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	Pastor Cautioned at Sex Abuse Trial Judge Says Preacher Be Subject to Charges By Donna Hales Muskogee Phoenix December 17, 2008 http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/local/local_story_352011450.html WAGONER — A Muskogee pastor testified Tuesday he did not tell authorities when a Porter man admitted to him that he had molested his adopted daughter. John Thomas Ashwood, 68, who identified himself as pastor of the Sovereign Grace Church at Muskogee, gave the testimony in a sentencing hearing for Doyanne Putnam in Wagoner County District Court. Putnam entered a blind plea, which means she had no plea deal worked out with prosecutors, on Sept. 22 for child abuse and child neglect charges in connection with a case involving her husband, Eugene Richard Putnam. He had entered a blind plea to three first-degree rape charges involving the couple's adopted daughters. The husband was sentenced Nov. 26 to 15 years in prison and 25 years on probation. He will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole. Doyanne Putnam's sentencing started last week but postponed until Tuesday so Ashwood could be called as a witness. His testimony came after District Judge Bruce Sewell warned him repeatedly that if he admitted complicity in a felony that he could be charged with a felony. "If testimony by a number of individuals is true or not, knowing of a felony sex crime and not reporting it to authorities ... could subject you to potential criminal or civil trials," Sewell warned. The judge kept asking Ashwood if he wanted to consult with an attorney before testifying. "You've got a right to assert your right to protect yourself from self-incrimination," Sewell told Ashwood. Ashwood spoke of the possibility of privileged communications. Sewell told him he didn't have the pastoral right of immunity on sexual crimes, especially if it continued, as it did in the present case. "I came here to answer the questions that will be put to me," Ashwood replied. Sewell spoke of previous testimony of the parents and the children that Ashwood told the children to stay with the family unit. "If that would be the case, I think it would be fair to say you would be in a whole bunch of trouble," Sewell told Ashwood. He also told Ashwood he thought Ashwood would have visited with an attorney before the day of his testimony.
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