Church’s Web site: Wayne Bent arrested

Updates (October 31):

Photo: Wayne Bent in ambulance waving to church members (strongcity.info)

‘Messiah’ Cult Leader Arrested (Albuquerque Journal / subscription required)

Wayne Bent, who says he’s been anointed by God as the Messiah, was a no-show for a Las Vegas motions hearing in his criminal case. State District Judge Gerald E. Baca, who had specifically asked Bent to appear at the hearing in person, ordered that Bent be arrested when only his defense attorney showed up. Bent recently promised to stop cooperating with court proceedings. (Albuquerque Journal)

The legal question before Baca on Wednesday was to consider a change of venue for Bent’s upcoming trial, which the judge granted. Bent was scheduled to begin a weeklong trial Nov. 17 in Clayton, and it will now be in Taos at an undetermined date.
Baca agreed with defense attorney Sarah Montoya that Bent could not have a fair trial there.

Montoya pointed to answers to questionnaires mailed to jurors that indicate bias on the part of many of those who responded. “Some of these people said, ‘I hope he is found guilty,’ ” said Montoya. “It’s an out and out taint.” (Albuquerque Journal)

Apocalyptic Church Leader Arrested for Failure to Appear in Court (FOX News)
Cult leader arrested for failure to appear (KOB-TV/AP)

Thursday afternoon’s headline at strongcity.info:

Michael Travesser Arrested

The Union County Sheriff’s Office came to Strong City and arrested Wayne Bent aka Michael Travesser at about 4:30 PM. His arrest was ordered by Judge Gerald E. Baca. He was transported to the hospital in Clayton by ambulance. Mr. Bent commenced his “no water or food” fast as he was driven out the gate. His fast will continue until he is delivered. The fast at Strong City will continue until our deliverance.

Update on court docs

No doubt some of the regular readers of this blog have been looking forward to the publishing of certain court documents related to the most recent developments in the Bent case. Please know that requests for public records have been made.

Update on “Return to Castle Dome, part 2“

Many of you have been patiently waiting for the Beyond90Seconds.com video about Wayne Bent and his church, Return to Castle Dome, part 2. I’d thought you might be interested in this update.

My goal had been to have that video available on this Web site today (Thursday, October 30). Unfortunately, while in the homestretch of editing the project at 3 o’clock this morning, my computer crashed. It all added up to a sleepless night and a trip to a local computer store.

The good news: A service tech just called to say the hard drive and its data have been saved. The operating system must be reinstalled, though. The cause of the crash was “a bad strip of RAM” that must be replaced. I won’t have my computer back until Monday, though. The project itself was stored on an external hard drive, so what’s been edited so far should be okay (fingers crossed).

Return to Castle Dome, part 2 features an interview with a man named Allen Armstrong. Armstrong is a former minister in Bent’s church who now speaks critically of Bent.

Return to Castle Dome, part 2 also features Wayne Bent’s reaction to Armstrong’s remarks. While Bent declined a phone interview, he did provide responses by e-mail on October 26 (the 18th day of his “final fast”).

Bottom line: Assuming the computer store gets my machine back to me when promised, and the video that’s been edited so far remains on the external hard drive, my goal is to post Return to Castle Dome, part 2 on Tuesday, November 4.

Part 1 of Return to Castle Dome can be viewed here.