County Panel Scrutinized for Satanic Claims : Cults: Some members of Ritual Abuse Task Force contend that devil worshipers are poisoning them. Critics say there is no proof and are turning up the heat for answers.

They are Los Angeles County government’s official band of Satan hunters.

The 4-year-old Los Angeles County Ritual Abuse Task Force is a group that believes fervently that widespread ritual satanic abuse, murder and conspiracy exists, reaching into every profession and all aspects of American culture--even police departments.

Despite its unusual mission, few people know much about its activities--not even the Board of Supervisors, which governs the 14-member task force and has allowed it to spend money to print a 31-page handbook warning of the “serious and growing problem” of ritual satanic abuse in day-care centers, preschools and elsewhere.

But now, the task force has been thrust into the glaring light of critical publicity.

It is under fire from a county health official, a state board and a citizen who claims that her family was destroyed by the task force’s activities.

The catalyst for this spate of attention is a claim by members of the group that they are slowly being poisoned by those who want to silence them and keep them from spreading the word about Satan and his earthly fellow travelers.

For several months, task force meetings have included discussions of allegations that members were being poisoned with a toxic pesticide pumped into the victims’ air-conditioning vents and water coolers.

There are 43 reported victims of the alleged poisoning with diazinon, a compound used in bug sprays and powders, including one person who said she was poisoned during a task force meeting. So far, there is no proof that anyone was poisoned and skeptics abound.

Paul J. Papanek, chief of the county’s toxics epidemiological program, attended a recent task force meeting and branded as “outrageous” the poisoning claims. “An official L.A. County government commission needs to pay attention to common sense rules of evidence,” he said later.

In the wake of the controversy, the state has begun an investigation into the activities of therapists and an acupuncturist linked to the poisoning claims by task force members.

Officials with the Board of Psychology and the Acupuncture Committee said they want to know whether practitioners are saying people are suffering from diazinon poisoning without medical tests. One man said an acupuncturist verified his poisoning by touching his body at several points.

“Are they diagnosing diazinon poisoning?” asked Tom O’Connor, executive officer of the Board of Psychology. “That’s beyond the scope of their license. This sounds like some sort of mass hysteria.”

The curious controversy has focused attention on the committee, formed by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women in 1988.

The task force’s handbook lists one psychological ritual abuse that involves perpetrators who dress “as heroes or authority figures like Superman, Santa Claus, Rambo.” Abusers donning the costumes of such respected figures, says the handbook, undermine “trust in authority and heroes.”

More than 17,000 copies have been shipped all over the country. The Board of Supervisors approved money to print the book, now in its sixth edition, but the task force makes money for the county by selling the handbook for up to $5. Attendees at its Oct. 19, 1991, workshop entitled “Assessment and Treatment of Ritual Abuse,” paid $25. Task force members are all volunteers.

Although some poke fun at the task force, its members are serious in their belief that hidden cults are active and dangerous enemies of society.

“Despite detailed evidence of ritual abuse coming from child victims and their families,” the manual says, “society at large resists believing that ritual abuse really occurs.”

Ritual abuse is a term for a variety of phenomena, from women claiming that they are breeders who bear children for sacrifice in the cults, to people who claim that they were raped and forced to participate in satanic ceremonies as children. Sometimes, parents are named as the culprits.

The task force, composed of therapists, those who contend they were abused, and a clergyman, has a speakers bureau and has conducted a training seminar on the subject.

Minutes of task force meetings reveal a preoccupation with outside threats. When a new book was issued challenging ritual abuse as a 20th-Century urban myth, members reacted swiftly.

“The task force agreed to challenge these kind of findings,” said the minutes of a Jan. 6 meeting.

Chairwoman Myra Riddell said the task force is not pursuing specters.

“Nobody can say we’re crazy. This isn’t made up.”

Riddell--a licensed clinical social worker--helped form the task force. She said she became interested in the subject after some of her patients described memories of satanic abuse as children.

When asked why anyone would want to poison the committee, members said satanists fear that therapists treating cult survivors might expose their conspiracy, which some say reaches into every profession.

