Hosanna defendant’s trial set

• By DEBRA LEMOINE
• Florida Parishes bureau
• Published: Mar 30, 2008 - UPDATED: 03.30.08

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HAMMOND — Another defendant in the Hosanna Church child-sex abuse case has a trial date, but it’s not the one the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office  plans to try next.

State District Judge Bruce Bennett set a July 14 court date for Patricia Pierson, 57, of Hammond.

However, the prosecution hopes to try former Hosanna pastor, Louis D. Lamonica, 49, of Holden, sometime this summer, District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said.

Both Perrilloux and Pierson’s defense attorney, Wayne Stewart, said that Pierson won’t be tried in July.

Perrilloux said he hopes to work with state District Judge Zoey Waguespack to have an August trial for Lamonica. Waguespack does not have a criminal trial date in August, but Perrilloux said judges can sometime work trials into their calendars. Stewart said he does not mind if the district attorney wishes to try others before his client.

“Perhaps by then, they’ll lose interest in us,” Stewart said. “Quite frankly, Mrs. Pierson didn’t do anything.”

Lamonica and Pierson are among the seven members of the now-defunct Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula charged in 2005 with sexually abusing children.

The only Hosanna member tried so far, Austin “Trey” Bernard III, is now serving a life sentence after being convicted on three counts of aggravated rape of children under the age of 12. So Far, Pierson is the only Hosanna defendant with a trial date.

On top of the Hosanna trials, the District Attorney’s Office also has a capital murder trial for Michael Varnado, of Hammond, set for Aug. 18 in state District Judge Wayne Ray Chutz’s court. Perrilloux does not think Varnado’s trial would happen as scheduled, in part because Varnado’s case is a year old while the Hosanna cases are three years old.

Varnado, 29 at the time of his arrest, is accused of smothering his girlfriend, Quantell Roberts, 20, of Hammond; setting her Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer on fire; and leaving her infant and toddler behind in the burning trailer on Feb. 16, 2007. The children, not related to Varnado, died of smoke inhalation, investigators have said.

Assistant District Attorney Don Wall and Amite-based defense attorney Michael Thiel are handling the trials of both Lamonica and Varnado trials.

“There always comes a point when there are scheduling issues with cases,” Perrilloux said. “We obviously have a lot more going on than the cases that interest the media.”

Wall said he would be ready to try both cases this summer.