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| Jury Finds Tulsa Pastor Guilty of Two Counts of Lewd Molestation, Acquits Him of Seven Others
By Amanda Bland
Tulsa World
April 10, 2015
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/courts/jury-finds-tulsa-pastor-guilty-of-two-counts-of-lewd/article_30d4b541-f7e7-51a8-a95c-aa57fe493307.html
A Tulsa pastor who was accused of lewd molestation was convicted of two counts and acquitted of seven Friday night.
A jury returned its verdicts against Damien Keith Bonner Sr., 33, who was charged with nine counts of lewd molestation, after deliberating until nearly 11 p.m. The jury recommended a 20-year prison term on one conviction and three years on the other.
Bonner testified for the better part of three hours Friday afternoon.
Prosecutors had charged him with molesting three teen parishioners on a total of nine occasions.
He was found guilty of having intercourse with a 14- to 15-year-old member of Galilee Baptist Church, 721 E. Pine St., in 2013 or 2014 as well as groping a girl of the same age whom he met when he was a youth pastor for Mount Zion Baptist Church, 419 N. Elgin Ave., in 2006.
Six of the not-guilty counts pertained to those victims, and one was on a charge that involved another 14-year-old.
“This man preys on the kids from his churches,” Assistant District Attorney Sarah McAmis, who assisted lead prosecutor John Brasher in the case, argued in her closing remarks.
Defense attorney Stan Monroe questioned the credibility of the youths and investigators, who he said conspired against Bonner. He maintained that one girl, to whom six of the counts pertained, was pressured by her family to accuse him. Monroe characterized her as disturbed and confused.
That girl, now 16, testified that as Bonner and her family became closer, she was asked to babysit his children, who were 10 and 11 at the time, and eventually began staying overnight at the home he and the children shared with his grandmother.
She told the court he woke her one evening and took her to his bedroom, where he attempted to have sex with her but was unable to do so because she backed away from him in pain.
The soft-spoken teenager then became emotional and required a break before detailing the sex acts she was made to participate in and the number of times they had sex — about 17 to her recollection — over the following year.
She testified that Bonner gave her a pill at one point when she expressed concern about possibly being pregnant.
Monroe referred several times to what he called inconsistencies in that girl’s statements as she struggled to respond to his cross examination of her.
The girl’s mother later testified that the girl stayed two to three times at Bonner’s grandmother’s home and “a couple of times” at the apartment where he later moved.
Prosecutors maintained that the teen added details but didn’t otherwise alter her version of events.
Among the evidence submitted against Bonner were photos of text messages between him and the 16-year-old’s mother and grandmother begging their forgiveness.
On the stand, he said he apologized for not disclosing to them the teen’s thoughts of suicide and was unaware of the molestation allegations at that time.
The texts were dated in April 2014, after a church event in March where several witnesses testified that male members of the teen’s family confronted Bonner about sexual text messages found on her phone.
During cross examination, when confronted by the testimony against him, Bonner exclaimed that “no one’s come forward with the truth.”
As Monroe questioned his client, he asked individually whether Bonner committed that acts listed in each of the counts against him.
Bonner responded “not to my knowledge” to the first molestation charge as read by his attorney before answering “no, sir” or that he’d already answered or addressed the rest.
McAmis and John Brasher argued that the first response was evasive and inconsistent with how an innocent person would be expected to respond.
District Judge James Caputo set a date of April 27 for Bonner's formal sentencing.
Amanda Bland 918-581-8413
Contact: Amanda.Bland@tulsaworld.com
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