Two Victory Christian Employees Get Jail Time after Pleading No Contest to Not Reporting Child Abuse

By Jerry Wofford
Tulsa World
March 19, 2013

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20130319_11_A1_CUTLIN986178

Paul Willemstein (from left) and Anna Alisa George, two of three employees of Victory Christian Center who entered no-contest pleas for their roles in failing to report child abuse, are led by officers out of courtroom No. 158 at the Tulsa County Courthouse on Monday.

Anna George and Paul Willemstein: The assistant youth pastors at Victory Christian Center were found guilty of failing to report child abuse and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Harold Sullivan: The church's HR director was given a one-year suspended sentence.

Two of three Victory Christian Center employees who pleaded no contest to a charge of failing to report child abuse will spend time in jail.

Paul Howard Willemstein, Anna Alisa George and Harold Frank Sullivan entered the no-contest pleas on Monday. The three had waived their right to a jury trial last month.

Tulsa County Special Judge Bill Hiddle found each of them guilty of the misdemeanor charge.

Willemstein, 33, and George, 24, both assistant youth pastors at the 17,000-member Tulsa megachurch, were ordered to spend 30 days in jail, with the remainder of their one-year terms suspended. They were led from the courtroom in handcuffs by Tulsa County sheriff's deputies.

Sullivan, 74, also received a one-year suspended sentence but was not ordered to spend any time in jail. He was also ordered to pay a $500 fine, and all were ordered to pay court costs.

The maximum penalty for the misdemeanor charge is a year in jail. All three remain employed by Victory Christian Center.

The three defendants did not have sentencing agreements with the District Attorney's Office.

"I have to focus on what effect did failure to report in the proper way have on the children of this church," Hiddle said before announcing his decision.

He drew connections between this case and cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts, saying the three dragged their feet in the weeks before a police report was filed.

Hiddle said no action was taken during that time.

"No kidding: Nothing's done. Nothing," he said. "While this revival is going on and the perpetrator is in charge of the victims for days. It's unbelievable."

The three stood stoically before the judge as he announced his decision. George wiped her face at times during the hearing.

Chris Denman, 20, pleaded guilty last year to six felony child-sex charges, including the rape of a girl who was 13 at the time. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

The second suspect, Israel Shalom Castillo, 23, was charged with making a lewd or indecent proposal via Facebook to a 14-year-old girl, according to court records. He has pleaded not guilty and faces a jury trial in August.

Denman and Castillo both attended Victory Christian Church and worked there as janitors. Denman also was an intern at the church's summer youth camp, Camp Victory.

John and Charica Daugherty, son and daughter-in-law of Victory Christian Senior Pastor Sharon Daugherty, were also charged with one count each of failure to report child abuse. Both youth pastors, they are set for a jury trial on May 13.

Prosecutors allege that the Victory Christian staff members knew about the initial allegations - starting with a report that a child was raped in the church by a staff member - but failed to report them to authorities for several weeks.

Denman raped the 13-year-old girl in a church stairwell on Aug. 13. Prosecutors said that two days later, she told two of her youth group leaders about the assault and that they told Willemstein and George.

The two learned of another victim on Aug. 17. On Aug. 22, another victim told Charica Daugherty that Castillo had sent her sexually explicit Internet messages, court filings state. John Daugherty allegedly learned of the allegations from his wife and learned of the 13-year-old's rape on Aug. 26, according to court filings.

After speaking with the girl and learning of other possible victims, the two went to Sullivan, the church's human resources director, on Aug. 23 and informed him of the rape allegation, the filings state. The next day, Denman and Castillo were brought into Sullivan's office, where the two told Sullivan what had occurred. Sullivan fired them both.

It wasn't until Aug. 30 that a report was made with the Tulsa Police Department.

In the meantime, contact was made with two police officers staff members knew, but no official report was made. The officers told them they needed to officially report the crimes immediately.

Allen Smallwood, attorney for Sullivan, said Sullivan never met the two girls or their parents and that he was "not responsible for creating conditions that allowed these girls to be violated."

Matthew Chesbro, attorney for George and Willemstein, acknowledged that his clients did not handle the incident properly, but he said his clients did take steps to tell the victim's family.

A statement from Victory Christian Center about Monday's hearing says: "We respect the judge's decision and hope healing may continue for everyone affected."

The mother of the 13-year-old victim testified during the sentencing hearing Monday that her daughter still suffers physical, emotional and spiritual trauma from the event. It's the policy of the Tulsa World to not identify the victims of sexual abuse.

She said her daughter showed signs of depression after the assault and that her grades have slipped significantly. She began to cry as she spoke about her daughter.

"There really are not enough words to explain how this has impacted my daughter," she said. "I feel like it's stolen her childlike innocence away from her."