Judge Sees No Brainwashing Evidence in Abduction Case

Attorneys for five people accused of kidnaping a 23-year-old woman from a San Diego-based religious group and attempting to deprogram her said Thursday that they believe the outfit is a cult and that she was brainwashed.

But leaders of Great Among the Nations flatly denied that the group has placed Ginger Brown, who was abducted for five days in May, 1988, by family members and a self-proclaimed cult deprogrammer, under any sort of mind control.

Prosecutors and a Vista Municipal Court judge also maintained during the third day of a preliminary hearing on the case that defense attorneys have failed so far to substantiate the cult or brainwashing allegations.

“We all change in the course of our lives . . . but I don’t think you can prove brainwashing by that,” Judge Michael Burley said, adding that mind control “is just one of the things” that might have caused Brown’s attitude toward her family to deteriorate after she took up with Great Among the Nations.

“People willingly join small churches and give property and much of their money,” Burley said. “That doesn’t mean they were brainwashed. . . . They may be doing it because they want to do it.”

Burley, however, opened the door for defense attorneys to begin examining whether Brown was brainwashed, saying it might prove a legal justification for the abduction and deprogramming effort.

The case is being pressed against the parents, Earle and Dorothy Rae Brown, and a sister, Holly Rae Brown, 24, all of Santa Cruz; Hank Erler, 22, in whose Escondido home Ginger Brown was allegedly held, and Cliff Daniels, 34, of Los Angeles, a deprogrammer who has publicly stated that he attempted to “rescue” Brown from the group.

Although the defense attorneys failed to unearth any new, startling facts about the group during Thursday’s court session, they insisted that proof will surface during the trial that Great Among the Nations held sway over Brown’s will.

Saul Wright, attorney for Earle Brown, said the defense will ultimately demonstrate that the group is “a classic cult situation” and also “raise enough issues to show this young woman was under the influence of Benjamin Altschul,” founder and leader of Great Among the Nations.

Earle Brown, meanwhile, said in a courthouse hallway interview that he believes his daughter was brainwashed by Altschul.

Supporters say Great Among the Nations is merely a small, evangelical Christian group, but critics have characterized it as a cult whose members finance what they say is the lavish life style of the group’s leader, Altschul.

Although he drives a Mercedes-Benz and lives on an upper floor in a Coronado condominium building, Altschul has staunchly denied that he is excessively benefiting from the ministry, saying that his life style and that of other members merely reflect the socioeconomic conditions of the typical San Diego County resident.