5: Taking Down John of God

week we are talking about a monster, or maybe the woman who refused to be one.

“I'm sitting down with Maggie Gillen Hall to unpack her new film The Bride, and trust”

me, this isn't your grandmother's bride of Frankenstein. What I was more interested in was the monstrousness inside of each of us. You can spend your life running from those things, or you can turn around and shake hands with them. Listen to Bookmarked, the Reese's Book Club podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. When you feel uncomfortable, what do you put on? Biggie. You put on biggie when you feel uncomfortable? So I want to get confident.

This is DJ Hester Prince music is therapy, a new podcast from me, a DJ and licensed therapist, 12 months, 12 areas of your life, money, love, career, confidence. This isn't just a podcast, it's unconventional therapy for your entire year. Listen to DJ Hester Prince music is therapy. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, it's Alec Baldwin.

“This season on my podcast, here's the thing I talked to composer Mark Shaman.”

It's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with, you know Robin I was always a great hang. And journalist Chris Whipple. Every White House staffer, they work in a bubble called the Westway.

And it's exponentially more so in the Trump White House. Listen to the new season.

Of here's the thing on the iHeart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Please note that in this episode, we'll be talking about sexual abuse and violence, which could be triggering for some listeners. Please listen at your own discretion. Luciano Miranda says he first heard about the allegations against John of God, like most Brazilians.

For access to fear, because it was Friday when the TV show appeared in the press camera. A program television here in Brazil. João Teixeira de Faría is a medial Brazilian who has been in all the world like João de Deus. By Saturday, Luciano was already working on the case. That's because he's a criminal prosecutor in the state of Goyas, the state that's home

to the casa and John of God.

His job at first was to field questions from the press about the allegations.

El Corandiro Bracileno Jouau de Deus, accusado de agressiones sexualis per dozen women, said the cell styles, spiritual healer, had abused them at his clinic. Monday, Luciano became part of a task force that would try to understand the magnitude of this case, because the situation was far from normal. When our malware, the normal thing is you first have the legal investigation.

Either police, accused, and this is then somehow released to the press. This process, and here we had the opposite of that process. But in this instance, Luciano didn't see it as a bad thing that this all first came out in the press. Because when this was released, it ended up reinforcing the idea that maybe there were other

victims that were afraid to come forward or he had to simply add, so that created like

“a current, a flow of voices that only grew, and the press at that point became essential”

to create a bridge between the public prosecutor's office and the victims. That bridge took the form of an email address and a phone number, that the task force set up and distributed to every TV channel in Brazil. They asked people to contact them if they had more information about these allegations, or to report new ones.

The task force immediately started processing the avalanche of calls and emails, directing victims to make formal complaints with their local authorities. Because there was nothing Luciano or his team could do until someone decided to formally press charges against Joao.

There was a Wednesday at night.

“And there was a call from a State Prosecutor in the Federal District saying that two victims contacted”

them and they wanted to formally press charges. That means we would have something that could legally allow for a house search for a bus cadomisserie and even an arrest warrant in Pigido de Priszao. From exactly right media and a domimedia, this is two-faced, John of God. I'm your host, Martina Castro.

Episode five, taking down John of God. When Luciano heard that two victims were willing to press charges against John of God, he didn't want to waste any time. "I asked my colleague from the Federal District. Is it possible to get these ones statements today?

Everything was recorded. "As you have finished the next day, we made the request, both the search requests and the arrest warrant." "This was Wednesday, December 12, 2018, not even a week." Since converse conbiall had aired their segment about John of God's alleged crimes.

The search warrant covered all of Joao's homes. According to the newspaper Folia de São Paulo, he had 27 properties listed under his name, in Abadianiah alone, as well as a plane and even a mining site. Luciano says the task force had to coordinate the searches carefully, so they could happen at the exact same time.

That way no one would have a chance to hide things or destroy evidence. Two days later, a judge issued the warrants to search Joao's homes and for his arrest. The task force kicked their plan into motion. Luciano was with the team that searched Joao's main house in Annapudis, the closest city to Abadianiah.

"Ea-Yip, left and there, in total, we found firearms and a nation, a lot of cash, something that is not common.

It was more than one and a half million rise, you know, we may use G.H.I.s."

At the time, that was equivalent to almost 400,000 US dollars, and it was in several different currencies. "The money was scattered among drawers, and it wasn't like it was in a safe, it seemed like it was a cast simply thrown around the house, and it was a gigantic amount." O'Global later reported that in the days before the warrants were issued, Joao had moved

35 million rise from his bank accounts and investments, that's like nine million dollars at the time.

