Pervy Bronx Pastor Accused of Raping Second Teen, Starting When She Was 14

By Kevin Deutsch and John Doyle
New York Daily News
March 22, 2012

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/pervy-bronx-pastor-accused-raping-teen-starting-14-article-1.1049248

Michael Clare, a married father and pastor of the Harvest Worship Center in Wakefield, is accused of raping a second teen.

The pervy pastor of a Bronx church charged with rape last January for impregnating a teen was indicted Thursday for raping another girl, prosecutors said.

Michael Clare, the 40-year-old married leader of the Harvest Worship Center in Wakefield, had sexual contact with the girl at least three times between June 22, 2009 and June 30, 2011 at the school and inside his home, prosecutors said.

Their two-year relationship began when the girl was 14, police said.

The victim, now 17, reported the allegations earlier this month, cops said.

The girl was a student a Harvest Preparatory Academy, a school run out of Clare’s tiny storefront church. Records still list him as the principal there.

The new charges against Clare include rape, sexual misconduct and sexual abuse.

At his arraignment in Bronx Supreme Court Thursday, a sweat-drenched Clare looked unsteady on his feet as court officers helped him keep his balance.

The pastor lay his head on his lawyer’s shoulder, looking shocked as prosecutors explained the charges against him.

A judge set bail at $700,000 and ordered Clare to stay away from all children under 16 — except for his own kids.

Clare was first arrested in June 2010 for allegedly repeatedly having sex with a different girl from his flock — starting when she was 12, prosecutors said.

The girl became pregnant, and DNA evidence implicated Clare, prosecutors said. He was indicted for raping her in Jan. 2011.

The chrome-domed man of God once used his MySpace page to billed himself as a “man of great integrity” who is “a paragon, a model of excellence and ideal example of living and preaching the Gospel of Christ.”

He faces 32 years in state prison if convicted of the two rape charges.

Clare’s lawyer, Paul Brenner, said the two teen girls — who are reportedly friends — are working together to smear his client.

“I believe it’s a made-up, trumped-up witch hunt,” Brenner said. “When all the facts are known the reverend will be exonerated.”

Contact: kdeutsch@nydailynews.com