Pastor of New Orleans Baptist Church Arrested after Girls Accuse Him of Sexual Abuse

By Della Hasselle
New Orleans Advocate
November 10, 2016

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/crime_police/article_14d7a500-a78e-11e6-b1b5-7f7241634436.html

The pastor of Second Zion Baptist Church in Central City was arrested Wednesday after two young girls and two women accused him of sexually abusing them in the church, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

Police arrested 59-year-old Gary Lee Curtis and booked him on five counts of sexual battery after investigating a case that was first brought to the department on Sept. 21, according to arrest records.

The NOPD's Special Victims Section began investigating after a woman reported a single incident of sexual abuse involving a 12-year-old girl, the police report said.

The report said NOPD Detective Bianca DeIrish then met with another person described in the report as a "concerned elder," who told her that the pastor touched young girls "on their buttocks" while they were at the church at 2929 Second St.

Ultimately, the report said, DeIrish found four victims who said that Curtis had touched or hit them on the buttocks while they were clothed, all in separate incidents.

The first victim said she had been alone with Curtis while her mother was at a meeting in the church, according to the report. At that point, she said, he asked her to help clean up the church and then hit her on the buttocks twice when she was retrieving some paper from the ground.

The second victim told the detective that a similar thing had happened to her three years ago. She said Curtis had patted her on the buttocks twice, according to the report, but she only realized it was intentional the second time.

Police said the incident with the third victim happened nine years ago, when she was in middle school. According to the report, Curtis inappropriately touched her after he leaned in to give her a hug.

The final victim said the pastor had touched her inappropriately in 2013, in front of one of the other victims, according to the report.

Two of the victims were under 15 at the time, police said.

Before going to the police, several members of the church told DeIrish, they tried to confront the pastor about the incidents. However, "the conversation did not go well," DeIrish said in her report, because the pastor's wife, who was in the meeting, "became irate."

When the person who reported the incident advised Curtis she would go to law enforcement, he advised her instead to "let him pray on the situation," police said.