Sweat Lodge Deaths Not Criminal, Guru’s Lawyer Says

LOS ANGELES — A lawyer for the New Age guru who led a sweat lodge ceremony in Arizona that left three people dead said Wednesday that the deaths were a “tragedy” and an “accident,” but should not be considered a crime.In letters last month and last week to prosecutors, the lawyer for the guru, James A. Ray, who led the Oct. 8 ceremony at the Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat Center in Sedona, Ariz., sought to erase perceptions that Mr. Ray had stopped people from leaving and had sat by while people died.

“Mr. Ray and his team relied on Angel Valley to provide a safe environment, warned people of the risks, did not force people to participate, did not prevent them from leaving, and did everything they could to prepare for any problems and to assist when problems arose,” the lawyer, Luis Li, and two colleagues wrote in the Jan. 4 letter.

The letter added, “The idea perpetrated by the media that Mr. Ray was somehow intentionally callous about the victims of this tragedy is profoundly wrong and hurtful.”

The “spiritual warrior” retreat led by Mr. Ray included a two-hour sweat lodge ceremony during which hot rocks were placed inside a tent to produce a sweltering environment intended to cleanse or renew the soul. Of the 55 people inside, 3 died, and 20 others were treated for heat-related injuries.

In an interview, Mr. Li did not make Mr. Ray available, saying the letters were his comment.

“It’s a tragedy, it’s an accident but it is not a crime,” Mr. Li said.

Although Mr. Ray and his team have remained largely silent, the letters from his lawyers — a 22-page one dated Dec. 1 and a six-page document sent Jan. 4 — expressed concern that “recent media stories” had cast Mr. Ray in unfavorable terms at a time when prosecutors were reviewing the case. Mr. Li released the letters to the news media on Wednesday.

Mr. Li said it appeared the Yavapai County attorney was considering a charge of criminally negligent homicide, essentially manslaughter. The attorney, Sheila Polk, through an assistant, declined to comment.

Some ceremony participants have said in police reports and in interviews with reporters that Mr. Ray and his staff members did little to help people in obvious distress during the ceremony.

But Mr. Li said that the witness statements were incomplete or taken out of context and that Mr. Ray had provided the help he could. Mr. Li said that some of the statements had come from witnesses who were planning to seek a monetary settlement from Mr. Ray’s company, James Ray International.

The letters concede that Mr. Ray sought to encourage people through challenging exercises, including a “vision quest” hike in the mountains before the sweat lodge. The participants all signed releases that stated death was a possibility, Mr. Li said.

But Mr. Li cast many of the activities as benign, saying they were like the games and role-playing found in many corporate retreats. The documents assert that Mr. Ray adapted much of his approach from his years as an “internal trainer” with AT&T.

“This was a five-day retreat, not a cult,” Mr. Li said.

The letters said people interviewed by Mr. Ray’s legal team had characterized Mr. Ray as acting something like a coach during the event. One participant recalled him telling people: “Come on you can do it. You are better than this.” Another compared Mr. Ray’s urgings to that of a personal trainer demanding “one more rep,” repetition, during a workout. Drinks were available outside the tent, Mr. Li said.


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