Hosanna Coverup

In April, 2005, Louis Lamonica, Pastor of the Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, walked into the sheriff's office and made a bizarre confession.

From Newsweek, May 3, 2005:

Louis Lamonica walked into the sheriff's department in tiny Livingston, La., a few weeks ago and asked to speak with a detective. According to police, for almost the next two hours the middle-aged preacher, dressed casually in a green polo shirt and green slacks, proceeded to tell a story so sickening they could scarcely believe what they were hearing. He explained that he was the former pastor of Hosanna Church, a now defunct house of worship in nearby Ponchatoula. Matter-of-factly and without remorse, Lamonica said that he and other church members had molested children, and taught them to have sex with each other, as well as with a dog. He told the detectives that he drank cat blood, and poured it on the bodies of his young victims, according to Ponchatoula Police Chief David Vitter.

When he had finished talking, Lamonica was arrested by the stunned detectives, who charged him with two counts of aggravated rape of a child under 13 and a charge of crime against nature. According to police, Lamonica was confused by the cops' reaction. "He was somewhat shocked when he found out we were going to arrest him," Detective Stan Carpenter told NEWSWEEK.

From the May 22 article in the The Advocate:

Edwards said members of a Ponchatoula church carried out the practices for years as part of a devil-worshipping ritual involving cat blood.

"This is hard to talk about and harder to believe, but some of the suspects have told us their intention in all of this was devil worshipping," Edwards said.

Edwards said earlier in the week that the people involved in the cult reportedly had sex with children and animals from 1999 until the church disbanded in 2003.

The investigation by the Livingston and Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's offices, the FBI and the Ponchatoula Police Department is continuing, he said.

The Advocate then reported on May 26th:

Deputies also went to Ohio to bring back items seized by FBI agents from a storage unit rented by Nicole Bernard. The Associated Press reported that the search warrant for the storage unit in Ohio indicated agents seized a mattress, videos and nine garbage bags of costumes.

Detectives on Monday searched a Hammond storage unit rented by Patricia Pierson, 54, and found shotguns and a sword, Edwards said. Pierson was arrested Monday night when she arrived at the Baton Rouge Metro Airport.

Edwards said he did not know if any costumes were found in Pierson's storage unit.

Victims and suspects have told deputies that costumes and puppets were used in the rituals, sometimes to persuade the children to participate. Detectives also believe that members dressed in black to perform rituals that included cat blood on a pentagram.

Nicole Bernard, one of the church members, also spoke of the storage unit:

According to a search warrant, Bernard told police she had evidence to prove that members of the alleged church cult had assaulted her 5-year-old daughter and other children. She also said evidence was in a storage unit on Morse Road.

Bernard said she had tapes and videos that belonged to the church, Burton reported. The FBI and police recovered bedding, photos and videos that may show some of the alleged sex acts with the children and could help law enforcement identify other children, Burton reported.

Even the Public Defender for some of the accused seemed to agree that something cultish, involving sex/blood magick had taken place:

Tangipahoa Public Defender Reggie McIntyre represents 4 suspects in the case.

"There is no physical evidence," said McIntyre. "Everything is either innuendo, hear-say or statements from a third party."

The public defender says from what he knows and what he's heard, if crimes did occur at the Hosanna Church, they don't come close to rising to the level of aggravated rape of a juvenile which carries the death penalty in Louisiana.

"The devil cult you have there, you play with blood and all that kind of stuff and it could be endangerment to the children," said McIntyre. "It could be to the point where there is some sexual gratification or some molestation involved here, but not the sexual aggravated rape."

An AP article on June 11 states:

Edwards stopped short of saying the cult consisted of devil-worshipers, but said some of the defendants told investigators that ''devil worship was the reason for their participation." Edwards added that defendants and witnesses also gave statements saying a dog was sexually abused and at least two cats were sacrificed.

And most damning of all is the NYT article from May 25:

Nine people have been arrested in the past week. A dozen computers have been seized, at least some of which the police believe contain child pornography, as well as dozens of videotapes, hundreds of computer disks and eight large boxes of documents and photographs. Inside the shuttered church compound, in a "youth hall" behind the sanctuary, the police found the faint imprint of pentagrams on the floor that someone had apparently tried to scrub away. Some of those arrested, the police said, described rituals within those pentagrams involving cats' blood and people dressed in black robes.

So we have the initial confession from Lamonica, and many other confessions directly admitting cult activity, a storage shed with costumes, hundreds of computers disks, boxes of photographs, and a fucking imprint of a pentagram on the floor.

So, with all that evidence, what do we read in today's Advocate?

The occult has been suggested as a motive for the crimes, but no evidence of occult-type activities has been found, sheriff's Detective Mike DePhillips has testified. The detective was called to the witness stand during hearings for the defendants on Wednesday and last week.

The alleged occult connection also is not part of the court case as it stands, Wall has said.

Wow, I'm really glad that's cleared up! Nothing to see here, folks. Keep moving.

And people who claim to have been ritually abused are accused of being out-of-touch with reality.

Rick Ross has done a good job compiling the news reports here:

http://www.rickross.com/groups/hosanna.html

And Rigorous Intuition has some insightful commentary, as always.