FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2017 file photo provided by the Cibola County Sheriff's Office, Deborah Green, leader of the paramilitary Christian sect Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps, is arrested outside of the group's secluded Fence Lake, N.M. compound. Deborah Green and Peter Green, the two leaders of a New Mexico paramilitary religious sect, pleaded not guilty Monday, Sept. 11, 2017, to charges connected to a child abuse investigation. (Cibola County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
September 11, 2017 - 11:35 AM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Two leaders of a New Mexico paramilitary religious sect have pleaded not guilty to charges connected to a child abuse investigation.
Deborah Green and Peter Green entered pleas Monday in Cibola County District Court.
Co-leader Deborah Green and high-ranking leader Peter Green of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training are being held on $500,000 cash surety bond in connection with child sexual abuse charges stemming from a raid last month on their compound.
The secluded compound is in the high desert of western New Mexico.
Peter Green, also known as Mike Brandon, faces 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child on suspicion of raping a girl from the time she was 7.
The group, founded in California, says the allegations are "totally false."
News from © The Associated Press, 2017