As Pastor Faces Attempted-Murder Trial, Congregation Accuses the Devil : Religion: Minister says a man who looked just like him and drove a car just like his tried to kill his wife. The wife says perhaps her attacker was a demon. Police and many ex-parishioners are skeptical.

By ALYSSA GABBAY

Jan. 29, 1995 12 AM PT

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MARS, Pa. — For Tony Puccio, there’s no question why his church is collapsing, his pastor is accused of trying to kill his wife, and strange symbols have appeared on his congregation’s lawn and parking lot.

It’s Satan’s work.

“We believe in healing and seeing people get saved,” said Puccio, a 36-year-old insurance salesman. “Satan doesn’t like that.”

The authorities have different ideas. They say the Rev. Richard Rossi, not Satan, is guilty of attempted murder, and they intend to bring him to trial.

The troubles at the First Love Church started in June when the pastor’s wife was found beaten nearly to death along a rural road. When she came out of a three-day coma, Sherrie Lynn Rossi, 34, pointed the finger at her husband.

“I know the truth,” she said. “My husband was hitting me over and over. I can still hear the sound. I cried out to Jesus.”

But the minister, known for his rock ‘n’ roll style of preaching, complete with guitar and songs, denied it.

Rossi--soaking wet and wearing only a pair of khaki shorts--had turned up a mile from where his wife was found, two hours later.

He told police that a man who looked just like him and drove a car just like his jumped into his wife’s car as the pair were looking at houses. A Satanic cult might have been responsible for the beating, he said.

Mrs. Rossi later recanted her allegation and said her attacker was someone other than her husband. It could have been a demon in human form, she said at one point.

Parishioners have sounded the same theme, saying devil-worshiping cults operate in the church’s suburban Pittsburgh neighborhood.

“The way I see it, if you’re out doing something for God, the enemy is always going to try to stop you,” said Phil Burd, a 30-year-old truck driver. “Someone is definitely trying to stop what Rich is doing here.”

For proof, parishioners flash fuzzy photographs of a pentagram--a Satanic symbol--that was scratched in the gravel of the church’s parking lot a few weeks after the assault. Just a few days later, they say, the numbers “666”--the mark of the anti-Christ--were burned into the nearby lawn.

But police say they have never received any other reports of Satanic activity in the area. And the pentagram was invisible unless you “stood on a ladder and looked for it,” said Bill Westerman, Adams Township police chief.

They suggest that the Rossis had marital problems, and say that Rossi asked a 31-year-old Pittsburgh nurse to be his mistress. (Through a lawyer, Rossi denies any improper contact with the woman.)

The crime has taken a toll on the independent church, whose first members were alcoholics and drug addicts, according to elder Jim Flowers.

Services are now sparsely attended; there were just 45 worshipers on a recent Sunday. More than 200 once crowded into the church’s modest meeting room, where parishioners still occasionally swoon during faith-healing sessions.

With congregants dropping out, the church wasn’t able to move into a new $450,000 building as planned by the end of the year, and some members even question whether it will be able to hold onto its current building.

Defectors say it’s wrong for Rossi to serve as pastor when he is accused of a horrible crime. The pastor, free on $250,000 bond, still sings and gives sermons.

“I feel very strongly that when somebody is on the altar, they should be representing the Lord,” said furniture maker Bridget Rossi, who is no relation to the minister. “Rich is not representing the Lord.”

On the other hand, a woman who identified herself only as “Rene” said she came back after dropping out for several weeks to think things over.

“I was confused and, you know, confusion is brought on by the devil,” she said, tossing her long red hair over her leather jacket. “When it’s God who’s in your mind, everything’s laid out very clearly.”

Rossi started the church in 1986 as a Bible study group called Matthew’s Party. From the beginning, the pastor--an ordained minister who graduated from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University--has mingled sermons about acceptance and unconditional love with those advocating spiritual warfare against demons.

One recent sermon implored the congregation to “demolish Satan’s strongholds” by “proclaiming God’s truth.” Along the way, Rossi mixed biblical references with such tangents as President Clinton’s problems with the media and the need for optimism to succeed in business.

“You’re not like the people who fight with weapons and such things. You’re fighting a spiritual battle in an unseen world,” he said emphatically, his dark eyes alive and intense.

Unlike other congregants, Jim Flowers says he doesn’t know if Rossi is guilty or innocent. He is waiting for the results of the trial.

“I think anyone’s capable of doing anything in the right frame of mind--or the wrong frame of mind,” he said. “Every single one of us can snap.”

Even if Rossi goes to jail, Flowers believes the church will carry on its vision of reaching out to “hurting people, to the unchurched, or those who don’t feel comfortable in the suit-and-tie atmosphere.”

But others are more worried.

“There’s a biblical saying, ‘Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter,’ ” said Puccio, the insurance salesman.