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Saturday, April 8, 2000

Roloff abuse charges lead to 2 arrests

Church superintendent being released on $10,000 bond, pastor held briefly

By Dan Parker
Caller-Times

Nueces County Sheriff's deputies made the first of what they say may be several arrests in connection with their week-long investigation into allegations of abuse at the homes operated by the People's Baptist Church and Ministries.
   Deputies on Friday arrested Allen Smith, the superintendent of People's Baptist Church and Ministries, accusing him of abusing two teens who were residents at a home operated by the ministries, Nueces County Sheriff Larry Olivarez said.
   Wiley Cameron Sr., pastor of the church and head of the ministries, was also arrested after authorities said he refused to turn over records that had been sought by sheriff's investigators since Wednesday, Olivarez said.
   An attorney representing Cameron later agreed to release the records, and he was freed Friday afternoon. Cameron, who was not booked or charged, could not be reached for comment Friday.
   Olivarez said his department's investigation is continuing and deputies might make more arrests at the ministries, located on 500 acres on Old Brownsville Road.
   Smith, 42, was arrested on a charge of unlawful restraint, a third-degree felony. An arrest warrant set his bond at $100,000. Smith's attorney, former Nueces County District Attorney Grant Jones, said District Judge Rose Vela lowered the bond to $10,000.
   Jones said Smith was in the process of being released from Nueces County Jail on bond Friday night.
   Reasonable force
   Jones said he expects Smith to be exonerated of the charge.
   "Because they are a care institution, the law gives them the right to use a reasonable amount of force to keep discipline and order," Jones said. "It's analogous to parents using a reasonable amount of force to control their children.
   "I think what we have here is a situation where the kids involved were on the edge of the rules, and the staff was trying to respond to it," Jones said. "The question is whether they responded reasonably or not. That's what it ultimately is going to be all about."
   Organizing support
   Supporters of the ministry said the allegations of abuse are difficult to believe because the ministry turns many troubled youths' lives around.
   Danny Bezet, pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Baytown, said he is helping organize supporters from throughout the country to travel to Corpus Christi and rally in support of People's Baptist Church and Ministries. Bezet said he expects more than 100 to rally, but that no date or exact location for a rally has been set.
   "This would be just to show this is the number of people standing on the right side of this issue," Bezet said. "People love this home and the work these people are doing. They are loved all over the country and have been for many, many years. Many of us have sent people there - unruly children we have sent to these homes, and these people have been helped and blessed."
   Simons' allegations
   The sheriff's investigation began after Justin Simons, 18, told deputies last week that a church employee punched him in the chest on March 14, according to a sheriff's department report.
   Simons also said church authorities punished him and another resident on March 21 by tying their wrists together and forcing them to run through the woods.
   Simons also said he was forced to dig in a pit as punishment, the report said. Simons told deputies he was not allowed to take a break unless he jumped across the pit. He said he fell and sprained both ankles when he tried to jump it, the report said.
   Smith was arrested in connection with alleged abuse suffered by Simons and by a 17-year-old boy, Olivarez said. Olivarez would not name the 17-year-old.
   Simons' mother, Teresa Calalay, took him out of the home April 30. She said she was relieved to hear of Smith's arrest.
   "I am so thankful," said Calalay, of Conyers, Ga. "This was a serious matter, to know someone with the sick sort of mind that would do these kinds of things or oversee these kinds of things to our young people that were there. I am extremely ecstatic that this man was arrested."
   'Place of hell'
   Laura Mason, of Locust Grove, Ga., said her 17-year-old son left one of the homes after three weeks this year. She said people who helped run the homes yelled threats at her son, including one threat to break his fingers.
   Mason said she was glad to hear of the arrests.
   "I feel they got what they deserved," Mason said. "These kids went up there for help. Godly help. Christian help. It ended up being more like a place of hell."
   Roloff's successor
   The sheriff's department investigation has revived controversies that for years have swirled around homes operated on the property.
   The youth homes on Old Brownsville Road closed during the 1980s after a lengthy church vs. state battle that drew national attention.
   Beginning in the early 1970s, the state insisted that the homes submit to regulation. But evangelist Lester Roloff, who operated the homes, met insistence with refusal. The Texas Attorney General's Office began investigating Roloff's homes in 1973 after former residents made allegations of abuse.
   The People's Baptist Church took over for Roloff in 1979. Roloff died in a plane crash in 1982.
   The homes re-opened last year. Cameron was Roloff's successor.
   Resident's story
   Josh Kirchner said he witnessed physical abuse while he was a resident at a home on the grounds of People's Baptist Church.
   Kirchner, 19, of Elk Grove, Ill., said he saw a leader at the home punch a resident in the chest and head because the resident made him angry.
   Kirchner said he was a resident from March 25 until Monday, when he left, angry about how he said a leader mistreated him.
   Kirchner said he was pushed and yelled at by the leader, who also threatened to beat him.
   Kirchner said he was not physically abused aside from being shoved. He said he left the home and traveled back to Illinois after officials at the home told him he could leave if he chose.
   Bezet said he suspects residents of the homes are lying about abuse.
   "These kids, they know how to set evidence up and corroborate with all their friends," Bezet said. "(Authorities are) going to have to make their way through all that, and I think they will."
   The people who run the homes have a tough job because they deal with children with major discipline problems, he said.
   "They are sent there by court order or by families, and when they get in trouble and get in a bind, they put the blame on someone else, which is what they've done all their lives," Bezet said. "That's what people like that do."
   Baptist unity
   Other Baptists are stepping forward in support of the ministry as well.
   "It is a religious home, so it's run on the basis of the Bible," said Tom Pennington, associate pastor of Central Baptist Church in Center, about 190 miles north of Houston. "We've known young men who have turned their lives around from drug abuse and alcohol and just straight-out crime . . . where they have met the Lord there at the home. The discipline there is a little more strict than a regular home like yours or mine, but . . . I daresay their success is equal or above the state's successes."
   Pennington said his church has helped the homes out financially.
   "We've always found them to be good, upstanding citizens who tried to do what is right," Pennington said.
  

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Staff writer Dan Parker can be reached at 886-3774 or by e-mail at parkerd@caller.com

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