San Diego

Cult deprogrammer Ted Patrick was returned to prison Monday for three years for violating his probation on his 1980 kidnaping conviction.

“You broke your promise to the court and now you must pay the consequences,” San Diego Superior Court Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund told Patrick.

The judge revoked Patrick’s probation last month because of his contact with a Lubbock, Tex., woman who claimed she paid him $3,900 to help her deprogram her 22-year-old daughter from a cult.

The judge said he respected Patrick because of his support and work with young people. But Ehrenfreund noted that Patrick himself implied that he would engage in deprogramming once again after the five-year period expires in which he is forbidden to take money for deprogramming.

“He was considering doing it again once probation was terminated. He knew clearly what the terms of probation were. He signed a promise to abide by those conditions . . . so now sterner action must be taken,” said Ehrenfreund.

Referring to people who claim to have been kidnaped and deprogrammed by Patrick in the past, the judge said, “These people have a right to be free to think and act according to their choosing.”

Patrick’s attorney, Tom Gayton, assailed the credibility of Dolly Edwards, who testified last month that Patrick did not give her all the $3,900 back after she changed her mind about having her daughter meet with Patrick.

“He helps troubled people,” Gayton said. “We have here a grand misunderstanding. This man is respected and esteemed in our community. The black community needs him. We all need him. Let this man find his purpose in society. We shouldn’t let one small blemish or several small blemishes . . . deprive us of the service of this man.”

Patrick testified that he gets calls “from all over the world” about deprogramming and told the judge that he told Edwards he could not deprogram her daughter until his five years on probation expired--which would have been in September.

Patrick told the judge that James Huberty, the man who killed 21 people at a San Ysidro McDonald’s, was involved in a cult and said he could have helped him.

“I could have had him in good shape and those people would still be living,” Patrick said.