Owners say AZ sweat lodge not to blame for deaths

The owner of the Arizona retreat where a sweat lodge ceremony turned deadly said the man who led it was a perfectionist who controlled every detail of an event meant to push people beyond their physical limits.

California-based motivational speaker James Arthur Ray is the focus of a homicide investigation that began shortly after three people died following the ceremony he led at the Angel Valley Retreat Center in Sedona in October.

His attorneys have suggested the sweat lodge was unsafe and that Ray cannot be held liable because its construction was the responsibility of retreat owners Amayra and Michael Hamilton.

But Amayra Hamilton said in an …