2 Mothers Held in Beating of Children to Drive Out Satan : Sects: The whippings were conducted with belts and telephone cord, police say. Officials took 10 out of their parents’ care.

Children as young as 4 were whipped with telephone cords or belts until they screamed “Demon anger, be out of me!” as part of a small religious group’s chastisements, said police, who have arrested the mothers of several of the children.

Ten children, some bruised and scarred with welts, were picked up from across the Los Angeles area on the day after Christmas and placed with relatives or in protective care, said Los Angeles Police Officer Victor Williams. And on Friday, police arrested two women on suspicion of willful cruelty to children, a felony, said Cmdr. William Booth.

Valerie Okongwu and Deloris Porter, both 31, were being held Saturday on $20,000 bail each. Okongwu is the mother of four of the children, and Porter is the mother of three, police said. They belong to “some group called Jesus Cathedral,” said Booth, a group that held its religious services in a rented conference room at an airport motel. “They punish their kids by beating the devil, Satan, out of them in a manner that’s really too harsh.”

“These kids were led to believe these beatings were the will of God,” said Williams, who with his partner Loretta Smith interviewed the children they picked up and saw their scars.

“If they were being selfish or mischievous or angry, the parents would write these words on a piece of paper--’Demon anger, be out of me!’ “--and beat the children until they screamed what the adults had written down. “These kids thought these beatings made them a better person.”

The beatings were “by far the worst I’ve ever seen in my 10 years on the Police Department,” Williams said.

For nearly two weeks before Christmas, Williams said, Wilshire Division police had gotten calls about children’s crying coming from the beige stucco, boxlike duplex, home to three or four families who other neighbors say had moved in recently.

But no one would answer the door, and the complaining neighbor left no phone number, Williams said, so police could do nothing.

On Dec. 26, Williams said, one of the girl’s aunts “apparently saw bruises on the girl’s back and decided she had to do something about it. They knew from talking to the kids that it stemmed from the church beatings,” he said. “That’s where (the aunt) drew the line.”

Police picked up 10 of the 11 children they knew of, all ages 4 to 14, and “placed them in protective custody, interviewed the parents and the minister, whoever we could talk to,” Williams said. Three children were found in a house in El Monte, he said, and one was found at the motel conference room where services were held for what appeared to be the group’s small, mostly female membership.

There, Williams and his partner spoke with the minister, Chester Newvine or Newbine, Williams could not recall which.

“He said he anointed the parents’ hands that they may do God’s work. But he never said he anointed them specifically to beat their kids,” Williams said. “Ironically, when we were leaving, I could hear this guy preaching there was nothing wrong with whipping your kids.

“The parents were wholeheartedly participating,” Williams said. “They felt their minister wouldn’t steer them wrong.” When one child was beaten, “all the other kids were brought into the room and made to watch.”

The older children were punished with telephone cords, Williams said, and the younger ones with belts. If a child bore marks or bruises, Williams said, he was told “that child was kept out of school until it could go back to school with no scars.”

On Dec. 26, one woman, a member of the religious group and mother of at least one of the children, was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants, Williams said. On Friday, police came back and arrested Okongwu and Porter.

“A couple of the kids did not believe that what was going on was right,” Williams said. “They do not want to be returned to their parents.”