June 11, 2005

Choir leader charged with molesting kids

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

By SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM
simone@phillynews.com

Five young girls and a woman have accused a choir leader at Bright Hope Baptist Church, who also taught music in his Germantown home, of sexual abuse, with some allegations dating back to 1998, police said yesterday.

An anonymous tipster called a Daily News reporter yesterday saying the choir leader of the famed North Philadelphia church had been suspected child molester since last year and very few congregates knew about it.

Otis Joseph, 28, a music teacher who lives in a graystone home on Germantown Avenue near Johnson Street, was arrested on March 29, Capt. John Darby, of the police department's Special Victims Unit said yesterday.

Darby said the arrest came after investigators spent months "interviewing many other complainants" and were able to piece together six separate sexual abuse cases.

The female victims range from 7 to 23 years old. The 23-year-old recently told cops that Joseph assaulted her when she was 15.

Posted by kshaw at June 11, 2005 07:26 AM