CALIFORNIA
Chicago Enterprise-Record

By RYAN OLSON – Staff Writerchicoer.com

OROVILLE — An arrest warrant has been issued for a former associate pastor of a Chico church charged with misdemeanor child molestation.

Jesse Daniel Ruhl, formerly of Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, is being sought after he missed a Jan. 18 arraignment hearing in Butte County Superior Court for an alleged relationship with a 16-year-old girl that was first reported in February 2011.

The church is also being sued in local court for a 2002 incident where then-teacher and associate pastor David Joseph Jorgensen committed lewd acts on a female student when she was 14.

Reached for comment Friday, Ruhl’s father, senior pastor Tim Ruhl, said he was unaware of the pending case against his son and did not want to comment further without knowing more.