Potential Jurors Questioned on Religion in Kidnaping Trial

Jury selection began Tuesday in Vista Superior Court for the kidnaping, false imprisonment and battery trial of Ginger Brown, 24, who was the target of a deprogramming attempt by her parents, a sister and two others last year.

Most of the afternoon session was spent by Superior Court Judge David Moon asking prospective jurors what they may have heard about the case and whether they were influenced by picketing outside the courthouse by supporters of Ginger Brown’s parents. Fourteen of the 20 prospective jurors said they were aware of the case to one degree or another because of media coverage, but had no biases.

Moon rejected a request by Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Rempel to bar the picketers from the front of the courthouse, but said that, if the demonstrators attempt to influence jurors or witnesses about the case, they face misdemeanor arrest.

Moon also asked each of the prospective jurors to describe their religious backgrounds and current levels of religious activity, and whether their children have chosen religious affiliations different than their own. Twelve of the 20 said they are not religiously active, but several others said they are active in their churches and involved in the religious instruction of teen-agers and young adults.

One juror said her two teen-age children left her religion in favor of another when they turned 18, with her blessing, and another juror said that when she herself converted from Judaism to Christianity, her parents were “initially disturbed.”

Neither Rempel nor the five defense attorneys have yet to question jurors, to establish the basis for which jurors will be dismissed or accepted.

The five defendants say they were trying to “rescue” Ginger Brown from a small, tight-knit organization called “Great Among the Nations,” which critics portray as a cult and which supporters characterize as a fundamentalist Christian Bible study and evangelical ministry.

Jury selection is expected to last the rest of the week, and the trial is expected to take two to three weeks.