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

Prior to jury selection, Monroe County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Bob Miller discussed a possible plea agreement with Matt Blanton, the Japanese American defendant’s attorney. Uyesugi currently is charged with criminal confinement and battery, both felonies.

Under terms of the prosecution’s plea deal, Uyesugi could have pleaded guilty to felony criminal confinement and been able to have the conviction amended to a misdemeanor after he completed probation.

But Blanton informed Monroe Circuit Court Judge Teresa Harper on April 13 that Uyesugi rejected the deal and wants to clear his name in court.

The boy’s grandmother reportedly agreed to the exorcism and invited Uyesugi to her home. She later reported that Uyesugi beat and choked the boy, causing him to vomit. The boy’s face reportedly was swollen and bruised after the ritual, which police said lasted for hours.

Uyesugi told police that the grandmother told him that her son had a dozen or more demons inside and that she wanted him to pray over the boy to make them leave. Uyesugi said the teen turned violent during the event, and that he was injured when Uyesugi tried to restrain him.

Uyesugi was a senior at Indiana University, bound for medical school, when he was arrested back in August 2007. The valedictorian of the Paoli High School class of 2003,  the defendant is the son of prominent optometrist Dr. Edward F. Uyesugi, Jr. Listed as 6-1 and 175, Uyesugi played NCAA Division II tennis and basketball for the Earlham College “Hustlin’ Quakers.”

Also part of the Uyesugi’s family history is that both his father and grandfather are graduates of the Quaker-founded Earlham College. His grandfather Edward T. Uyesugi and granduncle Newton Uyesugi were two of about 20 Japanese American internees accepted for studies by Earlham during World War II.

Dr. Edward Uyesugi, Sr. established the Uyesugi Japanese American Collection at Earlham before his death in 1989. His wife, the former Ruth Farlow, is a 1999 inductee to the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

• Uyesugi Japanese American Collection, Earlham College
• Ruth Farlow Uyesugi Inducted Into Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame, The Paoli Republican