38 ICSA TODAY 36
determined that blood transfusions were medically necessary.
Hospital staff called the Maricopa County Superior Court
hotline multiple times from October through December
last year to seek authorization for the blood transfusions.
The court granted three of five requests, according to court
documents. The parents filed a petition with the Arizona
Court of Appeals seeking to halt the transfusions. ...In an
opinion written by Judge Kenton D. Jones, the appellate court
concluded that the question of whether the lower court had
jurisdiction to OK emergency medical treatment was one ‘of
significant statewide importance.’ Jones noted that Arizona
law allows a Juvenile Court that has jurisdiction over a child
to order a parent or guardian to get medical treatment
for a child. However, the appellate court did not find any
such jurisdiction for a Superior Court emergency hotline. ...
Representatives of Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of
New York, which filed a legal brief on behalf of the parents,
did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
A Jehovah’s Witnesses website said the religion considers
blood transfusions a ‘religious issue rather than a medical
one,’ citing multiple biblical passages. Patients who develop
certain types of cancer, such as leukemia, often require blood
transfusions as a part of treatment.” (The Republic, 04/04/18)
Nearly 300 reports of sexual abuse among Dutch
Jehovah’s Witnesses
“The number of reports of sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s
Witnesses now stands at 267, Reclaimed Voices, a foundation
that manages the hotline for this type of abuse, said to
newspaper Trouw. Reclaimed Voices was established last year
after Trouw published the stories of a number of Jehovah’s
Witnesses who were abused during their youth. One victim
called the religious group a ‘paradise for pedophiles,’ because
the Jehovah’s Witnesses elders tend to keep sexual abuse
quiet. In the first week of its existence, the hotline received
nearly 50 sexual abuse reports. According to the newspaper,
the victims of sexual abuse asked the Jehovah’s Witnesses
elders for a meeting to discuss this abuse six months ago, but
still haven’t heard anything. This has a big affect [sic] on the
victims, Frank Huiting of Reclaimed Voices said to Trouw. ‘They
are angry, they haven’t known where they stand for some
time and feel disappointed about the entire process. They still
aren’t being heard, is what it comes down to.’ Minister Sander
Dekker for Legal Protection also instructed the leaders of the
Jehovah’s Witnesses to start a conversation with the victims.”
(NL Times, 05/02/18)
Doomsday cult leader in central Utah pleads guilty to
child bigamy, sodomy charges
“The leader of a doomsday cult in central Utah has struck a
plea deal with prosecutors. John Alvin Coltharp, 34, pleaded
guilty to felony charges of child bigamy and sodomy. In
exchange, prosecutors dismissed charges of kidnapping and
obstruction of justice. ‘I plead guilty,’ Coltharp told the judge
to both charges. Prosecutors allege Coltharp is a member of
the ‘Knights of the Crystal Blade,’ a small apocalyptic-based
group near Spring City with about a half-dozen members.”
(Fox 13 News, 6/13/18)
Mindfulness meditation impairs task motivation but not
performance
“A state of mindfulness is characterized by focused,
nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. The
current research experimentally investigated how state
mindfulness influences task motivation and performance,
using multiple meditation inductions, comparison
conditions, tasks, and participant samples. Mindfulness
inductions, relative to comparison conditions, reduced
motivation to tackle mundane tasks (Experiments 1–4)
and pleasant tasks (Experiment 2). Decreased future focus
and decreased arousal serially mediated the demotivating
effect of mindfulness (Experiments 3 and 4). In contrast
to changes in motivation, inducing a state of mindfulness
did not affect task performance, as seen in all experiments
but one (Experiments 2–5). Meta-analyses of performance
experiments, including unreported findings (i.e., the file
drawer), supported these conclusions. Experiment 5’s serial
medi[t]ation showed that mindfulness enabled people
to detach from stressors, which improved task focus.
When combined with mindfulness’s demotivating effects,
these results help explain why mindfulness does not alter
performance.” [Hafenbrack, A.C., &Vohs, K. D. (July 2018).
Mindfulness meditation impairs task motivation but not
performance, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes, 147, 1–15.] (Science Direct, 5/23/18)
NXIVM cofounder arrested, charged in federal complaint
“Keith Raniere, the co-founder of the NXIVM corporation,
a secretive Colonie-based organization that an expert has
called an ‘extreme cult,’ was arrested in Mexico this week by
the FBI based on a federal criminal complaint filed in the
Eastern District of New York. The complaint, filed recently in
connection with an ongoing federal grand jury investigation
being headed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn,
charges Raniere with multiple counts of sex trafficking and
forced labor. ...The federal court filings cast Raniere as a
manipulative figure who overstated his intelligence and
systematically exploited women, including creating a secret
slave-master sex club within NXIVM. … Federal prosecutors,
in pressing their case to have Raniere held without bond, said
he ‘has spent his life profiting from his pyramid schemes and
has otherwise received financial backing from independently
wealthy women.’
...Raniere, in statements previously posted on NXIVM’s
website, had characterized the slave-master group as a
consenting, private ‘sorority’ and he said that he and the
corporation had no role in it. But the federal complaint said
that emails seized from Raniere’s private messaging accounts
‘support the conclusion that Raniere created’ the club, which
was known as ‘Dominus Obsequious Sororium,’ which
means ‘Master Over the Slave Women.’ ...The federal criminal
complaint filed against Raniere said the slaves understood
that if they left the club, publicly spoke about it, or failed in
determined that blood transfusions were medically necessary.
