State requests motion to dismiss charges against Victory Christian leaders be denied

TULSA - Prosecutors say pastors at Tulsa megachurch Victory Christian Center were, in fact, required by law to report child sex abuse to authorities, contrary to what the pastors' attorney claims in court documents.

Attorneys for the state of Oklahoma have responded to a motion to dismiss charges against youth pastors John and Charica Daughtery.

The two, along with three other church leaders, were charged with failure to report child abuse after waiting two weeks before reporting the rape of a 13-year old girl and other sex crimes. All five have pleaded not guilty.

The Daughertys, along with Paul Willemstein, Anna Alisa George and Harold Frank Sullivan, were suspended by church administrators for not following Victory’s policy regarding child abuse. They have since been reinstated and returned to work.

The Daughertys' attorney, Jason A. Robertson, filed a motion mid-October to dismiss the charges against his clients, arguing a person is only required to report abuse that is "committed by a 'person responsible for the health, safety or welfare of the child', as defined by the law.

Robertson says the suspects in the case, 20-year-old Chris Denman and 23-year-old Israel Castillo, were never responsible for the health, safety or welfare of the victims.

Both men are former employees of the church, though Robertson says Denman wasn't employed at the time of the offense and neither man shared or provided a home with the victims or served as guardians for the victims.

Prosecutors, in response, say abuse or sexual abuse can be perpetrated by a person other than a parent.

WARNING GRAPHIC: READ PROSECUTION'S RESPONSE

Furthermore, prosecutors say the defendants weren't responsible for determining if the situation fit the definition of abuse, but rather they were responsible for reporting the allegations if they had reason to believe the abuse occurred.

Robertson argues his clients can't be charged with failing to report child abuse since neither of the suspects thought to have perpetrated the crimes are charged with child abuse.

Denman was charged with, and has since pleaded guilty, to six felony sex crimes, including first-degree rape, forcible oral sodomy of a child, lewd molestation, lewd proposal to a child and two counts of using a computer to facilitate a sex crime.

Castillo has pleaded not guilty to making a lewd proposal to a 15-year-old girl and using a computer to commit a sex crime.

"Neither of the alleged perpetrators of the underlying crimes has been charged with abuse or sexual abuse of a child,” Robertson writes in the motion. “Defendants John and Charica should not be charged with failure to report child abuse when the underlying crimes do not fall within the specific definitions of those particular charges. “

A judge has scheduled a motion hearing for the the Daughertys, Willemstein and George Nov. 19 and Dec. 12 for Sullivan.