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Mental Exam Ordered For Woman In Necedah Corpse Case

DA Considers Additional Charges

UPDATED: 9:19 pm CDT May 12, 2008

A mental competency evaluation is ordered for the woman who lived with her two children in a rural Necedah residence while a 90-year-old woman's dead body sat in the bathroom for two months.

The attorney for Tammy Lewis asked a judge in Mauston on Monday for the evaluation. The judge agreed.

Lewis, 35, and Alan Bushey, 57, are charged with two counts of causing a child mental harm. Lewis is also charged with obstruction.

Lewis' two children have been placed in foster care.

Court records show someone continued to write checks on an account belonging to Magedline Alvina Middlesworth after she died in early March. A deputy sent to check on her whereabouts last Wednesday found her decaying remains on the toilet in the bathroom.

Documents show investigators took financial records from that house and from the home of Bushey, a self-described bishop who has a sign outside his residence indicating he ran it as a chapel.

Lewis' lawyer Dan Berkos disputed comments of prosecutors that Bushey headed a cult. Berkos said that almost any organized religion could be described that way.

Meanwhile, authorities said that more charges could be filed soon as they continue to sort through the case.

Prosecutors said they believe Bushey told Lewis that God would bring Middlesworth back to life. Lewis referred to Bushey as her "superior," they said.

Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth has said Bushey might have been running a cult and defrauding Middlesworth to get money. He said that more charges could come as early as this week.

Court documents suggest the religious group was collecting Social Security owed to Middlesworth.

Search warrants returned Monday said that Lewis and Bushey belonged to a six-member religious group called the Order of the Divine Will and Lewis had a joint account with Middlesworth at the Bank of Mauston.

Bank officials told detectives Social Security payments totaling $1,170 went into the account and 25 checks were written on it after Middlesworth died.

Sheriff Brent Oleson said a state Justice Department agent will arrive this week to help local authorities.




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