No Deal Made in Religion Kidnap Case

No plea bargain was reached Friday in the case of five defendants--including three family members--charged with kidnaping and falsely imprisoning Ginger Brown in their purported attempt to deprogram her from a San Diego-based religious group called Great Among the Nations.

Prosecutor Gary Rempel said he was ready to proceed to trial, but the five defense attorneys all asked for more time to prepare for the case and review additional material from the district attorney’s office. With that, Vista Municipal Court Presiding Judge Victor Ramirez delayed the start of the preliminary hearing, previously set to begin April 12, to May 8.

The five defendants remain free on their own recognizance. They are Earle and Dorothy Rae Brown, both 57, a daughter, Holly Rae Brown, 24, all of Santa Cruz; Hank Erler, 22, in whose Escondido home Ginger Brown was allegedly held in custody by the group for four days last May, and Cliff Daniels, 34, of Los Angeles, a self-proclaimed deprogrammer who publicly says he attempted to “rescue” Brown from the 17-member organization.

The case has stalled with several attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement, but Rempel said Friday there had been no progress and he was ready to try all five on the felony charges.

Ramirez said he will not schedule any more pretrial conferences and that, unless both sides tell him there has been a breakthrough, they are to appear in Municipal Court Judge Michael Burley’s courtroom May 8.

The preliminary hearing is expected to last about five days.