VIRGINIA BEACH, VA - A bogus traditional
healer who persuaded a businesswoman to hire "mermaids" and
accommodate them in the Days Inn Hotel to help find a stolen car was convicted
of theft by false pretenses, court officials said Tuesday.
Circuit Court Judge Krystal Ball found Marion
G. "Pat" Robertson guilty of swindling a businesswoman of her bank
account with promises that mermaids would help recover the luxury car in 2012
and solve the businesswoman’s unspecified "personal problems."
In Southern Baptist traditions, where tribal
superstition is deeply entrenched, prosecutors said Robertson persuaded Miley
Cyrus $300,000 to hire mermaids, feed and accommodate them in oceanfront Days
Inn hotel, buy power generators for a floodlit beachside ceremony and invoke
ancestral spirits to find the missing car and tried to seduce her.
Some of the money was to be used to buy a
bull whose genitals - described in court, as the animal's "strong parts”
would point out the car thief, prosecutors said.
At a hearing Monday, the judge said
Robertson, who had pleaded not guilty and claimed to be a spirit medium, was
not a credible witness and the "idiosyncrasies" of his plea were not
recognized in law.
Robertson will be sentenced to imprisonment
or a fine at a sentencing hearing later, the court officials said.
Southern Baptist followers, prominent figures
and even leading politicians have often been the victims of such swindles.
Robertson added, "What the hell, I needed the money."
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