This is Eric Pepin for you...
A 39-year-old Aloha man who promises spiritual awakening through meditation books and CDs he sells on the Internet is facing sex-abuse charges.
Beaverton police Detective Mike Smith said Eric J. Pepin runs what appears to be a cult out of his Higher Balance Institute on Southwest Second Street in Beaverton.
Pepin was arraigned Tuesday in Washington County criminal court on one count of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, two counts of second-degree sexual abuse, and four counts of third-degree sexual abuse. He was released after posting $26,750 cash, or 10 percent of $267,500 bail. A trial was set for Sept. 12.
Using a child in a sexual display is a Measure 11 crime punishable by a mandatory minimum of 5 years and 10 months in prison.
Jamison Dwight Priebe, 21, who works for Pepin and lives at the same address in the 19600 block of Southwest Cooperhawk Court in Aloha, also was arrested on one count each of using a child in a sexual display and third-degree sexual abuse.
Priebe and Pepin turned themselves in at the Washington County Jail last week after a grand jury handed down secret indictments. Priebe was released after posting $25,375 cash bail and is awaiting arraignment Monday.
Smith said a man who is now 20 was 17 and working for Pepin when he allegedly was sexually abused at the Higher Balance office in the 11900 block of Southwest Second Street in Beaverton and at Pepin’s former home in the city.
A call to the Higher Balance Institute on Wednesday was answered by a “Personal Star Reach Coach," who referred questions to Pepin’s private attorney, Sam Kauffman.
“The charges are false, and we are confident Mr. Pepin will be exonerated," Kauffman said.
Pepin’s Web site claims he has located more than 100 missing persons and runaways, along with U.S. Navy submarines, through a psychic ability he calls “remote viewing."
Pepin’s meditation systems, which sell for $79 to $149, help customers develop their “sixth sense" and apply it “inward to awaken a dimensional universe within the mind," the Web site says.
According to an affidavit Smith filed with a request for a search warrant, the alleged victim told police that Internet customers who rave about Pepin’s teachings are men and women usually older than 35. But, the man said Pepin told him he should recruit “good-looking men" between the ages of 18 and 24 to work for him.
The court record also says Pepin knew the man was 17 when he forced him to perform sex acts.
The boy, Smith wrote, “was taught by Pepin to believe that the sexual contact was only a spiritual necessity." But after a while, the affidavit says, the boy decided he was being used by Pepin, who bought him meals and paid him $200 after sex.
The man contacted Beaverton police in January.
Smith said anyone who may have had underage sexual contact with Pepin should call him at 503-526-2280.
Smith said the man accusing Pepin told police he met one of Pepin’s followers at Beaverton Town Square in April 2004. He told Smith the recruiter invited him to meet Pepin and see him demonstrate levitation.
Pepin introduced himself dressed in a robe emblazoned with the words “Master Eric" and a triangular symbol and told the victim to take off his shirt, the detective said.
“It’s a cult," Smith said, “anytime you have a guy who fancies himself as the master, the leader."
Here is the article in the Oregonian on 5/24/2007 about Pepin's trial...
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/metro_west_news/1179973527201910.xml&coll=7
Institute leader acquitted of sex charges
HOLLY DANKS - HILLSBORO -- A Washington County Circuit judge called the leader of a metaphysical Internet sales company manipulative and controlling and his testimony unbelievable, even as he acquitted him Wednesday of charges that he had sex with an underage boy.
Judge Steven L. Price, after a five-day trial without a jury, found Eric James Pepin, 40, not guilty of two counts of second-degree sexual abuse, four counts of third-degree sexual abuse and one count of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.
Also acquitted of third-degree sexual abuse and using a child in a pornographic display was Jamison Dwight Priebe, 21, who has worked for Pepin's Higher Balance Institute since he was 18.
"Everybody has stood by me who knows me," Pepin said Wednesday after hugging supporters. "They had faith in me, prayed for me. I told them I wouldn't let them down. I did nothing of what was alleged. I've been nothing but honorable and impeccable."
However, Price said it was "probable that the conduct alleged in all counts occurred," but he wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. "There's a lack of strong corroboration," such as a date-stamp on a videotape of the sexual encounter, the judge said.
The accuser testified Pepin had him take off his shirt the first day they met at Pepin's Beaverton home in April 2004.
"He was going to try and fix my energy and he needed me to trust him," the accuser said. Pepin touched the teen's "chakra points" on his heart, head and lower abdomen.
"Eric asked me to tell him everything I had done in my life that I was ashamed about," the teen added.
The accuser said Pepin asked him how old he was the first day they met and that he told him the truth.
"He said students had to be 18 because he didn't like parents fussing around," the accuser said.
But within days the two were having sex, including a three-way encounter with Priebe, the youth testified. Pepin called it "crossing the abyss," the accuser said, "surrendering yourself to your teacher, your master."
Pepin testified he is gay and has had sexual relationships with most of his 11 employees, but not before they were 18. Pepin said he gave his accuser a job, even though the teen was a poor worker, and continued to be intimate with him and give him money after he was fired, to help him out.
Stephen A. Houze, Pepin's private defense attorney, called the accuser a liar more than 100 times in his closing argument and noted that Pepin was "the perfect patsy" because society wants to believe the worst of a gay man. Houze said the accuser brought the charges because he wanted to shake down Pepin.
Pepin's Higher Balance Institute, now on Northwest Saltzman Road in Cedar Mill, reached an annual high of $2 million in Internet sales of meditation CDs, tapes and books before his arrest in July.
Pepin touts himself as a psychic and "remote viewer" who has found lost submarines and missing people, and says he created the "psychic pill" Magneurol6-S that enhances brain function, heals nerve damage, heightens paranormal experiences and relieves stress for $79 a bottle.
Andrew Erwin, deputy district attorney, called Higher Balance nothing more than a sex cult run by a "snake oil" salesman who preys on the troubled.
The accuser had nothing to gain by going to police and turned down $250,000 from Pepin to drop the sex charges, Erwin said.
"I'm disappointed," Erwin said of the verdicts. "The judge wants proof beyond all doubt and that's too high a standard."
As for his products working... well. You'll have to try them yourself, every No one individual can say that anothers experience will be the same.one is different and will react differently to what they use.
