Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 26, 1993                   TAG: 9308260110
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BRIEFLY . . .

The Christian Science Church was ordered Wednesday to pay $9 million in punitive damages to the father of an 11-year-old boy who died in a diabetic coma without medical treatment as his mother prayed. The same Minneapolis jury returned a $5.2 million damage award last week in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the boy's biological father against his ex-wife and her husband, the church and several church representatives.

The preacher who crashed a carload of naked Pentecostals into a tree pleaded guilty to misdemeanor traffic charges Wednesday and was allowed to leave Vinton, La. Sammy Rodriguez, 29, of Floydada, Texas, and 19 relatives abandoned their clothes during a pilgrimage from Texas that ended Aug. 19 with a 90 mph chase through Vinton.