By Sara Ganim
The Patriot-News
August 30, 2011
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/08/harrisburg_church_shaken_by_se.html
 |
| Albert Chambers Jr. |
For years, these women say they thought they were the only ones.
One had suppressed it, moved away and tried to move on.
The other had forgiven the man who had molested her as a teen.
After all, that was what the church had taught her to do. And he was the well-respected deacon, who was married to the pastor. They led the close-knit church for decades.
It was like a family — one with some dark secrets, according to authorities.
The district attorney’s office is now investigating a father and son — Albert Chambers Sr. and Jr. — in sex cases involving a number of victims.
Albert Chambers Jr. is already facing charges. The 47-year-old former deacon at Antioch Tabernacle was charged earlier this month with having inappropriate sexual contact with two teenage girls at his Harrisburg home.
Both girls were members of the church and knew Chambers Jr. through a youth group.
But what kicked off that investigation was a report from two women, now 47 and 55. They are cousins, and neither of them knew the other had also allegedly been abused when they were young girls.
Both have made allegations against Albert Chambers Jr. and his father, Albert Chambers Sr. Both were told there is a strong possibility that Chambers Sr. will not be charged because the statute of limitations has run out.
“There’s no statute of limitations for me mentally,” one of the women said. “There’s not, ‘It’s been 20 years, don’t think about it anymore.’ I still live with it everyday.”
Some lawmakers are trying to change the time limits on prosecuting child sex abuse, but efforts have stalled. In the meantime, the Dauphin County district attorney’s office is looking for some kind of loophole that might allow them to prosecute.
Albert Chambers Sr. has not been charged with any crimes, and his grandson George Fultz said he’s now living in North Carolina. Fultz wouldn’t name Chambers Sr.’s attorney, but said he would pass a message along to the attorney and to his grandfather.
Albert Chambers Jr.’s Harrisburg attorney, Lenora Smith, said she had no comment.
SOME ALLEGATIONS
At age 10, she had the voice of a 30-year-old.
“So I used to sing for the church choir,” said the 47-year-old woman who said she was victimized by Chambers Sr.
The Patriot-News is withholding the names of the women in keeping with a policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual abuse.
“He would tell my mom I needed to practice more,” she said, and keep her late when everyone else was gone.
The abuse, she said, went on for 2½ years, until she turned 14 and decided to leave home.
“I just packed up and moved to North Carolina with my grandmom,” she said. “I just got tired of [it].”
She bottled it all up for 33 years and never told a soul. And she says she probably would have taken it to her grave. But in May, something inside her changed. She went to her computer and typed an email to her sister in Harrisburg, telling her everything.
It was dated May 26, and her sister immediately recognized the allegations.
“I spent a lot of time with them because his wife took me under her wing,” the cousin said. “I was like a part of the family. He would feel my leg when he was asked to take me home. ... He’d come into his daughter’s room and get into bed with me and fondle me in bed.”
That email was given to the police, and both women were interviewed. Their allegations led to an investigation and, ultimately, the arrest of Albert Chambers Jr. — even though the charges are unrelated to anything the older women were involved in, police said.
Dauphin County Chief Deputy District Attorney Sean McCormack says police believe the women’s stories but their hands are tied.
Right now, the statute of limitations on sexual abuse extends until a child victim’s 50th birthday. But that law was created in 2007 and only applies in cases where the statute had not already expired.
Prior to 2002, the limit was five years after a victim’s 18th birthday. In 2002, it was extended to 12 years.
Either way, police can’t prosecute a case if the alleged victim was older than 23 in 2002.
House Bill 878, introduced by Rep. Louise Williams Bishop, D-Philadelphia, would eliminate the statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases involving minors.
House Bill 832, introduced by Rep. Michael P. McGeehan, D-Philadelphia, calls for a suspension of the statute of limitations for two years, allowing victims to file civil charges regardless of when the abuse happened.
Both are in the House Judiciary Committee. A spokeswoman for Rep. Ron Marsico, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said they are still working on a fall agenda.
In the meantime, McCormack said he’s looking for a loophole.
If at any time Chambers Sr. lived outside of Pennsylvania, the clock would have stopped until he came back. Police are checking to see if that might help them.
“It’s an active investigation,” he said.
‘IN A REBUILDING STAGE’
The allegations and police investigation have rattled the small congregation at Antioch Tabernacle.
For many years, Clarice Chambers — Chambers Sr.’s wife — was the beloved pastor of the church of about 100 in Harrisburg.
She fell ill a few years ago, and died in 2010. Since then, the church has lost about half its members.
Both father and son were dismissed from the church in May after the investigation began, according to Bishop Kenneth White, who was brought in to help rebuild.
He had been part of the larger sister church in Philadelphia.
“Of course there’s some hurt behind this,” he said. “But we’re in a rebuilding stage, that’s my purpose for being there. But we believe in the healing power of God.”
The 55-year-old woman who lives in Harrisburg still goes to Antioch Tabernacle. She said the church is a part of her life and she doesn’t want to give it up just because of what happened.
Her two cousins are too angry to go back. And the one in Atlanta said she’s done keeping secrets.
“I’ve been carrying this for 37 years,” she said. “I couldn’t do it anymore. I spent years living with shame. I figure put the shame back where it belongs. ... What I’m struggling with right now is the fact that there was so many after me.”
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.