Hearing Date Set for Cult Deprogrammer

Cult deprogrammer Ted Patrick was ordered Friday to appear in San Diego Superior Court on July 11 for a hearing on charges filed by the district attorney’s office that he violated his probation by accepting money for deprogramming.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Harry Elias alleged that Patrick has received $4,000 from a Texas woman during the last two years to have her adult daughter deprogrammed.

Elias said that Dolly Edwards, who lives near Houston, changed her mind and no contact was ever made between Patrick and her daughter. Edwards has claimed that only $800 has been refunded.

Elias also said that investigators found one-tenth of a gram of cocaine in Patrick’s home on May 9.

Patrick, 55, could be sentenced to seven years in state prison, Elias said.

Patrick was convicted in 1980 of abducting a Tucson, Ariz., waitress whose relatives thought she was under control of a religious cult. He was sentenced to one year in the San Diego County Jail, fined $5,000 and ordered to serve five years’ probation, scheduled to end Sept. 25, 1985.

His probation was revoked in 1982, after it was discovered that he accepted several thousand dollars to deprogram a lesbian from her life style. He served one year in jail.

In a June, 1984, hearing on a motion to vacate the remaining time on his probation, Patrick said he had even declined to discuss cults with teen-agers in a youth group he advises for fear of violating his probation, which prohibits him from deprogramming people involved in cults. That motion was denied.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund, who presided over two Patrick trials, said then that Patrick had twice violated probation in the 1970s with deprogramming activities.

Patrick declined to talk to reporters Friday. He was released on his own recognizance.