26-Sep-90 Houston Chronicle. Trio on trial for `beating the devil' out of man HONDO (AP) -

26-Sep-90
Houston Chronicle.
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Trio on trial for `beating the devil' out of man

    HONDO (AP) - A pastor and two other men are on trial for allegedly
trying to "beat the devil" out of a man earlier this year.

    Charged in the case are the Rev. James Douglas Price, 42, pastor
of First Assembly of God Church in Devine, and Robert Leo Nixon Jr.,
42, and Alvin Ray Nixon, 31, both of Devine.

    An indictment issued by a Medina County grand jury accuses the
three of slapping Ray Weimers, 43, of Devine and pouring oil on his
groin during a religious rite.

    The indictment alleges the men used force and intimidation to
detain Weimers at the church in Devine Jan. 29.  The false
imprisonment charge is a third-degree felony.

    Dr. Ricardo Castillo, a physician who treated Weimers after the
incident, began the trial testimony.  He told jurors Weimers' face was
scratched and swollen and that he was favoring his right shoulder.

    "I have seen a lot of trauma cases, but this one stuck with me
because of the strange story he told me," said Castillo, who treatesd
Weimers at Medina Memorial Hospital.  "He told me he was beaten up
earlier at the First Assembly of God Church."

    The doctor said Weimers told him that before the incident he spoke
with the church pastor about being despondent and depressed because of
marital and financial problems.

    "The preacher told him the reason he was feeling that way was that
he had the devil in him and needed to be exorcised," Castillo said.
"Then the preacher went to get some more parishioners to beat it out
of his system."

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I don't think that I would want to approach this pastor with a
personal problem unless I had a major medical policy.

Marquis de Sade