Bruce And Deborah Leonard, She didn’t lift a finger to protect her boys. Deborah Leonard, who is charged with helping her husband and other members of the Word of Life Christian Church beat one son to death and badly injure another, “had no idea how far it would be taken,” her lawyer said Thursday.
“It looks like she went along with it, and it spun out of control,” Devin Garramone said Thursday. “This woman is so meek and timid, she didn't have the temerity to stand up to them and say, 'You're not punishing my kid. You're not doing this.’”
Garramone added that he doesn’t believe the 59-year-old mom actively beat her boys at the secretive church in New Hartford, N.Y.
Her 19-year-old son, Lucas, died from injuries suffered during a church “counseling session” where he and his brother were ordered to “confess their sins,” police said.His brother Christopher, 17, remains hospitalized and in serious condition.
Among those accused of beating them are their dad, Bruce Leonard, 65, who is a founding member of the church, and their 33-year-old sister, Sarah Ferguson.
The trio — along with three other members of the cult-like church — have pleaded not guilty.
Meanwhile, seven children — four of them Ferguson’s — have been removed from the church by state child welfare workers.The horrific beatings were uncovered after Lucas Leonard’s parents showed up on Monday at a local hospital with their beaten boy.
Lucas died at the hospital and within hours police raided the church’s headquarters — a former grade school — and the Leonards’ home in Clayville, N.Y.
They found Christopher Lucas on the second floor of the converted school after several hours of searching — and with zero help from his family.
Church members were so secretive they refused to let firefighters into their building when a small blaze broke out a couple years ago, said New Hartford Police Chief Michael Inserra.Neighbors of the church reported that the men in the flock usually came out after the sun set and often wore long black trench coats. They said the frequently heard strange chanting deep into the night.
The Leonards also kept to themselves, their neighbors reported. They insisted on homeschooling their kids, making them read the Bible for two hours every day. And they barred them from sleepovers with other kids — and from Halloween trick-or-treating.
“It looks like she went along with it, and it spun out of control,” Devin Garramone said Thursday. “This woman is so meek and timid, she didn't have the temerity to stand up to them and say, 'You're not punishing my kid. You're not doing this.’”
Garramone added that he doesn’t believe the 59-year-old mom actively beat her boys at the secretive church in New Hartford, N.Y.
Her 19-year-old son, Lucas, died from injuries suffered during a church “counseling session” where he and his brother were ordered to “confess their sins,” police said.His brother Christopher, 17, remains hospitalized and in serious condition.
Among those accused of beating them are their dad, Bruce Leonard, 65, who is a founding member of the church, and their 33-year-old sister, Sarah Ferguson.
The trio — along with three other members of the cult-like church — have pleaded not guilty.
Meanwhile, seven children — four of them Ferguson’s — have been removed from the church by state child welfare workers.The horrific beatings were uncovered after Lucas Leonard’s parents showed up on Monday at a local hospital with their beaten boy.
Lucas died at the hospital and within hours police raided the church’s headquarters — a former grade school — and the Leonards’ home in Clayville, N.Y.
They found Christopher Lucas on the second floor of the converted school after several hours of searching — and with zero help from his family.
Church members were so secretive they refused to let firefighters into their building when a small blaze broke out a couple years ago, said New Hartford Police Chief Michael Inserra.Neighbors of the church reported that the men in the flock usually came out after the sun set and often wore long black trench coats. They said the frequently heard strange chanting deep into the night.
The Leonards also kept to themselves, their neighbors reported. They insisted on homeschooling their kids, making them read the Bible for two hours every day. And they barred them from sleepovers with other kids — and from Halloween trick-or-treating.
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