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The adult daughter told a jury that sexual activity was so frequent in their communal lifestyle in Cleveland and Chicago in the 1980s that "I didn’t feel there was necessarily anything wrong with it."
Her testimony came on the first day of Bevel’s trial in Loudoun Circuit Court on a charge that, if proved, could send the 71-year-old Christian minister and confidant of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to prison for up to 20 years.
Bevel yesterday pleaded not guilty to a single charge of incest with one of his daughters on an unknown date when they lived in Leesburg between Oct. 14, 1992, and Oct. 14, 1994. Virginia does not have a statute of limitations for felonies.
The incest charge was prompted by a discussion some of his grown daughters had at a family reunion about experiences with their father when they were younger, prosecutors have said. The daughters confronted their father, who said he performed sex acts to guide and train them, prosecutors said. In September 2005, one daughter filed a complaint with Leesburg police.
The Washington Post generally does not identify people who have alleged they were sexually abused. The accuser testified she is one of Bevel’s 14 children, including nine daughters.
In an opening statement, Bevel’s court-appointed attorney, Bonnie H. Hoffman, urged the jury to "close your eyes, take a deep breath and get rid of your preconceptions about how things ought to be," seemingly preparing them for what she warned would be graphic testimony. And it was.

washingtonpost.com


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