Hospital staff called the Maricopa County Superior Court
hotline multiple times from October through December
last year to seek authorization for the blood transfusions.
The court granted three of five requests, according to court
documents. The parents filed a petition with the Arizona
Court of Appeals seeking to halt the transfusions. ...In an
opinion written by Judge Kenton D. Jones, the appellate court
concluded that the question of whether the lower court had
jurisdiction to OK emergency medical treatment was one ‘of
significant statewide importance.’ Jones noted that Arizona
law allows a Juvenile Court that has jurisdiction over a child
to order a parent or guardian to get medical treatment
for a child. However, the appellate court did not find any
such jurisdiction for a Superior Court emergency hotline. ...
Representatives of Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of
New York, which filed a legal brief on behalf of the parents,
did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
A Jehovah’s Witnesses website said the religion considers
blood transfusions a ‘religious issue rather than a medical
one,’ citing multiple biblical passages. Patients who develop
certain types of cancer, such as leukemia, often require blood
transfusions as a part of treatment.” (The Republic, 04/04/18)
Nearly 300 reports of sexual abuse among Dutch
Jehovah’s Witnesses
“The number of reports of sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s
Witnesses now stands at 267, Reclaimed Voices, a foundation
that manages the hotline for this type of abuse, said to
newspaper Trouw. Reclaimed Voices was established last year
after Trouw published the stories of a number of Jehovah’s
Witnesses who were abused during their youth. One victim
called the religious group a ‘paradise for pedophiles,’ because
the Jehovah’s Witnesses elders tend to keep sexual abuse
quiet. In the first week of its existence, the hotline received
nearly 50 sexual abuse reports. According to the newspaper,
the victims of sexual abuse asked the Jehovah’s Witnesses
elders for a meeting to discuss this abuse six months ago, but
still haven’t heard anything. This has a big affect [sic] on the
victims, Frank Huiting of Reclaimed Voices said to Trouw. ‘They
are angry, they haven’t known where they stand for some
time and feel disappointed about the entire process. They still
aren’t being heard, is what it comes down to.’ Minister Sander
Dekker for Legal Protection also instructed the leaders of the
Jehovah’s Witnesses to start a conversation with the victims.”
(NL Times, 05/02/18)
Doomsday cult leader in central Utah pleads guilty to
child bigamy, sodomy charges
“The leader of a doomsday cult in central Utah has struck a
plea deal with prosecutors. John Alvin Coltharp, 34, pleaded
guilty to felony charges of child bigamy and sodomy. In
exchange, prosecutors dismissed charges of kidnapping and
obstruction of justice. ‘I plead guilty,’ Coltharp told the judge
to both charges. Prosecutors allege Coltharp is a member of
the ‘Knights of the Crystal Blade,’ a small apocalyptic-based
group near Spring City with about a half-dozen members.”
(Fox 13 News, 6/13/18)
Mindfulness meditation impairs task motivation but not
performance
“A state of mindfulness is characterized by focused,
nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. The
current research experimentally investigated how state
mindfulness influences task motivation and performance,
using multiple meditation inductions, comparison
conditions, tasks, and participant samples. Mindfulness
inductions, relative to comparison conditions, reduced
motivation to tackle mundane tasks (Experiments 1–4)
and pleasant tasks (Experiment 2). Decreased future focus
and decreased arousal serially mediated the demotivating
effect of mindfulness (Experiments 3 and 4). In contrast
to changes in motivation, inducing a state of mindfulness
did not affect task performance, as seen in all experiments
but one (Experiments 2–5). Meta-analyses of performance
experiments, including unreported findings (i.e., the file
drawer), supported these conclusions. Experiment 5’s serial
medi[t]ation showed that mindfulness enabled people
to detach from stressors, which improved task focus.
When combined with mindfulness’s demotivating effects,
these results help explain why mindfulness does not alter
performance.” [Hafenbrack, A.C., &Vohs, K. D. (July 2018).
Mindfulness meditation impairs task motivation but not
performance, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes, 147, 1–15.] (Science Direct, 5/23/18)
NXIVM cofounder arrested, charged in federal complaint
“Keith Raniere, the co-founder of the NXIVM corporation,
a secretive Colonie-based organization that an expert has
called an ‘extreme cult,’ was arrested in Mexico this week by
the FBI based on a federal criminal complaint filed in the
Eastern District of New York. The complaint, filed recently in
connection with an ongoing federal grand jury investigation
being headed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn,
charges Raniere with multiple counts of sex trafficking and
forced labor. ...The federal court filings cast Raniere as a
manipulative figure who overstated his intelligence and
systematically exploited women, including creating a secret
slave-master sex club within NXIVM. … Federal prosecutors,
in pressing their case to have Raniere held without bond, said
he ‘has spent his life profiting from his pyramid schemes and
has otherwise received financial backing from independently
wealthy women.’
...Raniere, in statements previously posted on NXIVM’s
website, had characterized the slave-master group as a
consenting, private ‘sorority’ and he said that he and the
corporation had no role in it. But the federal complaint said
that emails seized from Raniere’s private messaging accounts
‘support the conclusion that Raniere created’ the club, which
was known as ‘Dominus Obsequious Sororium,’ which
means ‘Master Over the Slave Women.’ ...The federal criminal
complaint filed against Raniere said the slaves understood
that if they left the club, publicly spoke about it, or failed in
