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  DeSoto Minister Accused of Aggravated Rape
Laptop with Sexual Images Is Seized in Investigation

By Vickie Welborn
Shreveport Times
October 18, 2006

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061018/NEWS01/610180326/1002/NEWS

Mansfield "" The pastor of a small country church in the Stanley community was indicted Tuesday for the aggravated rape of an 11-year-old girl.

Burchum Paul Warren, 50, pastor of South Oak Grove Assembly of God Church, is accused of sexually assaulting the girl over a period of six months this year, DeSoto sheriff's Lt. Toni Morris said. Warren has been pastor of the church for 15 or more years.

The victim, a relative and church member, reported the alleged abuse to a teacher. As a mandated reporter, the teacher notified the sheriff's office. Child Protective Services and sheriff's investigators jointly interviewed the girl earlier this month.

"This child had the courage enough to approach a teacher at school to report this. "» One of the things she told her teacher is, "No one is going to believe me because of who he is and what he does,'" Morris said.

The alleged abuse took place from March through September.

In connection with the investigation, investigators seized Warren's laptop computer, which contained "images of a sexual nature that corroborated the victim's statement. "» But there was nothing on the computer that we found that is illegal," Morris said.

Word of Warren's arrest left members of the community at a loss for words. Duane and B.J. Bossier owned Hilltop Grocery, next to Warren's church on state Highway 191, for seven years before closing it in December. Though the Bossiers never visited in Warren's church, they knew him and his family as regular patrons of their store, a combination convenience store and restaurant.

"He was a regular, almost a daily, and he and his family were in and out all of the time," Duane Bossier said. "I'm in total shock. I just can't believe that. "» I'm really, really heartbroken."

The Warrens used to live in a mobile home next to the church but moved several years ago to Boss Road, off state Highway 191 in the Stanley community.

District Judge Charles Adams signed a warrant for Warren's arrest shortly after the DeSoto grand jury returned the indictment around 3 p.m. Warren was arrested less than an hour later at his residence.

He was booked into the DeSoto Parish Detention Center about an hour later and held overnight without bond. Warren told investigators he had already hired an attorney.

Warren will be arraigned Nov. 9 in DeSoto District Court, Assistant District Attorney Richard Z. Johnson Jr. said.

 
 

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