AMITE (LA)
The Advocate
By DEBRA LEMOINE
dlemoine@theadvocate.com
AMITE -- State judges signed new arrest warrants Thursday for seven of the nine alleged members of the Ponchatoula child-sex ring, adding a total of 19 felony counts to the list of crimes for which they face prosecution.
Three weeks ago, deputies began arresting people in connection with an alleged cult operating out of the Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula. Investigators accused members of raping children as part of occult rituals.
The new warrants increase the number of crimes the defendants are accused of committing and also add counts by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office for Hosanna pastor Louis David Lamonica and his wife, Robbin, said Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's spokeswoman Laura Covington.
Until Thursday's action by Tangipahoa Parish authorities, the estranged couple, both 45, had been arrested and held in Livingston Parish in connection with crimes allegedly committed only in Livingston Parish.
Posted by kshaw at June 3, 2005 07:39 AM