By Alex Goldsmith
KRQE
SANTA FE — A state prison inmate claims corrections officials aren’t allowing him to properly worship Satan behind bars. In a lawsuit, first reported by the Santa Fe Reporter Tuesday, Bernard Pritchard says the chaplain and deputy warden at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Las Cruces treated his faith differently than others.
“Defendants denied plaintiff a reasonable opportunity of pursuing his faith comparable to the opportunity afforded to fellow prisoners who adhere to conventional religious precepts,” wrote Pritchard in the lawsuit, which he file pro se.
Pritchard, serving time on aggravated stalking charges he was convicted for in 2013, was transferred to the state’s facility in Grants in May and filed the lawsuit in early September. He’s asking for a judge to force the New Mexico Corrections Department to let him worship Satan more freely and wants $140,000 in damages.
Full story: Satan-worshiping inmate claims discrimination