CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
BY LESLIE PARRILLA The Press Enterprise STAFF WRITER
lparrilla@pe.com
Published: 05 April 2012
The pastor arrested this week on allegations of abusing a 13-year-old boy applied to be a Corona police chaplain last year and was involved in the mayor’s task force on youth safety, city and police officials said Thursday.
Lonny Lee Remmers, 54, leader of the Heart of Worship Community Church, posted $35,000 bail Thursday and was released from the county jail in Riverside. He is charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon and inflicting injury on a child. Two other men — Nicholas James Craig, 22, and Darryl Duane Jeter Jr., 28 — remained in custody Thursday. They are charged with kidnapping, assault and other felonies.
Investigators say Craig and Jeter drove the teen to the desert March 18, forced him to dig a grave, threw dirt on him and beat him with a belt. Remmers later used a pair of pliers to inflict pain on the boy, police said.
His physical injuries were not serious, authorities said.
On Thursday, police were still investigating the boy’s mother. She had turned him over to Remmers and the others for intervention because she believed he had been involved in sexual misconduct, police said. It was unclear if she knew how the men were planning to discipline her son, Corona police Capt. Jerry Rodriguez said.
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