Rev Rips DSS for Inaction, by Michele McPhee, Boston Herald, May 18, 2007

Rev Rips DSS for Inaction

By Michele McPhee
Boston Herald
May 18, 2007

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=1001858

Two years after he first confessed to sexual misconduct with a teenage boy who worshiped at his South End church, the Rev. Lawrence Brown acknowledged again yesterday that he had committed a crime, and he slammed the Department of Social Services for not going to the aid of his victim in May 2005 when Brown tried to turn himself in to the agency.

"Of course I recognize that whatever I did was a crime. I will never be completely whole until I am forgiven," Brown, 49, said yesterday in a 45-minute telephone interview with the Herald. "I'm not running. I'm not hiding. I'm sorry for what I have done. I have asked forgiveness at every point. I went out to get help for myself.

Rev. Lawrence Brown.

The Herald disclosed Tuesday that Suffolk prosecutors are investigating allegations that Brown molested P. Edward Harrison in 2004 and early 2005, beginning when the youth was 14 years old.

"I'm not pinning flowers on me, but I am saying that I did everything in my power except go put myself in jail and go throw away the key," Brown said, adding that he is now "sexually pure" and seeks forgiveness from his victim.

Brown criticized the DSS, saying he phoned the agency's Child-At-Risk hotline in May 2005 "to report myself," but never received a follow-up call from social workers.

As of yesterday, Brown still had not been questioned by any authorities - police, prosecutors or DSS investigators, he said.

"How many people are calling DSS to report themselves, the perpetrator calling and putting themself out there? I'm disappointed because DSS could have helped (the victim). They could have done more," Brown said, adding that he "even called DSS to see what was being done."

DSS Commissioner Harry Spence is under fire after the Herald reported that three reports were made to the agency about the allegations of Brown's sexual abuse of Harrison, his second cousin. In addition to Brown's phone call, his former employer, the Emmanuel Gospel Center, sent two copies of achild-abuse report to DSS.

But those reports were never acted on. Denise Monteiro, an agency spokeswoman, has said the first allegations came from Somerville Hospital in November 2006, after the victim was admitted for severe depression. DSS has since acknowledged that it lost track of the earlier reports, and said it is investigating how that happened.

Meanwhile, Gov. Deval Patrick has ordered a probe into how DSS handles such reports.

When asked if there were other victims besides Harrison - who is now 18 and said he came forward in interviews with the Herald so he could obtain closure - Brown would not comment.

"I obviously won't mention whether there are other victims, other than to say this is not a lifestyle for me. This has come out, I confessed, and now I live a sexually pure life. I don't do masturbation, pornography - nothing," Brown said.

"I am not one of those people who are going to make excuses. It was wrong," he said. "I will do, and have done, everything I know to make amends."

Brown said he is now a volunteer counselor at Living Waters, which describes itself as "a Christ-centered program for people seeking healing in areas of sexual and relational brokenness."

Brown added that he participated in the $400 program twice since that Sunday in May 2005 when he stood up at the pulpit at Mount Calvary Baptist Church during morning service and confessed to his "sin."

"I have betrayed the trust that you have placed in me as a minister. I have sinned before you and God," he told the congregation, reading from a sermon he has kept.

"I intend to be in total submission to whatever the elders deem is necessary for me to gain their trust, your trust, and the privilege of ministering again."