Judge Rejects Request to Block Investigation of Sexual ‘Rites’

A federal judge on Monday refused to issue a court order barring Los Angeles police and the city attorney from investigating or prosecuting a Canyon Country couple who include sex acts in what they say are ancient religious rites.

Will and Mary Ellen Tracy, convicted this month on misdemeanor prostitution charges, had sought a temporary retraining order to end what they charged was harassment by the Los Angeles Police Department and prosecutors in the city attorney’s office.

A temporary restraining order would not overturn their recent conviction but would spare the couple further harassment, Will Tracy said. The couple charged that undercover police officers are loitering near their new headquarters in Glendale.

“I believe we are under constant threat and surveillance,” Mary Ellen Tracy told U.S. District Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. Tracy said her followers were being “denied spiritual guidance” because they are intimidated by police.

Sexual Rites

Tracy, 47, is the self-proclaimed high priestess of the Church of the Most High Goddess and claims to have had sex with more than 2,000 men in the name of religion. In the Tracys’ church, women act as priestesses who absolve the sins of men through sexual rites.

Prosecutors say the church is a sham because male followers give the priestesses donations to take part in the rituals. The Tracys call the donations religious sacrifices.

Byrne said it was unclear whether he could issue a temporary restraining order because the Tracys have related litigation pending in state courts. Will Tracy, 51, acting as his own attorney, has argued that an undercover officer violated the separation of church and state by pretending to be a believer in the church.

Byrne did not discuss the Tracys’ church in detail but said there is a substantial question of whether the Church of the Most High Goddess is a bona fide religion.

Tracy said he will take the next legal step and ask Byrne for a preliminary injunction against police and prosecutors Oct. 16. Byrne said he is willing to hear Tracy make further arguements on whether his court has jurisdiction over the case.

The Tracys said the church’s income has plummeted since their arrest, forcing them to move to Glendale from the four-bedroom house in West Los Angeles, not far from the Beverly Center, that served as church headquarters.

The Tracys are scheduled to be sentenced Friday in Los Angeles Municipal Court but plan to ask for a mistrial.