“People from all areas of work and professions are involved in cult activity,” Riddell said.

However, there has been a problem with evidence. Despite intense investigation into reports of murderous cults around the nation, the FBI says it has turned up no evidence of a satanic conspiracy.

“This conspiratorial mentality hurts the task force,” said Susan Carpenter-McMillan, a member of the Los Angeles County Commission for Women, which oversees the task force. “It seems this group has now discredited themselves by their own bizarre behavior.”

Dennis Morefield, a spokesman for Supervisor Deane Dana, said the supervisor has concerns about what the task force is doing.

“Concerns, definitely. He’s got staff looking into it to get some feel for what’s going on,” Morefield said.

Another supervisor reacted with rolling eyes and a quick no comment to the allegations. “This is a bit far-fetched,” said a spokesman.

Most board members either declined comment or were reluctant to publicly question the group and its actions.

An aide to one supervisor said feminist issues could be involved because the task force is a product of the Commission for Women and the mostly male Board of Supervisors does not want to be seen criticizing the woman-dominated task force.

“That can always be in the background,” said the aide, who asked not to be identified. “Everybody is so dumbfounded, until we get a better idea of what went on, we’re not sure what to say.”

Other members of the Commission for Women remained supportive of the task force, arguing that it is doing good work. Carpenter-McMillan said she is convinced that ritual abuse is a serious problem, despite the lack of evidence.

Some blame therapists for spreading the cult story. They say a group of therapists became fascinated several years ago with the phenomenon of multiple personality and proceeded to discover it in their patients. They then attributed it to brainwashing satanists who were so sophisticated that they could expunge memories and program the unwilling to have children for Satan.

“Our hypothesis is, many of these people may be making suggestions” to vulnerable patients, said Pamela Freyd, executive director of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation in Philadelphia.

The foundation began operating in March and has received 2,000 calls from parents who claim that they were falsely accused by their children of ritual abuse. The largest percentage, 315 calls, came from California.

Task force minutes show that the foundation is high on its enemies list. “Members expressed concern about such views invading the courts,” said the June 15 minutes.

Some critics charge that the task force has caused harm to people by spreading false stories of satanic abuse.

A Redondo Beach woman, Carol Conaway, said her family was nearly ruined by a therapist with the task force who said several family members were multiple personality victims.

Conaway also said therapist Gwen Dean influenced her son to identify her husband as a high priest of a satanic cult and hospitalized her husband and son.

“This task force operates in an environment of total paranoia,” Conaway said.

Dean, a marriage and family counselor, denied the allegations, saying she did not diagnose the family. She said the satanic abuse allegations were raised by a family member, not her. She also said Conaway has a vendetta against her.

“This woman is out to destroy my practice and out to destroy me,” Dean said. She said Conaway has spurred an investigation by the State Board of Behavioral Science.

Kathleen Callanan, executive officer of the board, which oversees marriage and family counselors and clinical social workers, said she could not comment on the investigation, but said reports of therapists planting suggestions in patients is “a matter of concern.”

Dean said she was a member of the ritual abuse task force, though Riddell said she did not remember Dean.

A critic has also emerged from inside the task force. Stephanie Sheppard said she checked out the claims of pesticide poisoning and found no facts to back up the allegations. She said one therapist on the task force, Catherine Gould, may have been diagnosing pesticide poisoning over the phone and referring patients to an acupuncturist. She said three people told her Gould diagnosed their symptoms.

Gould denied making any diagnoses, but said she merely “made people aware of the symptom picture.” She said the people she referred were not patients, but other therapists.

She said she has referred 10 to 20 people during the last six months to Matt Van Benschoten, an acupuncturist in Reseda. She said she did not receive any money from Van Benschoten for referring patients.

One man at the recent task force meeting said Van Benschoten diagnosed his poisoning by putting his hands on him.

Sherry Mehl, executive officer of the state Acupuncture Committee, said blood work would have to be done to determine pesticide poisoning. “If this was not done then it could be assumed that there was negligence or incompetence.”

Van Benschoten failed to return several calls. An associate, Faith Sutton, denied the allegation. “We don’t lay hands on people,” she said.