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	Guilty Plea Entered in Ponchatoula Sexual-abuse Case By David J. Mitchell The Advocate February 17, 2009 http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/39743437.html Prison time could be avoided with plea AMITE — The estranged wife of a former church pastor convicted in a child sexual-abuse scandal at a now-defunct Ponchatoula church pleaded guilty late this morning to obstruction of justice under an agreement with prosecutors. Under the terms of her “best interests of justice” plea, Robbin Lamonica, 49, of Hammond, could avoid any prison time in connection with charges from the case, attorneys on both sides said. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss three counts of aggravated rape and four counts of aggravated oral sexual battery in exchange for the guilty plea entered today before Judge Zorraine M. “Zoey” Waguespack at the Tangipahoa Parish Courthouse in Amite. Waguespack deferred sentencing for two years during which Lamonica will be under supervised probation. If she completes probation without problems, attorneys said, the court would dismiss the case as called for under state criminal procedure. Prosecution and defense attorneys also said Lamonica has agreed to testify at future trials in the Hosanna case, which has raised lurid child sex charges amid allegations of satanic rituals at the church. Seven members of Hosanna Church have been indicted or convicted in connection with the alleged child sex ring. Juries have convicted former Hosanna pastor Louis D. Lamonica, Robbin Lamonica’s estranged husband, and Austin “Trey” Bernard III on allegations of child rape. Lamonica is serving four concurrent life sentences and Bernard three consecutive life sentences. Neither side specified today how exactly Lamonica obstructed justice, but Assistant District Attorney Don Wall asked the court to enter the entire record from Bernard’s and Louis Lamonica’s trials into the record of Robbin Lamonica’s case as the factual basis for the obstruction charge. Wall said a “best interests of justice” plea is similar to a no contest plea. The defendant does not admit to a specific act but admits that prosecutors have enough evidence to get a conviction on the charge in question.
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