New Hartford: 'I was member of bullying and hurtful church cult'

Former member Chadwick Handville said he feels closer to God since leaving the church

Chadwick Handville left the church in 2000 (CNN)

A former member of the New York church at the centre of a beating death investigation has claimed the organisation bullied and abused its members and used the bible as a “source of pain”. He said the church was a “cult” that manipulated its members and damaged many people.

Chadwick Handville joined the church in the early 1990s when he moved to New Hartford, and said it was initially a welcoming group. He claimed that changed when the former leader, the late Jerry Irwin, returned to take control.

“When Jerry came back it just went down hill,” said Mr Handville, speaking from Arizona. “He methodically took control of everything. He removed people from positions of authority.”

Lucas Leonard died after a beating at the The Word of Life Christian Church in New Hartford (Andrew Buncombe)

He added: “[They] used the bible as a source to incite pain in people, emotionally and spiritually.”

The organisation to which Mr Handville was referring, The Word of Life Christian Church in New Hartford, is at the centre of a police investigation after two of its teenage members were severely beaten – one of them fatally – in a so-called counselling session to correct them for unspecified transgressions. Six members, including the teenagers’ parents, have been arrested.

Mr Handville, 47, a licensed massage therapist and writer and who left the church in 2000, said Mr Irwin oversaw an environment of control where people were punished for things he deemed inappropriate. He said he found it “bullying and hurtful”. He said there were between 30-40 members of the church.

He said Bruce and Deborah Leonard, the couple who have been charged with manslaughter for the death of their son 19-year-old Lucas and the assault on 17-year-old Christopher, were themselves frequently punished.

He said it was rare that the couple were not on “church discipline”. “Shoving, abusing, cutting off friendships, cannot talk to them, no socialising, not being allowed to invite them to dinner,” he said.

Bruce and Deborah Leonard have been charged with manslaughter (AP)

Mr Handville first spoke to the Utica Observer-Dipatch newspaper and said: “We were sleep deprived and easily manipulated and lied to. Everyone knows this is the marking of a cult. This is how you control the masses.”

Mr Irwin, the former church leader, died several years ago. The church is now run by his wife, Traci, and their daughter, Tiffany, who holds the position of pastor.

Traci Irwin and her daughter, who live at the church, which occupies a former school building in this town 80 miles from Albany, have not been charged. When The Independent visited the building, nobody would answer the door.

On Friday, Mr and Mrs Leonard appeared in court in New Hartford where a witness said he had been Mr Leonard hit his sons with a belt during the counselling session last Sunday evening. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Daniel Irwin, a son of Trace and Jerry Iriwn, said the counselling session had taken place after the regular service, which had lasted from noon to 8pm. He said the counselling session had ended at 10am the following morning when he was informed that Lucas Leonard was dead. Mr Leonard, along with other church members, then drove Lucas to a local hospital.


 Daniel Irwin said he saw Lucas Leonard being beaten by his father
 (AP)

“I saw Bruce Leonard walk up to Lucas Leonard and hit him with with something that looked like a belt,” he told the court. “It was five or six times.”

At one point he said he saw Lucas rolling on the floor, and give a “sustained monotone moan”. A police officer who later photographed Lucas Leonard’s corpse, said there were “numerous bruises all over his body”.

Mr and Mrs Leonard lived with their sons and extended family in Clayville, a few miles from New Hartford. Neighbours said the two boys were home-schooled and not permitted to have a television.

One neighbour, who asked not to be named and who said he spoke regularly with the boys and Mrs Leonard, said he had once attended the church at her invitation 20 years ago when he was a youngster.

He said there had been no chairs and the service had gone on for three of four hours, during which there was “lots of chanting”. He said they had not used regular bibles, but verses that were projected onto a screen.

“I said to Debbie ‘Can I sit down’, but she said ‘no’,” he added.

Speaking from Scottsdale, Mr Handville said he felt much happier since leaving the church.

“I do feel more close to Christ and to people and to my own emotions,” he said. “Looking back I would say ‘My God, how could I have been so blind’?”