Bethel Home leader found guilty of simple assault

The Baton Rouge Advocate/AP

LUCEDALE, Miss. (AP) -- The Rev. Herman Fountain, leader of the controversial Bethel Home For Children, which was raided by police last June, was found guilty Tuesday night of one count of simple assault on a law officer.

Fountain was ordered by Circuit Judge Clinton Lockard to return to the courtroom at 9 a.m. Wednesday for sentencing. He faces a possible maximum of five years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

The verdict doesn't end Fountain's legal troubles. He faces two additional counts of assault on a law officer. Trials on those counts have yet to be set.

The 12-member jury -- nine women and three men -- deliberated for 51 minutes before returning the guilty verdict on the one count about 6 p.m. Tuesday. Neither Fountain nor his attorney, William Bailey, would say if they would appeal.

Tuesday's verdict stems from a confrontation June 13 at the George County Courthouse in which Fountain allegedly lunged at highway patrol Capt. Richard Smith and kicked him.

Officers were acting on orders to remove the children after allegations of abuse were lodged against the 39-year-old minister.

During the one-day trial, Fountain admitted that he was disrespectful to officers but denied the assault.

He had trouble recalling the attack on Smith, but gave detailed accounts of what he claimed officers did to him.

"I don't know when I was arrested. I know I was in jail," he said during the 30 minutes he testified Tuesday.

Fountain and three members of his staff were arrested when several officers, acting on an order by Chancery Judge Robert Oswald, began removing children from the fundamentalist Christian home on June 13.

Oswald ordered all children removed from the home after a 17-year-old Bethel runaway claimed he and others at the home had been physically abused by Fountain and members of his staff. The judge later held a series of hearings, deciding each child's case individually. Most of the children were returned to the custody of their parents or placed in the custody of the state, though some were left in the home.

Throughout those hearings, which attracted national attention, Fountain maintained that the state had no jurisdiction to regulate a religious home for children.

State lawmakers approved a bill in their 1988 session that required residential children's homes to report certain information about residents to the state.