In his continuing effort to quash any investigation into his alleged role as the purported Spring City Church of Satan Punisher, Joe Bennion has filed a civil stalking injunction against me with Judge Marvin Bagley in Manti, Utah. I will be filing a response to this absurdity within the alloted ten days, even though Joe Bennion’s petition has provided ample entertainment over the past half hour.
According to Joe, my conduct “goes beyond mere “investigation” and he seeks to harass and ultimately destroy the “CS” and its alleged members.”
One might wonder what other objective besides destruction should be had when dealing with a satanic generational cult that allegedly rapes and murders children, but apparently the objective of the CS’s destruction is too extreme. My goal of building criminal and civil cases against those guilty of raping and killing children would entail their destruction, and ultimately imprisonment and financial ruin. It would also provide a measure of accountability that their victims have waited decades to see.
In Joe Bennion’s mind, an ultimate goal involving seeing “as many of the named perpetrators as possible go to prison and suffer significant financial losses” is stalking. So to is the goal of “financially crippl[ing] this group and any related group that enabled them…”
According to Joe Bennion, I am guilty of stalking him. I have never approached or confronted Joe Bennion, and I have explicitly discouraged readers from confronting or approaching him. Additionally, in the civil stalking statute 76-5-106.5(6)(b), if you have a legitimate business purpose, you are not in violation of the statute. The purpose of this Substack is to cover the allegations against David Lee Hamblin and his alleged accomplices, and Joe and Lee Bennion are alleged accomplices of David Lee Hamblin.
As such, the contents of this Substack are part of a legitimate business purpose, and covered by the First Amendment’s protections for journalists. Joe Bennion can run to Judge Marvin Bagley in Utah for an ex parte civil injunction, but he cannot overcome the clear language of the statute or the protections of the First Amendment to squash Investigations in Ritual Abuse’s coverage of his alleged role in the rape and murder of multiple victims. IRA will be responding to the injunction, and we will be requesting a hearing before Judge Bagley. Should Judge Bagley rule against us, we will appeal and we will prevail based on the plain language of the statute and the protections of the First Amendment.
Joe Bennion also references the videos created by IRA utilizing AI to mock members of the CS, which are part of an effort to satirize those members. It is entirely reasonable to mock and castigate someone who allegedly raped and murdered children, and who has evaded culpability for his alleged misdeeds for over four decades. Joe argues that I have encouraged others to contact him, when my satirical advertisement for Horseshoe Mountain Pottery encouraged satanists and occultists to drop by and purchase his pottery. That is hardly stalking. If anything, I’m encouraging Joe’s alleged core customer demographic to spend more money at his business. Talk about a lack of gratitude!
The petition references my “apparent willingness to kill and die in [my] efforts to expose the CS.” This is in reference to the possibility of CS members coming after me, which means I’m referring to self-defense. If any CS member comes to the land upon which I reside to retaliate against me for my efforts in exposing their criminal conduct, I am entitled to defend myself. The petition goes on to reference my belief in physical opposition to evil when no other means exists. That is, when there is no other legitimate means to oppose evil, such as a criminal or civil process, I believe in physically opposing evil nonetheless. The quote that isn’t placed in bold print is instructive: “I am currently committed to working through the legal process in the hopes that this process will yield a righteous outcome for David Lee Hamblin’s deeds, and for the deeds of his accomplices…”
Alas, Joe Bennion is apparently too stupid to comprehend what he reads. Judge Bagley apparently only reads the bold or italicized text in motions, which is why he granted the temporary civil stalking injunction. I am entitled to my beliefs, including belief in “physical opposition to evil as both a preventative and restorative measure, to the point of obliteration for individuals who rape and murder children and adults.”
Given that Utah has the death penalty, I am comfortable in my presumption that many Utahns agree with me on these matters. Otherwise, there would be no laws prescribing capital punishment or severe criminal penalties for those who rape and murder children and adults. In the event that our civil institutions have been overrun with corrupt individuals who enable rape and murder rather than enforcing the laws that clearly classify both acts as criminal, we have the right and the responsibility to restore sanity and righteousness to those institutions and punish rapists and murderers.
If violence were not efficacious against corruption and lawlessness, and if we were obligated to tolerate corrupt institutions and processes that imposed insanity in the form of lawlessness, we would not have a country. Our forefathers would never have rebelled against the English crown, and the pioneers would never have defended themselves against anti-Mormon militias when the civil authorities stood by and allowed those militias to pillage and murder with impunity. When I encourage people to take back their institutions fro those who have robbed us of a working civil government, to the point where a man like David Lee Hamblin can evade criminal culpability for raping his daughter even when the police have a recorded conversation of Hamblin apologizing to his daughter for raping her, I am not making an unreasonable point.
