Five Victory Christian employees out of jail on bond

By Lori Lindquist

CREATED Sep. 18, 2012

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TULSA (FOX 23)  -  The Tulsa County DA has filed charges against five employees of the Victory Christian Center for failure to report child abuse. 

Paul Wilemstein, Anna George, Harold "Frank" Sullivan, Charica Daugherty and John Daugherty are all charged with misdemeanor failure to report child abuse. Sullivan is the director of Human Resources at VCC.  John is the son of VCC pastor, Sharon Daugherty, Charica is his wife.  Monday night, all five were booked into the Tulsa Co. Jail. Several hours later, all were released on on $1,500 bond.

The charges stem from recent allegations of a rape at the center.  Former VCC employee Chris Denman, 20, was charged with first degree rape of a victim under 14, forcible oral sodomy, lewd molestation and the use of a computer to facilitate a sex crime on September 13th.  The alleged victim's mother said the incident happened in August, and she did not hear about it until more than two weeks later.

A second suspect, 23-year-old Israel Castillo, was charged Monday with lewd proposals to a minor.  He's accused of propositioning a fifteen-year-old girl at Victory Christian, asking her to send nude photos to him, and also sending her lewd messages on Facebook.  He has not yet been arrested.

VCC issued this statement Monday evening:
 

"The employees involved were a high school outreach program director, an associate youth pastor, the director of the Human Resources department, and John and Charica Daugherty, who work at the church as sr. high youth pastor and assistant sr. high youth pastor.

Last Friday, in response to the delay in reporting the alleged rape, Victory Christian Center suspended three of these employees who were aware of the allegation, and did not report it in a timely manner in accordance with an internal policy on reporting suspected cases of abuse or neglect. The police investigation additionally determined that John and Charica both had some awareness of this incident.  Because of this finding, the ministry has also suspended John and Charica in accordance with our disciplinary policies while we continue an internal investigation.
Again, we ask that your thoughts and prayers be with the victims and their families."

The mother of one victim in this case told FOX23 she was "shocked and surprised" by the charges, but she felt "happy and satisfied" by the District Attorney's decision.