SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Express-News
Rhea Davis
Express-News Staff Writer
As a 15-year-old girl, she had a troubled family life and few friends, so fellow congregation members advised her to seek the counsel of one of their church pastors.
But instead of guiding and mentoring her, one church leader took her to a string of cheap motels and forced her to have sex with him.
That was the testimony of a 27-year-old woman who told jurors Thursday that Duane Hammons, a former pastor of The Church of God in Christ, began having sex with her when she was a freshman at Holmes High School.
"I trusted him," she told jurors. "He was the only person I could talk to. He was the only man in my life that made me feel important."
Hammons, 47, is charged with sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child by contact. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The woman's identity is being withheld because the San Antonio Express-News does not reveal the names of victims of sex-related crimes.
Posted by kshaw at May 20, 2005 06:41 AM