New charges against former Victory Christian employee
TULSA (FOX 23) - The Tulsa County District Attorney filed new charges against a former Victory Christian Center employee already accused of rape.
Chris Denman is now charged with lewd proposition to a child and a second count of using a computer to facilitate a sex crime, in addition to four felony counts filed earlier this month: first degree rape of a victim under 14-years old, forcible oral sodomy of a victim under 14-years old .
Sources close to the investigation say police recently discovered Denman is accused of propositioning a twelve-year-old girl over Facebook. Police say Denman worked at VCC and all four victims attended Victory Christian Center's Camp Victory summer camp this summer.
Denman is accused of raping a 13-year old at the church in August. Police say they were not notified about the alleged rape until two weeks after it happened.
Five church staff members, Frank Sullivan, Anna George, Paul Wilemstein, John and Charica Daugherty, are charged with misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse. The staff members have been suspended for not following the policy to report child abuse.
FOX23 has repeatedly reached out to VCC's lead pastor, Sharon Daugherty, asking to speaking with her about these allegations and to have her explain what she knew about the reported sex abuse and when. So far, FOX23 has been told Daugherty is not talking, but she did say this during services on the 22nd and 23rd at VCC, "Questions have been raised about my knowledge of the incident. I was briefly told of an incident involving two facilities employees and members of 24/7 on Friday, Aug. 24 and was told it was being reported but did not receive any details on the specific allegations. I have since learned that human resources started its efforts to report the incident that same day but did not successfully report the incident until Aug. 30. I was extremely disappointed to later hear of the delay in the time it was first reported."
Another former VCC employee, Israel Castillo, is charged with propositioning a 15-year old at the church and online. Police say it is a troubling pattern that the two men charged in this case both had access to the children and used social networks to communicate with them and proposition them.
Church officials say both men passed background checks.
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