Fort Worth Pastor Arrested on Sexual Assault Charge

By Domingo Ramirez Jr.
The Star-Telegram
September 12, 2012

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/12/4252765/fort-worth-pastor-arrested-on.html

Darrell W. Blair, pastor of the New Breed Christian Center in Fort Worth

A Fort Worth minister was arrested this week after a woman reported to Crowley police that he sexually assaulted her several times when she was a teenager.

The Rev. Darrell Wayne Blair, 43, pastor of New Breed Christian Church in Fort Worth, faces a charge of sexual assault, according to Crowley police.

Blair was accompanied by his attorney when he turned himself in Monday and was released immediately on $25,000 bail. The investigator's report notes that Blair has declined to be interviewed by police.

Neither Blair nor his attorney could be reached to comment Wednesday.

The woman approached police on Aug. 21. She told investigators that the sexual encounters began when she was 14 and ended in 2000 when she was 18.

She kept quiet, she told police, because Blair owned a gun and convinced her that no one would believe her. She was making the complaint, she said, because "only now as an adult could she find the strength to face him," the report states.

Blair and his wife, LaTonja, founded the church at 4500 S. Riverside Drive in Fort Worth. Blair is a gospel recording artist and a former lead vocalist with Kirk Franklin and The Family, according to the church's website. She is a minister at the church.

In her complaint, the woman said that Blair once walked into her bedroom wearing only boxer shorts and asked her to lick his nipples, which she refused to do. He told her that he had heard that she was not a virgin and was just checking.

She described other encounters; the last one involved his performing a sex act while she was on the floor, which Blair told her that she owed him because it was his birthday.

The woman told investigators that she never told him to stop, but that she cried during every encounter.

She said she told a friend about the assaults in 2000, but the friend persuaded her to stay quiet. Authorities interviewed the friend, who confirmed the woman's account, police said.

Domingo Ramirez Jr., 817-390-7763

Contact: ramirez@star-telegram.com