The Latest: $20k Bond Remains for Member of Religious Sect

Associated Press
August 25, 2017

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The Latest on a New Mexico military-style Christian sect facing child abuse charges (all times local):

11:50 a.m.

A judge has refused to lower bond for a member of a New Mexico paramilitary religious sect who faces child abuse charges.

Cibola County Magistrate Judge Larry Diaz said Friday that recent events surrounding the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps were getting "serious" and he couldn't lower bond for Stacey Miller.

Miller faces one count each of intentional abuse of a child between the ages of 12 and 18, bribery of a witness and not reporting a birth. Authorities say she failed to give her 12-year-old son medical treatment for the flu and he later died.

She is being held on $20,000 security cash bond.

Cibola County Undersheriff Michael Munk says Miller is still a member of the commune and authorities believe she and others facing charges in the child abuse investigation are flight risks.

Munk says four more sect members were arrested Wednesday night as they tried to flee the area. A defense attorney says those four were traveling to Albuquerque to meet with him.

The leader of a New Mexico paramilitary religious sect rocked by child sexual abuse allegations says "hundreds of kids" have safely passed through the group's compound in New Mexico.

But James Green told the KOB-TV in Albuquerque (https://goo.gl/mY9EKV ) on Thursday that the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps teaches children living at a secluded compound to avoid speaking with law enforcement because members have experienced "tons of persecution" over the years in California, Oregon and New Mexico.

Green told the station the compound had been subjected to drive-by shootings and unlawful raids by law enforcement agencies.

He says child sexual abuse charges filed against his wife, Deborah, were "all fake."

Deborah Green and seven other members are facing various charges in connection with a child abuse and child sex abuse investigation.

Green is asking Gov. Susana Martinez to visit the commune.