Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 7, 1993 TAG: 9305070230
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WARM SPRINGS LENGTH: Medium
"This has been a . . . conspiracy for which we have already been publically [sic] accussed, [sic] tried & executed," Cyle Van Alstine said in a two-page handwritten reply to civil suits filed by six former members of the Temple of Light Universalist Church.
Van Alstine said he and his wife, Eursula, "decided to get out and go far away" after they received death threats.
Law-enforcement authorities have been unable to find Van Alstine to serve him with a third lawsuit by former church members since he left Bath County to attend his mother's funeral two weeks ago.
A Bath County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman said numerous attempts had been made to serve the latest suit, but that deputies had never been able to find Van Alstine at his home near the Bath Alum section of the county.
"I hereby give permission to desolve [sic] the trust & ask that [an] auction company sell all properties, land, etc." held by the church, Van Alstine said in the reply, which was mailed to the clerk of the Bath County Circuit Court.
He said that First National Bank of Clifton Forge still is owed $105,000, apparently on a mortgage on the former Bill Brinkley Farm the church bought in 1979.
It was there, church members said in their suits, that Van Alstine used cult-like tactics to coerce them into giving up their money and their labor to him and his wife. Church members said they also were compelled to participate in "degrading acts" of group sex from which they are experiencing continuing "emotional distress."
Van Alstine denied "all charges and allegations" but said "no attorney would defend us without a $15,000 retainer, which we could not get."
Declaring, `You all do what you want," Van Alstine said he has dangerously high blood pressure "at stroke proportions."
He added that if he or his wife "are found dead somewhere or anywhere," it would be the fault of one of the former church members "and his henchmen."
The "land or property or money is not worth losing our lives over," Van Alstine said. "We are innocent, endangered and have lost everything."
Thursday afternoon, employees of The Homestead resort in Hot Springs were cleaning out the building where the Van Alstines ran an art gallery until about two weeks ago.
The workers removed a couch, card table and assorted boxes of items, but said they did not know where the Van Alstines were.
All the paintings and an awning with the name of the gallery also were removed from the building on the posh resort's Cottage Row business lane.
The Van Alstines led a group of 15 to 20 followers to the Bath County countryside in 1979, former church members say, teaching a blend of New Age, Eastern and Christian religious practice.
Three weeks ago, six former members of the Temple of Light Universalist Church filed lawsuits seeking more than $3.5 million in damages and asking the Bath County court to divide the church's assets.
by CNB