Youth Pastors Fail to Get 'Failure-To-Report' Child Abuse Charges Dismissed

By Melissa Steffan
Christianity Today
November 21, 2012

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/11/victory-christian-center-youth-pastors-child-abuse-charges-not-dismissed.html

Staff at Tulsa megachurch Victory Christian Center face charges over two-week delay.

An Oklahoma county judge denied a motion to dismiss charges against two Victory Christian Center (VCC) youth pastors after staff at the Tulsa megachurch failed to report child abuse for two weeks.

John and Charica Daugherty, the son and daughter-in-law of VCC's head pastor, are not themselves accused of any sexual misconduct. Rather, charges against them assert that the Daugherty's, along with three other VCC employees, violated the law by failing to report a 13-year-old girl's rape allegations against another VCC employee, Chris Denman.

Denman already pleaded guilty last month to six felony sex crimes against children, including the rape.

The Daughterys argue that Oklahoma's anti-child-abuse statutes legally do no require them to have reported the crime, and that such laws apply only to those who are responsible for the care or well-being of the child, which they were not.

However, the judge ruled that the statute does apply to all five church employees facing the charges. They are scheduled to appear in court in December.