BishopAccountability.org
	Former T.O. Pastor Suspected of Sex Abuse Woman Says Malgren Molested Her When She Was Child in 1980s By Marisa Navarro Ventura County Star October 6, 2006 http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/co_valley/article/0,1375,VCS_166_5046923,00.html A former Thousand Oaks pastor suspected of sexually abusing a girl at church events and on the church's school grounds in the 1980s is scheduled to appear in court today, officials said. William Alan Malgren, 52, faces two counts of oral copulation with a child and one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bond. Authorities arrested Malgren on Wednesday in Moscow, Idaho, where he is a pastor at Grace Baptist Church. He is cooperating with authorities and waived his extradition rights, officials said. He was flown to Ventura County on Thursday. Although the suspected sexual abuse happened decades ago, the female victim contacted the Sheriff's Department in recent weeks, said Detective Eric Buschow. The alleged victim, whose name has not been released, told authorities that Malgren sexually abused her from 1983 to 1989 while she was a student at the now-shuttered school at the Thousand Oaks Baptist Church. The woman was 7 years old when she was first molested, officials said. "When we found out he was still acting as a pastor, we felt the need to get on this as quickly as possible," Buschow said, adding that the statute of limitations has not expired for this type of crime. Buschow said he does not know why the woman decided to come forward now. It is unclear whether other parishioners suspected inappropriate behavior at the time of the alleged abuse, but they did ask Malgren to leave in 1989, said Pastor Glenn Sjoerdsma of the Thousand Oaks Baptist Church. Church records do not indicate the reason for his departure, Sjoerdsma said. Sjoerdsma said he does not want the community to associate one man's possible actions with his church. "We're very sorry for the unfortunate incident that happened 20 years ago, but we are a completely different congregation, with a pastor that has been here for only four years, and have no knowledge of what happened in the incident," he said in a prepared statement. "Our ministry is positive, with a friendly atmosphere and welcome for any who desire to attend." After Malgren left the Thousand Oaks church, he moved to Washington and Iowa before becoming a pastor in Idaho. That church also operates a day care center. He is not a registered sex offender in any of the four states. Back in Moscow, a town at the northern tip of Idaho with nearly 22,000 residents, people at the church were not talking to the media. The person answering the phones for Grace Baptist Church hung up when the The Star called. In response to a second call, a different person answered and refused to comment. Moscow also is the home of the University of Idaho, where according to a Web site, a William Malgren was president of the Campus Bible Fellowship. Amanda Malgren, the group's vice president, wrote in an e-mail to The Star: "The police have informed us we are not to make comments." The nature of the relationship between Amanda Malgren and William Malgren is not known at the time. The Sheriff's Department asks that anyone with information of Malgren committing similar acts to contact Detective Mike Hartmann at 371-8397 or Sgt. Barbara Payton at 371-8392. mnavarro@VenturaCountyStar.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.