“That's why the task force was in such a rush to request a warrant for his arrest.”

But when news of the warrant when public, Joao was nowhere to be found. After briefly appearing at the gossau where he declared that he was innocent, he kind of disappeared. For a few days, it was unclear if he was going to turn himself in, until four days later. Joao and his lawyer pull up on the side of a dirt road, they're not alone, Monika Bergamma,

a very prominent journalist from the newspaper Folia de São Paulo, is in the middle of an exclusive interview with Joao. She's recording on her cell phone when they decide to pull over, next to police vehicles. That's when it becomes clear. Joao is turning himself in.

"I think I'm not going to be a police officer, because I'm not going to be a police officer. In this audio clip from the video Monika recorded and later shared with Global, you can hear her ask Joao. Why he waited until now to turn himself in? And as he walks to the police car holding his lawyer's hand, Joao says to her, "Now that

you're police, I'll be on the ring for you." He says, "I'm turning myself over to heavenly justice, and the justice here on earth, as promised."

“Ever feel like you're being chased by the marriage police?”

Welcome to Boys & Girls, the podcast by dating isn't dating.

A ranged marriage is basically a reality show, except the contestants are strangers and

your entire family is judging. You're sipping coffee with one maybe, grabbing dinner with another, and praying your carmy can or Barbie appears before your shelf life runs out. Trust me, I've been through this ancient and unshakable tradition.

and now I'm looking for healing.

Boys & Girls dives into every twist and turn of the arranged marriage carousel, the me talk world, the new emissors, the heartbreak, and let's not forget all the jokes. Listen to Boys & Girls on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you feel uncomfortable, what do you put on?

Biggie. You put on a biggie when you feel uncomfortable? So I want to get confident. This is DJ Heaster Prince Music is Therapy, a new podcast from me, a DJ and licensed therapist that asks one simple question, "Who do you want to be?"

And what's the song that can take you there?

“Music changes what you feel, and what you feel changes what you do, right?”

That moment where a song shifts something inside you, that's where transformation starts. This year I'm talking to experts across every area of life, like personal finance, icon jean chatsy, New York Times, journalist, David Gellis, relationship legend, dance savage, human connection, teacher, mark, robes, and the man who shaped my ear more than anyone, Chris Love, they'll bring the strategies, I'll pair them with the right records, and we'll

teach you how to use the music to make a change stick. This isn't just a podcast. It's unconventional therapy for your entire ear. Listen to DJ Heaster Prince Music is Therapy, a new iHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi listeners, I'm Anison Field, the host of the Girlfriend Spotlight, and I've got some great interviews coming your way. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of season 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Girlfriends, and every single episode of the Girlfriend Spotlight, 100% ad-free, and one week early through the iHard True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively

on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other chart-hopping True Crime shows you love, like betrayal, paper ghosts, pikes and massacre, the brother's Ortiz, what happened in Nashville, hell and gone, the godmother, and more. So don't wait, head to Apple Podcasts search for iHard True Crime Plus, and subscribe today.

Remember, she always beloved by many in Brazil, and he had very influential friends.

There had been reports of three different Brazilian presidents, and at least one Supreme Court judge, going to see him. And then there were the thousands of people who considered themselves his followers. As you can imagine, for many of them, it was a great injustice for Joao to get taken into custody.

Thanks to this recording, all of them got to watch that injustice unfold. This dramatic scene helped paint Joao as a victim of this situation, but Camila Apell from Conversa, Colombia, says there was another element at play. We have a culture of this believing the word of the victim. People say, "Is that so?"

“But didn't you do something that made him think that you actually wanted sex?”

And that's very common. Joao's own defense team circulated rumors to fan the flames of distrust, especially when it came to the main person, who came forward with her story, and showed her face. Zahida Mouse. John of God's defense tried to take Zahida's word down in all kinds in all way possible.

And I don't believe how can we have this kind of lost system? A defense lawyer just come and invent stuff about someone. They said she was a prostitute. I mean, even if she was, of course. But she's not.

They also said Zahida was extorting John of God, and that she invented her story as revenge when he didn't want to pay her. It's a strategy that they use to take the credibility away from the woman who is denouncing the men. They even tried to investigate and discredit Camila.

She heard people were circulating her photo in Abadiania. She wasn't scared, but her father was, especially at the beginning of her investigation before the news when public. He rented a bulletproof car for me to drive during that period, because a friend of him said, "Look, if they want to kill her, they're going to do it."

“In the traffic jam, pretending they're the robbery, right?”

