Dean called his ex-wife and suggested that they meet. They did, at a Starbucks in Bellevue. "As we were walking from the parking lot to the shop, I said, 'Barb, it sounds like you have a lot going on in your life right now. I only have one concern: the well-being of our daughter. I think she'd be best served with me.' And she said, 'I agree.' I was thrown she would give up that easy."
In March, Dean says, when their daughter rejoined him, in the same parking lot, Loran showed no outward emotion. Neither did their daughter. "It was like absolutely nothing had happened," Dean says. "She had total detachment. Barb and James taught her well."
Judith Eve Lipton
Samara Lane (center left) and her father, Kurt Benshoof, with two other former members of the New Gnostic Church. Inset: church leader James King.
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Dean plans to have his daughter see a cult deprogrammer later this month.
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Like former group members, Dean would like to see King pay a price for his deeds. "He's caused a lot of families a lot of pain," he says. "I know I am one of many who has been through this."
Benshoof and Lane's mother, among others, want to see King and Loran charged by the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office for sexual misconduct with a minor. It's not clear if that will happen. The King County Sheriff's Office began investigating allegations against King in February and has not yet turned the case over to the prosecutor, says Dan Satterberg, Prosecutor Norm Maleng's chief of staff. Satterberg says that prosecutors will decide soon whether to file any charges.
If he and Loran aren't criminally charged, the worst King might face, at the hands of the Department of Health, is an order to stop practicing medicine without a license, according to Noonan of the Medical Quality Assurance Commission. Loran could be facing harsher punishment in the health care arena. Under state regulations, she could lose her naturopathic and chiropractic licenses.
The former group members Seattle Weekly interviewed say that when they were in the church, they felt detached from and unaffected by the world, as if they were members of an elite and immune brotherhood. They'd been processed, stripped of issues, and the rest of humanity had not.
But now, these former members seem very much in this world. They joke about their days in the church. To a one, they seem well adjusted. But they worry about those still under King's sway.
Benshoof, in particular, has tried to convince people who are still in the church to understand that King is no enlightened being. Brett Barton, a former business associate of Benshoof's who is still a member, didn't take kindly to Benshoof's prodding by phone and e-mail. He filed a restraining order against Benshoof.
At a hearing in King County Superior Court on April 26, Barton sat in the courtroom, expressionless, with his head down and his hands in his lap. When he spoke to Judge Barbara Harris, it was barely above a whisper.
This wasn't courtroom nervousness. It was something else that is hard to describe.
Harris granted the order, which states that Benshoof shall not contact Barton for one year.
As he left the courtroom, Barton declined to answer questions about the New Gnostic Church. "You are talking to the wrong person," he said.
Former church member Larry Benjamin says that King's influence on people, excessive though it might seem, isn't all bad. "He helped a lot of people get out of their mental garbage. I have never seen someone with his ability," Benjamin says. "At the same time, you know he could have continued helping more people. . . . James did overstep his authority for sexual advantage."
pdawdy@seattleweekly.com
