Five Victory Christian Center employees are facing criminal charges for allegedly waiting more than two weeks to report a rape claim on the church campus.
A son and daughter-in-law of pastor Sharon Daugherty are among the five facing criminal charges after a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped last month.
A then-Victory Christian Center employee, Chris Denman, allegedly raped the girl at the church, TulsaWorld reports. Denman was fired and the police were notified. He was charged with several felonies, including first-degree rape, forcible sodomy, lewd molestation and use of a computer to facilitate a sex crime.
Former Victory Christian employee Israel Shalom Castillo, meanwhile, is facing felony charges for allegedly making a lewd or indecent proposal to a child and using a computer to facilitate a sex crime, according to TulsaWorld.
In the latest charges, Tulsa County District Court filings reveal that Paul Willemstein, 32, Anna George, 24, Harold Frank Sullivan, 73, Charica Dene Daugherty, 27, and John Samuel Daugherty, 28, were jailed Monday on single misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse.
Bill Wells, a trustee at Tulsa, Okla.-based Victory Christian Center, offered a statement on charges filed against the five employees.
“All employees that were determined to have some awareness of the alleged rape on campus have been suspended while we continue our internal investigation. As a church, we ask you to stand together in prayer for everyone involved in this tragic case,” Well said.
The employees involved were a high school outreach program director, an associate youth pastor, the director of the Human Resources department, and John and Charica Daugherty, who work at the church as senior high youth pastor and assistant senior high youth pastor.
Last Friday, in response to the delay in reporting the alleged rape, Victory Christian Center suspended three of these employees who were aware of the allegation and did not report it in a timely manner, in accordance with an internal policy on reporting suspected cases of abuse or neglect, Wells said.
“The police investigation additionally determined that John and Charica both had some awareness of this incident,” Wells said. “Because of this finding, the ministry has also suspended John and Charica in accordance with our disciplinary policies while we continue an internal investigation. Again, we ask that your thoughts and prayers be with the victims and their families.”
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