So bulletproof car just showed up at my door, because my father was really scared. And I think I was until the segment went out, I was scared until then. Because after the segment aired, no matter what showhouse followers and closest allies

His victims had finally found the strength to tell their own stories of abuse.

“Until the press brought out the case, Celevado, Brasil de Polimpres.”

Now they did understand what happened to them, and they wanted to talk. Luciano couldn't believe the amount of people who ended up reaching out to the task force.

When Celevado came clear that someone as powerful as throughout the shade could have an arrest warrant

issued against him, that was another reinforcement for the victims to seek us out. And it showed it in the wedding book that he wasn't untouchable. In the end, over 300 victims contacted the task force to say they had been sexually abused by John of God. Three hundred, some had stories of abuse that happened back in the 1980s. Others had been abused only a few months before.

Last year, we had victims from practically every Brazilian state. I used up the rope, making them from European countries as well as from the United States, Australia, Australia.

There's the predominance between 20 or 30 years old, but we have victims of all ages.

“They held out to the police and said, "Caude did you hear this?”

"Caude did you hear this? "There are reports of children, a teenage girl in a wheelchair that was abused by him." This was the largest sexual abuse case Luciano had ever encountered in terms of the amount of victims and span of time over which the abuse had occurred. But not all of these testimonies would end up in the formal case against Joao.

The prescriptive period is what Brazilian law calls the window of time the government has to press charges. After a crime is committed. Thus, this is so even if the victim gives a statement and has evidence, the judicial system can't take action

“if too much time has passed since the incident.”

The statute of limitations prevents Jojo de Ciaraje, but it is also due to death. This is one of several aspects of this case that we're going to make it one of the most challenging of Luciano's career. Like for example, the fact that many cases of abuse took place while people were in line

at the Kassa and first meeting John of God.

He would take the victim's hand and bring it up to his penis and the victim's own body covered the view of those behind it. He, as the judicial policy, victims said to me, "Dr. I couldn't believe that individual." He was talking to me, saying things asking random questions and manipulating his genital organs. I just couldn't understand that situation.

But it seemed like it seemed like such a unique thing, but we have something like 40 reports like these from victims. Another challenge came when Luciano interviewed the victims because witnesses would refer to John of God as Joao and as the entity, but they didn't consider them one and the same.

But who was the entity? But who was the entity? No, no, it wasn't Joao to shayda. So I had some difficulty at the beginning to understand. Above all, Luciano was very aware of the fact that he was prosecuting one of the most

powerful men in Brazil. He knew he would have to be meticulous as he built his case and the argument he made in court would have to be absolutely airtight. In the case of Joao, we were very careful not to make excessive accusations, not to be considered disproportionate and unreasonable.

well conducted. Luciano knew, for a fact, this could happen when it came to Joao because it already had.

This is the second time Joao would be prosecuted for sexual abuse.

The first time was back in 2013. In a case that said a precedent, Luciano would have to overcome. When you feel uncomfortable, when you put on a biggie, you put on a biggie when you feel uncomfortable? So I want to get confident.

This is DJ Hesterprint's music is therapy, a new podcast from me, a DJ and licensed therapist that asks one simple question.

“What do you want to be and what's the song that can take you there?”

Music changes what you feel and what you feel changes what you do, right? That moment where a song shifts something inside you, that's where transformation starts. This year, I'm talking to experts across every area of life, like personal finance icon Jean Chatsky, New York Times journalist David Gellis, relationship legend Dan Savage, human connection teacher Mark Brogues, and the man who shaped my ear more than anyone,

Quest Love, they'll bring the strategies, I'll pair them with the right records and we'll teach you how to use the music to make a change stick. This isn't just a podcast. It's unconventional therapy for your entire ear. Listen to DJ Hesterprint's music is therapy, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts.

“Ever feel like you're being chased by the marriage police?”

Welcome to Boys & Girls, the podcast by dating is in dating.

A ranged marriage is basically a reality show, except the contestants are strangers and

your entire family is judging. You're sipping coffee with one maybe, grabbing dinner with another, and praying your carmic can or Bobby appears before your shelf life runs out. Trust me, I've been through this ancient and unshakable tradition. I jumped in hoping to find love the right way, and instead I found chaos, cringe, and comedy.

