EPICANTHUS

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—The trial of 24-year-old Edward Uyesugi II, a former theological student accused of beating an autistic teenager during an attempted exorcism in 2007, has  begun this week with testimony from the alleged victim and the victim’s grandmother.

The victim, now 16, described Tuesday how the Japanese American pastor-in-training yelled at him, hit him in the chest and face, held him down against his will and stuck his fingers down his throat making him vomit during an May 2007 exorcism intended to drive demons from the autistic boy’s body.

“He yelled at me, ‘Out, demons, in the name of Jesus.’ He said there were demons inside me. I told him that no, I didn’t have any demons. But he looked in my eyes and he said that I do,” the victim testified in Monroe Circuit Court. He said he was scared and did not know what was happening during the exorcism, and that he tried to run away but was restrained by his older brother and Uyesugi.

Uyesugi was a pastor-in-training at Bloomington’s Cherry Hill Christian Center and lived at the church’s parsonage at the time of the alleged beating. He was banished from the church grounds shortly after the incident was reported.

Pastors at Cherry Hill church wouldn’t comment on the alleged exorcism. But they told police while they do teach how to cast out demons, their methods don’t include violence.

Police reports indicate that Uyesugi believed he could cure the teen’s autism by casting out demons through a religious ritual called an exorcism.

• Japanese American Theological Student Accused of Beating Autistic Teen During ‘Exorcism,’ 08/01/2007, epicanthus
• Man Accused of Battery in Exorcism Attempt Surrenders, theindychannel.com

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