Police probed Union County cult before

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - New Mexico State Police have had the Strong City religious compound on their radar for years before this week's arrest of the cult's leader on charges of sexual misconduct with young girls.

Officers have investigated the cult several times over the last five years.  However State Police Capt. Schilling said most complaints about what's been going on at the compound in rural Union County turned out to be false.

One warning alleged that during the 2004 Easter weekend the cult members planned to turn the place into another Jonestown, a reference to the 1978 mass murder-suicide of more than 900 people at a religious commune that included the killing of a U. S. congressman there to investigate allegations of abuse.

"There was a contemplation of a mass suicide at the Strong City compound," State Police Capt. Robert Schilling told KRQE News 13.  "Obviously it did not occur, but the information was brought to law enforcement's attention."

And the recent charges of sex crimes against minors that led to the arrest of cult leader Wayne Bent's are not the first time State Police have heard about that kind of thing.

"You can't take away either from the fact that for some reason we have a pattern of conduct over several year, not just the past three weeks," Schilling said.

Cult members have usually cooperated with police, he continued.  However he would not reveal what Bent told officers when they picked him up at the compound in northern Union County on Tuesday.

"We did conduct an interview, and I will leave it at that," Schilling said.

Bent, who also calls himself Michael Travesser and the son of God, was arraigned in Clayton Thursday on charges of criminal sexual contact of a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

State Police said to the best of their knowledge there are no more children at the Strong City compound.

Investigators have said they are not planning any more arrests in the case.