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	Ex-hosanna Pastor: Confession Forced By Debra Lemoine The Advocate August 30, 2008 http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/27687024.html AMITE — Former Hosanna Church pastor Louis D. Lamonica told a Tangipahoa Parish jury Friday that he falsely confessed to child rape because he thought it would be the only way to get his wife and children back. Lamonica, 49, of Hammond, is on trial in the 21st Judicial District Court on four counts of aggravated rape of his sons when they were age 11 or younger. Seven church members were indicted in 2005 on charges of molesting children. Lamonica is the second among them to go on trial. Lamonica’s attorney, Michael Thiel, maintained in questioning his client Friday that Lamonica falsely confessed to child rape because he was being controlled by a woman who claimed to be a prophet of God. Assistant District Attorney Don Wall asserted in his cross-examination of Lamonica that Lamonica allowed himself to be controlled out of fear that church members would go to the authorities with proof of his sex crimes. While Thiel had his client on the stand Friday, Lamonica talked about his troubled marriage and his failed ministry at his late father’s church in Ponchatoula. Lois Mowbray, the so-called prophet, took control of the church and began to control his wife and the remaining handful of congregants by 2003, Lamonica testified. Mowbray, 56, formerly of Ponchatoula, had been arrested by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office in May 2005 as an accessory after the fact to rape and failure to report a felony. Mowbray was never charged by the District Attorney’s Office and was never brought before a Tangipahoa Parish grand jury. After his wife forced him to move into the church in 2003, Lamonica testified, his wife told him to work for an electrical company owned by Mowbray and other church members for $10 a day or she would divorce him and take his sons away. “I really don’t want a divorce,” Lamonica testified. “I really want to work this out.” After working 10-hour days installing wiring, Lamonica then would work around the church doing chores, such as scrubbing doors and toilets with toothbrushes, he testified. For a while, Lamonica said, he had to wear a dress and two rubber snakes representing his mother and aunt because they were “pharaohs,” Lamonica testified. Church members once shaved his head and called him “pharaoh” as well, he said. “She convinced herself she was like Moses and Tangipahoa was coming out of Egypt,” Lamonica said, referring to the biblical story of Moses leading the Jews people out of slavery in Egypt. “Pharaoh was blocking the way.” In addition to suffering humiliation, Lamonica often was beaten by other church members, he testified. Or, the other church members would pace around him while cursing him in the name of God, he said. In 2003, Lamonica testified, he was told to make a written confession about every woman he had lusted after in his lifetime. “I was told to write, so this is what I wrote,” Lamonica said. “I figured that was it.” In 2004, Lamonica testified, he was approached again to write about raping his sons. By this time, the torture and sleep deprivation had stopped, but he was still not allowed to go home to his wife. “The only way to get out of this thing is to keep writing,” Lamonica said. “I thought: ‘What’s it going to hurt? They’re going to burn it.’” In May 2005, only days after Lamonica’s wife helped him get an apartment in Natalbany, church members began pressuring him to go to the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and confess to taking part in a child-sex cult, Lamonica testified. Lamonica said he was told to ask for a deal in exchange for information and that he would not be arrested. “What it came down to was I wanted to go home,” Lamonica said. “My only avenue home was through Lois Mowbray. I had to do whatever she told me to do.” On cross-examination, Wall had Lamonica repeat some of his previous explanations of why he confessed and pressed the defendant for reasons why he allowed others to force him to do things. Wall asked Lamonica why he didn’t leave a church where members repeatedly accused him of stealing money and molesting his children. “And you just took that?” Wall asked. “Yes, I did, and we’re here today because of it,” Lamonica said. “If it was true, there was not a whole lot you could do about it, was there?” Wall quipped. On another occasion, Wall noted that Mowbray had already left town with a church member and a young girl he was accused of raping in May 2005. His sons had already spoken to authorities about the alleged rapes. “Didn’t you walk into that police station because you knew your boys were talking and you were trapped like a rat?” Wall asked. Lamonica responded that he didn’t know who had left town or that his sons spoke to authorities. But Lamonica acknowledged that he said he believed it was possible his wife might have brought the boys to authorities during his interrogation. The trial is in recess until Wednesday morning, when the courthouse is expected to reopen after the Hurricane Gustav emergency, state District Judge Zoey Waguespack said in court Friday.
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