Eldridge Jr Broussard

An Oregon judge has rejected a petition filed by four Ecclesia Athletic Assn. members to halt their trial for the beating death of the group founder's daughter. Clackamas County Circuit Judge John Lowe ruled that the defendants have no legal standing to have the trial transferred to federal court after they claimed the state of Oregon prohibited them from free exercise of their religion. The defendants also asked that the trial be halted so their organization could hear the case against them.

Seven Ecclesia Athletic Assn. members, originally charged with slavery, pleaded guilty Friday to lesser charges and were given prison terms ranging from 2 1/4 to 8 years. They pleaded guilty to charges that they conspired to deny the civil rights of children who belonged to the organization. A federal indictment charged that leader Eldridge Broussard Jr. and seven followers compelled children to perform athletic drills by beating them.

Near this rural town, 100 miles from the home of the controversial Rajneeshees until their commune's collapse 18 months ago, a group of black families from Watts have pitched their tents and begun a communal life of farm labor and strenuous physical workouts. To members of the Ecclesia Athletic Assn., who have given up control of their lives to the man they call "The Coach"--former basketball player Eldridge Broussard Jr.

Eldridge Broussard Jr., the Watts minister whose dream of improving inner-city youngsters with a regimen of religion and athletics fell apart amid charges of child abuse, was found dead early Thursday in the Oregon farmhouse where his followers killed his 8-year-old daughter three years ago.

Eldridge Broussard Jr., the Watts minister whose dream of improving inner-city youngsters with a regimen of religion and athletics fell apart amid charges of child abuse, was found dead early Thursday in the Oregon farmhouse where his followers killed his 8-year-old daughter three years ago.

The founder of the Watts-based Ecclesia Athletic Assn. took his case to the public on a television talk show Thursday, maintaining that cultural differences are to blame for the allegations of child abuse against his group, which he said "spanked" children but never whipped or beat them. Eldridge Broussard Jr.

Oregon's Justice Department has entered the legal fight over whether defense attorneys in the upcoming manslaughter trial of four Ecclesia Athletic Assn. members should be allowed to talk to children taken from the group by the state. State Appellate Division attorneys filed a request Friday that the Oregon Supreme Court block a Dec. 7 order by Clackamas County Judge John Lowe giving defense attorneys access to children taken from the group's rural Oregon camp.

Eldridge Broussard Jr., the founder of a Los Angeles-based athletic group, met privately Sunday for the first time with neighbors of his Oregon property, telling them he will withdraw an application to house up to 100 people on the land. Neighbor Jack Strand said about 20 residents of this area, 40 miles east of Portland, met at his house with Broussard and three other representatives of the Ecclesia Athletic Assn.

An Oregon judge has released two of four defendants facing trial in the beating death of the daughter of Ecclesia Athletic Assn. founder Eldridge J. Broussard Jr. and reduced bail for the other two. Clackamas County Circuit Judge John Lowe granted defense motions for the release of Willie K. Chambers, 35, and Constance Z. Jackson, 37. Lowe ordered both to remain in Oregon until their trial, to contact their attorneys in person weekly and not to be in charge of children under 18.

The FBI is investigating possible civil rights violations involving more than 50 children who were living in the care of the Ecclesia Athletic Assn. until the 8-year-old daughter of the group's founder was beaten to death. The children have been held by the state in protective custody since the Oct. 14 death of Dayna Broussard, the daughter of Eldridge Broussard Jr., founder of Los Angeles-based Ecclesia and its parent group, the Watts Christian Center.

More than four years after the Ecclesia Athletic Assn.'s neighbors in Oregon began complaining that the Watts-based group was abusing children in its rural commune, the group's controversial leader, Eldridge Broussard Jr., and seven followers were arrested Friday on charges of enslaving dozens of children.

A spokesman for the Oregon attorney general's office said that state may have a hard time collecting money owed by the Ecclesia Athletic Assn. Members of the controversial religious group that was founded in Los Angeles owe the state more than $30,000 for care for children of the group, officials have said. The state took 53 Ecclesia children into custody in 1988 after the beating death of Dayna L. Broussard, 8-year-old daughter of group founder Eldridge Broussard Jr.

The Oregon Board of Parole Wednesday ordered a member of the Watts-based Ecclesia Athletic Assn. to serve 10 years in prison for the beating death of an 8-year-old girl. The board set the term for Constance Jackson, one of four Ecclesia members convicted of manslaughter in the October, 1988, death of Dayna Broussard. She was the daughter of Eldridge Broussard Jr.

The Children's Services Division of the state of Oregon says it plans to begin garnishment of wages of Ecclesia Athletic Assn. parents whose children remain in state custody almost a year after the beating death of the group founder's daughter. Bart Wilson, manager of the agency's Clackamas County office, said the state had spent more than $545,000 through July 1 to care for the 53 children taken into protective custody after Dayna Broussard, 8, daughter of Eldridge Broussard Jr.

Constance Jackson's face does not brighten often these days. But her eyes light up when she talks about how she met Eldridge Broussard Jr., the man who changed her life. "Anthony was about to be born," she says, referring to her son, now 13. "I heard a tape from a next-door neighbor of El and he was preaching on how you really don't have to die. I was getting ready to go into the hospital to have some extensive surgery. I didn't feel I was gonna make it, and I heard that tape.

An Oregon Juvenile Court judge has rejected a plan submitted by the Ecclesia Athletic Assn. for the return of 53 children taken into protective custody by the state after a child's beating death. The children were removed from a farmhouse near Sandy owned by the Los Angeles-based group after Dayna Broussard, the 8-year-old daughter of group founder Eldridge Broussard Jr., was beaten to death during a discipline session last October.

A spokesman for the Oregon attorney general's office said that state may have a hard time collecting money owed by the Ecclesia Athletic Assn. Members of the controversial religious group that was founded in Los Angeles owe the state more than $30,000 for care for children of the group, officials have said. The state took 53 Ecclesia children into custody in 1988 after the beating death of Dayna L. Broussard, 8-year-old daughter of group founder Eldridge Broussard Jr.

The second-longest jury selection on record in Oregon has produced a 12-member jury to hear opening arguments in the manslaughter trial of four adults accused in the beating death of an 8-year-old girl. After 11 weeks of jury selection, four members of the Watts-based Ecclesia Athletic Assn. will stand trial in the death of Dayna Broussard, daughter of Eldridge Broussard, who formed the group as a way for youths to escape the inner city struggles of Los Angeles. Willie K. Chambers, 35; Brian J. Brinson, 31; Frederick P. Doolittle, 28, and Constance Z. Jackson, 38, have been accused of striking the child hundreds of times during a two-hour period at the group's farmhouse near Sandy, east of Portland.

An Oregon judge has rejected a petition filed by four Ecclesia Athletic Assn. members to halt their trial for the beating death of the group founder's daughter. Clackamas County Circuit Judge John Lowe ruled that the defendants have no legal standing to have the trial transferred to federal court after they claimed the state of Oregon prohibited them from free exercise of their religion. The defendants also asked that the trial be halted so their organization could hear the case against them.