Judge OKs force feeding cult leader

LOS LUNAS, N.M. (KRQE) - An imprisoned cult leader on a hunger strike won't be getting home-cooked meals from his followers and instead may be force fed through a tube, a District Court judge decided Wednesday.

Wayne Bent is serving a 10-year prison sentence for sexual misconduct with two underage female cult members.

He hasn't eaten since Sept. 11 and stopped accepting water a few days ago. Bent said he's refusing food because accepting it from the state is like bowing to an idol.

Instead he wants his cult members to bring him home-cooked food for the rest of his prison sentence.

The leader of the Lord Our Righteous Church centered in a remote Union County compound is gaunt, pale and in a wheelchair.

On Wednesday the state asked District Judge John Pope to deny Bent's request.

During the hearing Pope allowed Bent to drink orange juice brought by his followers, but eventually ruled that the state can force feed Bent.

Judge Pope said this while making his decision,

“None of us knows if today is the day, the day of our death, but our Lord," Pope said from the bench. "We will all meet him on that day and hopefully it won't be for a very long time for Mr. Bent or any of us, but I am not going to hasten that for Mr. Bent."

After the ruling Bent’s son Jeff said his father has chosen not to live with the lie of his conviction.

“A person can't live with a feeding tube up their nose for their whole life," Jeff Bent said. "The prison is going to have to resolve him, and I know that he has resolved not to live in prison under a lie."

The elder Bent has always insisted he did nothing wrong when he got into bed naked with two young girls who were his followers for religious, not sexual, purposes.

A doctor with the state Corrections Department will decide when to insert a feeding tube. Bent's lawyer said his client won't fight it.