When I advocated for CS members to be excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, my position was not unreasonable or extreme. I have video footage of Joe Bennion talking about his involvement with the peyote ceremonies of apostate, excommunicated Latter Day Saint James Warren Flaming Eagle Mooney. These ceremonies apparently helped Joe assuage his personal guilt.
The mere admission of his involvement with apostates who deny the Atonement of Christ as the sole means of man’s salvation, and his ingestion of a controlled substance as part of their religious rituals, would qualify Joe Bennion for excommunication from the Church in any reasonable context. Latter Day Saints are prohibited from drinking caffeinated coffee and tea, as well as ingesting illicit drugs. One does not hold dual membership in the Restored Church of Jesus Christ on the one hand and the Native American Church of James Mooney on the other. Joe Bennion did not follow-and does not follow-the clear teachings and rules of the Church in which he holds membership.
This is clear even if he did not commit the acts he is accused of committing by the Hamblin sisters and others.
The petition is absurd on its face, in that it includes rebuttals to its arguments.
“Of particular concern are certain of Respondent’s allegations which could be interpreted as a suggestion to his followers to trespass on the Petitioners’ property in an attempt to find or secure so-called evidence…”
The following paragraphs contain references to a search warrant which would be used to search the homes of CS members, including Joe and Lee Bennion. A law enforcement professional with a search warrant for a residence is not engaged in trespassing. Referencing the likelihood that extensive forensic evidence is present at the alleged crime scenes where murders took place is not an invitation to trespass; it is a simple observation of reality. Noting that those who produce and possess child pornography do not get rid of their materials is not an inducement to trespass on the property of alleged CS members. It is a statement rooted in common sense and the documented predilections of those who possess child pornography, given the ample reports of individuals who are caught with child pornography that is often decades old.
The petition refers to a text I sent to Zina Bennion inquiring about the allegations. This is not stalking. It’s basic journalism, and it offered her a chance to admit or deny the allegations made by the Hamblin sisters. She did not respond, and I did not press the issue further. It also references a phone conversation I had with Mason Sullivan in late 2022, which Mason Sullivan voluntarily participated in for the better part of an hour.
The Bennions’ petition goes on to reference a 2023 visit I made to 95 E 400 S in Spring City, the old Hamblin home. They claim that Andi Pitcher Davis refused my request for access to the home and property and instructed me not to contact the tenants occupying the home. Andi Pitcher Davis does not own the property in question; her estranged husband Mark David Davis-another alleged CS member-does. It is yet another example of the sloppy, dishonest, and factually inaccurate manner in which Joe and Lee Bennion went about obtaining a ex parte temporary civil stalking injunction.
In conclusion, the injunction is much ado about nothing. The plain language of the statute as it pertains to a business purposes exempts the coverage I’ve offered on IRA from sufficing as a violation of the stalking statute. My encouragement of the residents of Spring City to be vigilant and aware does not rise to the level of stalking either; if it did, neighborhood watches would be all but impossible. My advocacy for Joe and Lee Bennion to be excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not grounds for a stalking injunction. It is what any reasonable member of the Church should advocate for when another member flagrantly violates the rules of the Church, advocates for apostate positions such as same-sex marriage and the normalization of homosexuality-which is tantamount to classifying sin as righteousness-and generally takes positions contrary to the core doctrines and scriptures of the Church that they attend and hold membership in.
Joe Bennion is and has been an apostate and a heretic for decades. His continued membership in good standing with the Church is illogical: he clearly does not believe what the Church teaches, what the scriptures say, and he has no interest in conforming his behavior or his outlook to either standard. Seeking a civil stalking injunction against me for pointing this out is absurd, but it is consistent with the arrogant and entitled manner which Joe Bennion, David Leavitt, and David Hamblin have conducted themselves over the years and decades. They do not believe they are subject to the same rules as everyone else, either in or out of the Church, and they believe they are entitled to abuse the legal and ecclesiastical process to evade the consequences of their actions.
I am thrilled that Joe Bennion managed to gather up the courage to write a sloppy petition, submit it to a soon-to-be retired judge in Manti, and try his hand at shutting down IRA’s coverage of his alleged and documented actions. I have ten days to respond and request a hearing before Judge Bagley, and I intend to do just that. I also intend to move to disqualify Judge Bagley from the hearing for obvious reasons, given his recent performance in the Hamblin evidentiary hearing. I do not find it accidental or coincidental that Joe and Lee Bennion filed their petition before Judge Bagley.
To the readers, your support has made two years of coverage on the Hamblin case possible. If you want to support us, you can subscribe or you can donate any amount you like here. This is likely the first of many such skirmishes with the alleged members of the LDS Church of Satan. Into the battle we go! Deus Vult!
Always had feelings that Joe Bennion was off kilter.
There were 4 or 5 pieces of Bennion pottery amongst my stuff that had accumulated from gifts and purchases decades ago.
When these allegations came to light, I smacked the pottery all to pieces with a hammer and threw the shards in the trash.
No need to keep demonically tinged artifacts around!