And now I'm looking for healing. Boys & Girls dives into every twist and turn of the arranged marriage carousel, the meat awkward, the near misses, the heartbreak, and let's not forget all the jokes. Listen to Boys & Girls on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

“Hi listeners, I'm Anison Fields, the host of the girlfriend Spotlight, and I've got some”

great interviews coming your way. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of season 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the girlfriends, and every single episode of the girlfriend Spotlight, 100% ad-free. And one week early, through the iHeart True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively

on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other chart-hopping True Crime shows you love, like betrayal, paper, ghosts, pikes and massacre, the brothers' auties, what happened in Nashville, hell and gone, the godmother and more. So don't wait, head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe to

Guy, my name is Camilla, I'm an lawyer, I live my entire life in Belo Horizonte, mean as a judge, this is Camilla R. We're not sharing her full last name out of respect for her privacy. Camilla grew up in a very close knit and very Catholic family.

As you said before, we've always been a very spiritual family, always very close, very

believing of something bigger. She was 16 when she first heard about John of God, at the time she was suffering from a panic disorder that was pretty much taking over her life. I was in high school and I wanted to hurt myself because I had the feeling that I wasn't able to breathe and I started to have fear of the fear, and I couldn't get better.

I was going to a psychiatrist, I started to take very strong medications, and I weighed 39 kilos, I became a toothpick. We couldn't get me to get better. So, when a family friend told them about John of God and how he was healing people in Abadhyanya, her mother said it was worth a try. "But at which is this bed of love out of desperation," she said, "I'm going to take

to cure all those people the way people said, why wouldn't we go, right?"

“So Camilla went with her parents to Abadhyanya.”

She lined up with them to see John of God and remembers clearly what happened when it was her turn to talk to him. "I cried a lot. I don't know why, but he was very common because of my panic disorder." "It was all very common."

And then he said that my case was serious. So, John of God told her to sit and pray with the others in the room, and to return in the afternoon. She returned, and when she saw John of God again this time, he told her to go see him in his office.

Camilla went with her father.

"My whole life, my father, he was always very protective.

I never slip at a friend's house, I never went out anywhere." "He asked me if I wanted him to come in with me.

“Without thinking I said, dad, you decide if you want to, and he obviously decided to go in”

with me." Camilla has given very few interviews about what happened next. It's still very hard for her to relive that experience or to even speak about it. So we told her it wasn't necessary to describe it for us. The journalist, Christina Phoebe, who wrote about Camilla's experience in her book, told

us about her case.

So she summarizes what happened, once Camilla and her father went inside John of God's office.

He closed the door, locked the door, told her father to turn around and be with his eyes close, and then he got very close to Camilla, who was 16, and he told her to close her eyes to, and he started to, you know, his hands going through her, like going through her breasts and her lower parts, and she was stiff, she couldn't move, she froze, and she was crying really, really loud.

And her father thought, "Well, she's having panic attacks, we are here to solve this problem." It was very normal that she cries, and John of God was, at the same time, that he was stretching her, he was reinforcing, close your eyes, father, don't look, father, you know, because he said, and he said that to many victims, that if you open your eyes, or if you

do something, you would interrupt the cure flux, the energy going there. After it all ended, Camilla couldn't bring herself to say anything. She left with her father, just crying uncontrollably. I was a girl, I was a virgin, but I knew it was wrong.

“In my head, it was a little confusing because he's such an important person.”

Everybody says he heals, that he's good, that he's a saint, how could this be happening to me? You're okay. And I came back, obviously, worse than when I got there. I thought for a moment that God had abandoned me.

I felt disgusted with myself, with my hands, with my body, and I wanted to die. At this point, Camilla took the pills that they had bought at the gasa, and she put them in a pile with all the clothes she wore that day. She then lit a match and set them all on fire. Her mother found her in that panic state, and asked her what was happening, and Camilla decided

to tell her everything. My mother was devastated, my mother cried a lot. My mother became desperate, she called my father, my father arrived. He felt like the ground had fallen out from under him, because he came in to protect me

At first, he scolded me, but I knew it was an act of desperation too.

Why didn't I tell him right away? Why didn't I say it right away? I couldn't do it.

“I wasn't understanding what was going on.”

Then we were talking, thinking what should we do? We decided to go to the women's police station and report it. This kicked off a very arduous legal process. Unfortunately, that's common for victims of sexual abuse who decide to press charges. It took a tremendous toll on Camilla.

She had to endure medical examinations and tell the story multiple times of what happened to her with authorities. You know that when we went to make a complaint that the police station hours was the

first, mass took him six hours in a room.

There was a criminal charge for fraud, but not for sexual crimes. And while Camilla developed seizures and she was having a really difficult time sleeping, her father was also receiving mysterious phone calls from people threatening him. It was messages, it was messages, calls, that said things like, you don't know who you're messing with.

You should stop with that. Sorry. Thanks to that effect, you know? Four years after the abuse took place. It was finally time for the trial.

