Three Longtime Members of the Gospel of Truth Ministry, Which Puts on a Famous Christmas House Display, Are Charged with Child Sexual Abuse
By Abhi Raghunathan and Waveney Ann Moore
St. Petersburg Times
April 7, 2006
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/07/Southpinellas/Ministry_members_char.shtml
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The ministry's elaborate Christmas display has drawn thousands and national media attention to the St. Petersburg house. There is no indication ministry head Ted Kresge was involved in the crimes or knew anything of them, police say. Photo by the Times: Lara Cerri |
ST. PETERSBURG - Like thousands of others, the college student drove to the famous Christmas House and its massive holiday display.
But she didn't come to see the twinkling lights. She wanted to visit a piece of her tortured past.
Outside the house at 2719 Oakdale St. S this past December, she saw the man who police say sexually assaulted her inside the house when she was a little girl.
That, police say, is when she decided she couldn't keep quiet anymore.
After investigating the woman's complaint, St. Petersburg police on Wednesday arrested three longtime members of the Gospel of Truth ministry, which puts on the Christmas display, on charges related to sexual battery. Police say they have uncovered horrific allegations that young children were assaulted by one of the ministry volunteers in the 1980s and early 1990s and forced to have sex with each other as ministry members watched.
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| WESLEY EARL BALL, 72, charged with three counts of capital sexual battery. |
Police said Wesley Earl Ball, 72, molested the girl when she was between the ages of 10 and 12, including once in a bathroom at the Christmas House. He's charged with three counts of capital sexual battery.
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| LYTRICIA JEAN GARDNER, 40, charged with being a principal to capital sexual battery. |
Angela Bell Hunnicutt, 42, and Lytricia Jean Gardner, 40, forced the girl to have sex with another young boy and other children in residences around St. Petersburg, police said. They both face two charges of being a principal to capital sexual battery.
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| ANGELA B. HUNNICUTT, 42, charged with being a principal to capital sexual battery. |
Police said they have no indication that ministry head Ted Kresge was involved in the assaults or knew about them.
Kresge, 66, owner of the Christmas House, said Thursday that he stood by his friends and would help defend them.
"I know these people and from my personal experience, I do not believe these things happened," Kresge said. "As to why these allegations have come forth, I don't know."
Kresge called Ball "a wonderful family man" and the two arrested women "the nicest people you'll ever meet."
St. Petersburg Police Detective Lorry Dunn, who investigated the case, said the girl's account was corroborated by a boy who said he also endured sexual abuse.
St. Petersburg police officers are searching for other possible victims.
"They told the children they could be harmed if they told anyone," Dunn said.
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Before he founded his ministry, Kresge was a businessman and a karate instructor. In the 1970s, he opened 11 karate schools around Tampa Bay and taught more than 10,000 students.
After watching a movie called The Late, Great Planet Earth narrated by Orson Welles, Kresge began studying the Bible with his wife and came to believe the apocalypse was near.
In 1977, the Kresges began decorating their Oakdale street home for Christmas. By last year, the extravaganza included several polar bears, computer-operated lights on the Christmas tree, and fiber optic trees, one of which had more than 150,000 lights.
The house drew national media attention, including publicity on NBC's Today Show and HGTV.
Around the same time he began putting up the display, Kresge printed thousands of pamphlets proclaiming the end of the world, and bought advertisements in major newspapers that said "Deadline 1981," and "Mockers Beware!" By the early 1980s, Kresge established a church, complete with Sunday school and morning and evening worship services.
Ball, Hunnicutt and Gardner, the three people arrested on sexual battery charges, helped the Kresges put up their Christmas display every year, police said.
Kresge said the three were ministry volunteers. Hunnicutt told police that she was a missionary, and Ball told a landlord he was a minister.
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Police say the parents of the abused youths signed up for the ministry in the 1980s.
The sexual abuse began around 1986, the two victims told police. The girl was about 10 years old. The boy, who is also now in his 20s, was a few years younger.
Ball molested the girl "numerous times," police said. He forced her to have sex with the boy, whom he also molested, and other youths at homes around St. Petersburg, according to police. The woman said he molested her once inside the Kresge house, according to police.
Between 1986 and the early 1990s, Hunnicutt and Gardner also forced the girl and the boy to have sex with each other and with other children, police said.
The abuse didn't end until the victims' parents dropped out of the Gospel of Truth ministry for various reasons, according to police. Both are still reeling from the abuse, police said. The female victim is in counseling, and the male is in jail on robbery charges.
Last winter the female victim saw an advertisement about the Christmas House and decided to see if the same people ran it, police said.
Police did not release the identities of the victims, citing the nature of the crimes. State law includes no statute of limitations for capital sexual battery.
In an interview Thursday afternoon, Kresge said the Christmas decorations consumed the bulk of the ministry's time. When members get together, Kresge said, they do so to pray and talk about the Christmas House.
State records show Kresge is the registered agent for a not-for-profit listed as the Gospel Truth of St. Petersburg Inc. The records also show that the two-story yellow house at 860 20th Avenue S where the three arrested ministry members live is the Gospel Truth's principal place of business.
Kresge said he used the address in his correspondence to the state because two other directors of the ministry live on the house's second floor. A faded sign on the front of the house on Thursday read: "Jesus Is Lord."
Michael Hadley, who owns the home, said he rented it to Ball about a year ago. Hadley said Ball called himself a minister.
"He was very religious," Hadley said. "He would just keep saying, "God is going to bless us."'
Neighbors say cars frequently came to the house and that the residents, who worked odd jobs as handymen, often held Bible study sessions.
"They would just talk about church all the time," said Dave Witcherd, 45, who often saw them fixing screen doors or painting area homes.
It is unclear how many people still belong to Kresge's ministry. He said some meetings only draw a few people, while others draw 15 or more.
--Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 727-893-8472.
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