CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
Joseph Serna
A former pastor and missionary has been charged with sexually assaulting two young girls he met in Tustin, officials said.
Douglas Dale Whinery, 80, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to four counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14 and two counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child under 10, Orange County prosecutors said. Whinery, a Tustin resident, is due back in court Tuesday.
Although he no longer is a pastor or missionary, Whinery remained active at the Olive Crest Church in Santa Ana, the Foothill Family Church in Foothill Ranch and the Grace Church in Yorba Linda until his arrest last week, authorities said.
In 2011, authorities said, Whinery approached a 10-year-old girl and her 8-year-old family member in a Tustin park and befriended their family. Over the next 4 ½ years, Whinery gave the family money to find a place to live, took the girls to school and church and even had sleepovers at his home, prosecutors say. During that time, he allegedly repeatedly sexually assaulted them, Tustin police said.
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