Anti-bathing cult members arrested in Hawaii for violating quarantine, reports say
A cult leader and his followers were arrested this week in Hawaii for violating quarantine orders, according to multiple reports.
The group had reportedly already been kicked out of several countries in Central America.
Eligio Lee Bishop, leader of the “Carbon Nation” cult, and 20 others were arrested on Hawaii’s big island Wednesday and Thursday for violating the state’s emergency orders, KHNL reported.
On his social media accounts, Bishop regularly refers to himself as “Christ” or “God.”
Police said cult members arrived on the island June 7 and 8, according to KHNL. Hawaii’s governor ordered any visitors to the state to self-quarantine for 14 days or risk arrest because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
Twenty of the people arrested this week are from out of state, according to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. A 42-year-old woman who lives on the island where police made the arrests was booked into jail under “prohibited acts emergency management,” the newspaper reported.
Bishop and members of the cult have already been kicked out of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, according to The Costa Rica Star.
The cult practices nudism and polygamy, and does not bathe, The Star reports. Bishop’s followers had to give him their bank account information and credit cards, according to the newspaper.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reports Bishop was a “model, stripper, prostitute and barber” before becoming a cult leader.
A Hawaii police spokesman told The Herald-Leader that Bishop and his followers were cooperative.
“Of the 20 individuals that we arrested for quarantine violations from out of state, every single one of them were 100% compliant, 100% understanding … did not give the police one ounce of resistance and thanked us for doing things the way we did,” the spokesman told the newspaper.
“We broke the law. This is what happens. You gotta stay in quarantine for 14 days. It is what it is. We broke the law. They’re doing their job,” Bishop said on social media, according to KHNL.
Bishop runs a YouTube channel called CarbonNation TV with almost 85,000 followers.
According to The Herald Leader, those arrested for violating quarantine include:
- Ishmael Jakeem Allah Goodwine, 21, of Orangeburg, S.C.
- Fenedric Raione Johnson, 23, of Fort Worth, Texas
- Shenise Crystal Gould, 29, of Aberdeen, Maryland
- Armon Tarik Palmer, 20, of Waterloo, Iowa
- Jacob Daniel Benton, 24
- Jazz Lee, 23
- Brianna Kay Jacobs, 22
- Jayon-Marie Hamilton, 22
This story was originally published June 12, 2020 at 7:56 AM.
