RadioBanter - Rem. Hope / Stair UPDATE

I just visited http://remnantshope.com/stairtrial.html and this is their
update on Stair from Libby Roerig of The Press and Standard.

NOTE the bottom. I "ain't" over yet! Before you do that, I just heard
Stair on 9.985 MHz - about 11:30 EST / 16:30 UTC - say he just hopes
this will hurry and get over with and he'll be with the Lord. Sounds
like he's wishing to die!

Now, The Press & Standard update via Remnant's Hope.

Al

================

(This article appeared in The Press and Standard newspaper in
Walterboro, South Carolina, on November 30, 2004.)

By LIBBY ROERIG

Associate Editor

International minister Ralph G. Stair, accused of sexual and financial
crimes, pleaded guilty to assault and battery Monday after more than two
years since being charged.

With more than 100 of his supporters watching at the Colleton County
Courthouse, Stair admitted to “unlawfully touching” two of his
former female followers, a lesser offense reduced from the initial
charge of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.

Circuit Court Jack Gregory, of Beaufort, concurrently sentenced Stair,
72, of Canadys, to 30 days in the Colleton County Detention Center.
With time served, Stair will do no additional time.

A self-proclaimed prophet of God, Stair is the leader of a long-time
religious community known as the Overcomer Ministry or Faith Ministries
.. He preaches each day for hours to a worldwide audience of thousands
via AM and short-wave radio and the Internet.

Stair’s religious community, for whose residents must sell all their
worldly possessions and sever ties with family members and friends
before entering, is approximately 100-persons strong, according to reports.

Arrested in May 2002, Stair faced two charges each of second-degree
criminal sexual conduct and breach of trust. Later that summer, other
misdemeanor charges, including unlawful burying of a body without notice
or inquiry and failure to get authorization for the removal of a dead
body, were added.

In August 2004, prosecutors tacked on two counts of assault and battery
of a high and aggravated nature to the list of indictments.

As part of the plea agreement, the criminal sexual conduct charges will
be nol-prossed — or dropped. Stair’s time in court for the breach of
trust charges is yet to come, as is the court date for the misdemeanor
charges.

During the plea proceeding, Special Prosecutor Suzanne Mays, of the S.C.
Prosecution Commission in Columbia, said the victims, Laquiela Horn\
and Stacey Belford, were brought to the community by their parents.
There, Belford and Horn were dependant on Stair for their food, shelter,
clothing, education and religious needs.

Both girls reported being touched in an inappropriate, sexual nature by
the minister and were frozen with fear to do anything about it.

“I was really terrified — he said, ‘Come here,’” wrote Belford in her
statement. She and Horn agreed with the plea proceedings, Mays said.

Stair retained the Chaplin brothers, Joenathan and Mathis, formerly of
Walterboro, and Jim Brown, of Beaufort, as his attorneys.

“At this point, Mr. Stair would like to get on with his life,” Joenathan
Chaplin told the judge. Stair has no previous criminal record, according
to his attorneys.

The defense team was pleased with the plea agreement and expects a
speedy end to the other charges, as well.

“The judge saw it that way, and I guess everyone else saw it like that,
too,” said Joenathan Chaplin.

Nearly a dozen civil cases — accusations varying from wrongful death to
financial wrongdoing — are also pending against Stair. Currently,
these cases are in the “pleading and motions stage,” with no trial date
scheduled in the future, said civil plaintiffs’ attorney Skip Utsey of
Walterboro.