WUNRN
"During
the trial the girl, now 16, testified that spankings were a regular part of
weekly meetings with her pastor beginning in March 2005 after she gave her
mother a note containing vague allegations of sexual abuse."
|
USA
- Spankings of Member's Girl Child Earn
Baptist Pastor Battery Conviction |
|
|
|
By Bob Allen |
|
19
March 2009 |
|
ELGIN, Ill. (ABP) -- A Chicago-area Baptist preacher avoided jail time after being found guilty of battery for spanking a girl he thought was lying about sexual abuse. Daryl P. Bujak, 33, was sentenced to a year of supervision, 80 hours of community service and $350 in fines after his conviction of two counts of misdemeanor battery at a two-day bench trial that ended March 18. A judge cleared him of another charge of failing to report sexual abuse. Police arrested Bujak in May 2006 for allegedly spanking a 12-year-old girl brought to him for counseling by parents who doubted her story that she was being sexually abused. Bujak, who also believed she was lying, is said to have beaten the girl with a piece of wooden molding hard enough to leave bruises and welts on her legs and buttocks. According to media reports, Bujak, former pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Elgin, Ill., told Kane County Judge Allen Anderson he was "over his head" in trying to deal with allegations of sexual abuse. During the trial the girl, now 16, testified that spankings were a regular part of weekly meetings with her pastor beginning in March 2005 after she gave her mother a note containing vague allegations of sexual abuse. Police believed the girl's story, charging her stepfather, 33-year-old Matthew Resh, with five counts of predatory criminal sexual abuse on May 12, 2006. Resh, now 36, is awaiting trial on charges stemming from incidents alleged to have occurred between September 2003 and November 2005. The judge rejected Bujak's claim that corporal punishment is not a crime if carried out with permission of the parents. But the magistrate also said it wasn't clear that the girl gave Bujak enough detail to put him in violation of a state law that requires clergy to report allegations of sexual abuse. Bujak left First Missionary Baptist Church, described on its website as independent and "fundamental," in August 2008, but the reason reportedly had nothing to do with the battery case. |
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to: wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com.
Thank you.