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  Pastor Accused in Daughters' Rapes
Abuse Continued from 2001 until Last Month, with Oldest Assaulted Twice a Week, and Younger Girls Targeted 17 Times, Authorities Say

By Christine Armario
Newsday [Long Island NY]
February 10, 2006

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-liabus104620861feb10,0,2585932.story?coll=ny-linews-print

A Long Island pastor was charged yesterday with sexually abusing his three daughters at their Queens home, allegedly having intercourse with the eldest of the three teenage girls twice a week for four and a half years.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the pastor was arrested and charged with four counts of incest, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of sexual abuse in the second degree. Newsday is withholding the identity of the pastor to protect his daughters' privacy.

"What allegedly happened to these children is every child's and every mother's worst nightmare," Brown said. "Even after the physical abuse has stopped, the consequences of such sexual assault for victims are profound and can result in emotional trauma from which they may never recover."

Between July 2001 and January, the pastor had sexual intercourse with his eldest daughter, now 19, about twice a week, Brown said. Between September 2004 and June 2005, he allegedly sexually abused his two younger daughters 17 times. At the time, both were less than 14 years old, Brown said.

Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for Brown, said the abuse came to light after the eldest daughter confided in a cousin, who then told an uncle. Eventually, word got around to the girls' mother.

The pastor was arrested shortly after midnight and was awaiting arraignment at Queens Criminal Court late yesterday evening, Ryan said. He could not be reached for comment, and no one answered at the church.

A Manhattan minister who said he knew the pastor through a church organization called him a "warm and gracious person."

"This whole thing is very sad to hear," the minister said.

Staff writer Bill Mason contributed to this story.

 
 

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