Slight and bespectacled, a teenager who was severely beaten in a small and secretive church didn’t look up as he walked into court Wednesday to testify against one of those accused of attacking him: his sister.  Nor did she look up at him as he arrived to give his first public account of what happened last week at the Word of Life Christian church in upstate New York.  Seventeen-year-old Christopher Leonard was hospitalized for days – and his 19-year-old brother, Lucas, died – after what authorities have described as hours of pummeling by their parents, sister and other congregants during a spiritual “counseling session” prompted by Lucas’s desire to leave the church.  Wednesday’s preliminary hearing was held to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to go forward with the case against the sister, Sarah Ferguson, 33.  After a Sunday service that lasted from 11.45am to 8pm, pastor Tiffanie Irwin asked the Leonard family and some others to stay behind for a meeting, Christopher Leonard told the court as his testimony began.  His sister stared down at the defense table in a small courtroom that officials had rearranged so that Leonard would be a little farther away from her while he was on the stand.  Ferguson, along with the victims’ parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard, and three other church members beat the brothers with fists, feet and an electrical cord, authorities said.  Christopher Leonard was hospitalized with injuries to his torso and genitals. He was released over the weekend to child welfare authorities.  His parents are charged with manslaughter and are being held on $100,000 bail. Ferguson, a mother of four, also remains in custody after being charged, along with three other church members, with assault. All six have pleaded not guilty.  An attorney for the victims’ mother has said she was too timid to stop the beating. A lawyer for the father has said the episode stemmed from a family meeting that had nothing to do with the church.
Lawyers seek to determine if there is enough evidence in case against sister for attack in which Christopher Leonard, 17, was hospitalized and brother Lucas died