Local News in Brief : Ecclesia Lawyer Challenges Order
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The attorney for four Ecclesia Athletic Assn. members charged with manslaughter told the Oregon Supreme Court that his clients won’t get a fair trial if he can’t interview the children of the group’s members.
William Lyons challenged an order by the Oregon Children’s Service Division that said interviews about the Oct. 13 death of 8-year-old Dayna Broussard would be too traumatic for the 53 Ecclesia children.
A circuit court judge has ordered the state to produce the children, but the state Department of Justice has opposed the order.
The children have been in state custody since the death of Dayna Broussard, the daughter of the Watts-based association’s founder, Eldridge Broussard Jr., at the group’s rural Oregon commune. Four Ecclesia members were charged with beating the girl to death.
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