“It was such a pity that the lawyers on the other side made me feel as if I was wrong,”

as if it were part of a spiritual procedure. It was all very mechanical, very impersonal. It had been really cruel, you know? Very cruel. Nine months after the hearing, Camilla heard that the judge had made a decision.

John of God was found not guilty. And the judge who solved him in the sentence, she said that she understood that the abuse happened. But that I wasn't in danger because my father was in the room, I could have asked him for help.

As you can't make you a mistake, basically saying I accepted it. The prosecution appealed, but they lost again. That time because the defense argued Camilla's panic disorder made her testimony unreliable.

“"Yeah, yeah, think how if you feel almost young, I had lived years and years of my”

life thinking that I had been the one person." I squalied the chosen to live through this until almost a decade later. "Yeah, you're no excuse, please."

And then I will never forget that day.

I was at home. My father was in his room, watching television. "Nasala, I was in the living room." "My father called me all the time." He said, "Look at what's on TV and it was Sahir talking on the B.L. show.

Tell the complain of her case." At that moment, my heart raised. I started to feel sick because everything I believed in for years of my life, thinking that I was discredited, thinking that it was just me. There were other women who had experienced the same thing.

Do you have that much? And then my world changed overnight. "No, first of all, it wasn't just me." He said, "No, first of all, it wasn't just me." "Because, as a child, I had seen the process of my life in Camila's trial.

If he had been convicted, in that case, was that she and me, more than 100 victims would not have been abused." Eventually, Camila would end up talking to Luciano and the task force. Her case would prove instrumental to the prosecution's strategy. "Come on, I'll face two doubt counts that Camila because I studied Camila's case.

I realized that it was the same judge who was assigned to our case." That's right. A trial Luciano would face the same judge who would digate earlier. Found, show-out, innocent. Next time, on two-faced, John of God.

Luciano and his team take John of God to court, and we wrestle with the outcome of his case. He heard a lot of people. He caused a lot of pain, and a lot of people who came to see him, that they were unable

"There's still two groups there, and I just think it's terribly dangerous."

“People told me that he insists that the entities are telling him he's going to go back”

to the cause. So he's very clever, I mean, no successor coming back, you wait. Listen to two-faced, John of God. On the I-Heart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There, you can also find this show in a Spanion.

Just look for those goddess, Juan de Dios. Two-faced, John of God is a production of exactly right media, and Adon de Media, hosted and written by myself Martina Castro. Our senior producer is Mariano Pashela, reporting and fact-checking by Eloi Sattraiano, production assistance and research by Giovanna Romano Sanchez, sound designed by Mauricio Mendoza, and

our Mastering Engineer is Marithin Grus, original music was composed by Mariana Romano. The artwork is by Vanessa Lylac, Luciano Miranda was interpreted by Andres Cabasheto, and Camila R by Laura Ubatte. For exactly right media, the executive producers are Karen Calgarrif, Georgia Hardstark, and Danielle Cramer, with consulting producer Lily Ladowig, and associate producer J. Elias.

When this story broke, it led many people to realize they too had been victims of sexual

“violence. If you find that you need to talk to someone, after hearing the stories we shared”

today, you can chat with someone for free and confidentially at rain.org. That's R-A-I-N-N-dot-O-R-G.

Everyone we spoke with for this podcast says the most important thing to do as a survivor

is to use the power of your voice to get counseling and start the process of healing. Hi, I'm Danielle Rubei, host of Bookmarked, the podcast by Reese's Book Club, and this week we are talking about a monster, or maybe the woman who refused to be one. I'm sitting down with Maggie Gillen Hall to unpack her new film The Bride, and trust me, this isn't your grandmother's bride of Frankenstein.

What I was more interested in was the monstrousness inside of each of us. You can spend your life running from those things, or you can turn around and shake hands with them. Listen to Bookmarked, the Reese's Book Club podcast on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. When you feel uncomfortable, what do you put on?

Biggie. You put on biggie when you feel uncomfortable? So I want to get confident. This is DJ Hester Prince, music is therapy. A new podcast from me, a DJ and licensed therapist, 12 months, 12 areas of your life. Money, love, career, confidence. This isn't just a

podcast. It's unconventional therapy for your entire year. Listen to DJ Hester Prince, music is therapy. On the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

“Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, here's the thing I talked to composer Mark”

Shaman. It's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with.

You know Rob and I was always a great hang and journalist Chris Wippel.

Every White House staffer, they work in a bubble called the West Wing and it's exponentially more so in the Trump White House. Listen to the new season of here's the thing on the I-Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.