Family warned of housing kids at Bethel home

The Baton Rouge Advocate/AP

LUCEDALE, Miss. -- The wife and son of the Rev. Herman Fountain Sr. have been told that they could face charges if they continue to house children in the Bethel Home for Children.

Carol Fountain and Herman Fountain Jr. were served last week with copies of an injunction issued in January. The papers ordered the Rev. Herman Fountain Sr., then running the home adjacent to his church, to stop housing children at Bethel until he complied with a state registration law.

Dodie Fountain, the wife of the younger Fountain, said Wednesday that the family was still housing children the way the reverend did.

The elder Fountain has operated the church-sponsored children's boarding school since 1979.

Special Assistant Attorney General Stephanie Ganucheau said the Bethel Home would be searched and the children removed if Carol Fountain and Herman Fountain Jr. defy the court order.

"We don't know if they are keeping children," Ganucheau said. "If we find out they have children... , we'll go back to court again."

The elder Fountain was charged with contempt of court for failing to comply with a 1989 law that requires such homes to provide the state health department with names of children and staff at the home.

George County Chancery Judge Robert S. Oswald on May 15 sentenced the elder Fountain to five months in jail for disobeying a court order that he provide the names or stop operating the home. Fountain, held in the George County Jail, will not post a $1,000 appeal bond, his wife said shortly after he was jailed