COLUMBUS (OH)
NBC4i
POSTED: 4:09 pm EDT May 24, 2005
UPDATED: 5:11 pm EDT May 24, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- FBI agents and local police searched a storage unit located along Morse Road Tuesday in connection with an alleged sex scandal linked to a New Orleans-area church, NBC 4's Nancy Burton reported.
The storage unit was searched after one of the suspects, Nicole Bernard, told investigators that it held evidence of a satanic pedophile ring.
Bernard made her first court appearance Tuesday in Franklin County after being arrested Thursday by Reynoldsburg police at a home in Blacklick and charged with aggravated rape. Bernard's husband, a church pastor and a sheriff's deputy were arrested in Louisiana. All are accused of sexually abusing children -- including some related to them, Burton reported. A search warrant indicated that animals also were involved, Burton reported.
Nine people in all have been arrested, according to WDSU-TV in New Orleans.
Police said the satanic pedophile ring went on for four years. The sex scandal allegedly occurred at the Hosanna Church, located 60 miles north of New Orleans.
A pastor in Louisiana owns the house Bernard was living in in Blacklick.
Posted by kshaw at May 24, 2005 06:08 PM