SANDPOINT (ID)
Priest River Times
February 7, 2018
By Keith Kinnaird
A Priest River man awaiting trial on ritualized and sexual abuse charges is petitioning to have his named changed.
Dana Andrew Furtney seeks to change his name to Benaiah Joy Moses, according to a petition filed in Bonner County Magistrate Court.
Furtney said in the petition that he is pursuing the name change for “prophetic and spiritual reasons.” He cites two biblical passages — Revelations 2:17 and John 3:5-8. The latter passage refers to Jesus’ stating that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless “they are born of water and spirit.”
Furtney explains in the petition that he was “born again of water and in the spirit” at 7:37 a.m. on Dec. 1, 2017, in Pod 500 of the Bonner County Jail. It appears to have occurred in the hours leading up to his arraignment in 1st District Court on 14 felony charges ranging from ritualized abuse, sexual abuse of a child, felony injury to a child and domestic battery. Furtney entered pleas of not guilty during the hearing.
Furtney, 49, was arrested after the alleged victims reported the ongoing abuse to authorities in Toledo, Ohio.
Furtney was originally arrested on a fraction of the offenses in October of last year. The case expanded significantly as a result of grand jury proceedings that were conducted in December.
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