HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle
By ANDREW TILGHMAN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Several members of a small Pentecostal church in Aldine collapsed on a Harris County courthouse floor and wailed unintelligible prayers Thursday after their longtime pastor was convicted of sexually abusing a teenage girl more than 10 years ago.
The Rev. Curtis Bass of the International Pentecostal Church was sentenced to 10 years in prison on two charges of indecency with a child. A woman, now 26, testified that he touched her breasts and vagina on two occasions when she was 16 years old in 1994.
"God is still in control," Bass, 53, said to dozens of church members seated in the courtroom after his sentencing. He took off his silver wristwatch before court bailiffs took him away.
Defense witnesses said the former construction worker who went to theology school in Jackson, Miss., was a longtime youth minister known for encouraging teens to participate in the church, which has about 100 members.
"It's sickening, from someone who supposedly does the Lord's work," Assistant District Attorney Robert Freyer told jurors Thursday.
At least three women have lodged sexual abuse complaints against Bass, said deputy investigator Russell Ackley of the Harris County Sheriff's Department.