid was closed, and he was told he was dead. We were all gathered around to watch, even the children. ”
Laurie paused, wiped the tears from her eyes and continued, “He was crying and screaming and begging to be let out. My son, Nathan was crying and pulling on my arm and saying, “Mommy, please let him out.” I didn’t move…. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I just couldn’t believe it.
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