Curiosity is a pillar of journalism. While much of the White House press corps thinks eating at the trough is a pillar of journalism, the rest of us know it's really curiosity. Curiosity has been my best friend for many years. It’s kept me enthused and employed for years.

Which brings me to my recent case of curiosity that lead to our current investigative story. It’s about a cult that sprung up in the days of the hippies—the age of aquarius and peace and love. But like a lot of things from that restless era, it grew uglier as we all grew older. The FAMILY began as the Children of God, thousands of believers signed on to the teachings of founder David Berg, the ultimate Southern California weirdo. They called it flirty fishing, using sex to show God’s love. It was a mix of biblical babblings and free sex. Except it wasn’t really free. Children of the cult paid the price. They were forced into sex acts, molested by FAMILY members in the name of God and Love. .

So that’s why I was curious when I came across a custody battle going on in San Diego Superior Court. Case number D489049. I rarely report on these family court matters because of the morass they often become. Everyone seems to lose. But this one involved the FAMILY. I will admit, my curiosity bells were ringing. The bells got louder when attorney Marilyn Bierer tried to seal the records in the “interest” of the child in that custody case, “unknowingly caught in the switches of a custody dispute involving members and former members of a sex cult.” Her contention was the media would not act in the best interests of the child. Whoa. No journalist with any intrerity or credibility would ever show the child’s picture nor would they have an interest in doing so. The poor kid is 4-½ years old. This request to seal off the court was about keeping the FAMILY’s dirty laundry far from public view. So case number D489049 had my attention.

Working with investigative reporter Steve Atkinson, producer Felicia Kit and another reporter with connections into the FAMILY, we decided to tell our viewers the story of this cult -- and the court case which is scheduled for early May. In the course of developing the story, we found there are two houses controlled by the FAMILY in San Diego region. I have no idea what goes on in those houses but a representative of the FAMILY sent us a rather lengthy response to our story, you can find it on the Investigative page of 10News.com They basically say the bad old days are LONG gone. We shall see.

Give me a head's up if you know anything about the FAMILY's activity in San Diego
jwblog@10news.com