DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press [Detroit MI]
July 29, 2024
By M.L. Elrick
Kenneth Flowers, a prominent Detroit pastor who leads Greater New Mount Moriah Baptist Church, tells me he is innocent of the charges. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
A prominent Detroit pastor has been charged with sexually assaulting a minor in Farmington Hills for an incident that allegedly occurred in December.
The Rev. Kenneth Flowers, 63, pastor of Greater New Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Detroit, was arraigned Friday in Farmington Hills District Court on one count of criminal sexual conduct with force or coercion and one count of criminal sexual assault with intent to commit sexual penetration. Court records show Flowers stood mute and a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf. He was released on a $25,000 personal recognizance bond, which means he did not have to post cash or a bond, but would owe the court $25,000 if he fails to appear for future proceedings in the case.
The maximum penalty on the criminal sexual conduct charge is 15 years in prison and the maximum penalty on the sexual assault charge is 10 years.
When I reached Flowers on Monday evening, his only comment was: “I deny all those charges, and that is all I have to say.”
Maurice Davis, listed in court records as Flowers’ attorney, did not return messages Monday seeking comment.
According to police and court records, Flowers committed the alleged assault on Dec. 20, 2023 and was arrested the same day. Court records and a source knowledgeable about the case indicate the matter involved a 17-year-old male who lived in Flowers’ Farmington Hills neighborhood.
The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office declined comment on the case and few other details were available in public records on Monday. More information on what Flowers is alleged to have done will emerge on Aug. 7 at a scheduled preliminary examination, unless Flowers opts to waive the proceeding. A preliminary examination is when prosecutors generally present some of their strongest evidence, which sometimes includes witness testimony, against someone accused of a crime. If a judge determines there is enough evidence to go to trial, the case is bound over to circuit court where a judge or jury will hear testimony, examine evidence and render a verdict.
Flowers has been pastor at Greater New Mount Moriah since 1995, when he succeeded the legendary Rev. Benjamin Hooks, the longtime executive director of the NAACP. The church’s website says it has 1,000 members and describes Flowers as “a community/social activist for human rights issues” with an international reputation.
He is held in such high regard that in 2019, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan appointed him to serve on the city’s Board of Ethics. He did not serve long, as he was deemed ineligible to serve after it was determined he lived in Farmington Hills.
Flowers was known for his outreach to leaders of other faiths and his church’s website says he is the “first Pastor ever at Greater New Mt. Moriah to license and ordain females to the preaching ministry and to ordain females as Deacons.”
The church’s website also says that when Flowers celebrated 25 years of preaching the gospel, his gala was “featured in Jet Magazine, was attended by Mrs. Coretta Scott King, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the Reverend Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick. Noted TV/Radio Personality Tavis Smiley gave a video tribute to his friend.”
U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Damon Keith once said of Flowers, according to the Michigan Chronicle: “My job as a federal judge is reading people, and as soon as I saw him and talked to him I knew we had a Christian superstar on our hands. That’s wonderful. He succeeded Ben Hooks, and they had to select (a new pastor), someone with the potential that could keep up the tradition of Ben Hooks, and I’m very proud of him. He’s involved himself in the NAACP, the United Negro College Fund, the Black Pastors of Detroit, and I’m just so proud.
“Detroit has never been the same since Rev. Ken Flowers came.”