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Two employees of a Tulsa megachurch received five-year deferred sentences and no jail time Friday after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of waiting two weeks to report the August rape of a 13-year-old girl on ministry property.

John and Charica Daugherty, youth pastors at the Victory Christian Center, were arrested in September for ‘failing to promptly report child abuse’ after a 13-year-old girl was raped in a church stairwell by an employee of the church, Chris Denman, 20. 

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The two had declined a plea deal and were set to appear before a jury trial in May before Judge Bill Hiddle intervened and gave them five-year deferred sentences with no jail time.

The judge expressed his feelings stating that the matter had not been handled properly by the church, which oversees 17,000 members in Tulsa. He said:

‘I want the hammer over your heads, Mr. and Mrs. Daugherty, for a longer period of time. I want to make sure things are done right.’

As part of their sentencing, the Daughertys are to go to at least twenty organizations involving children and talk with employees about reporting abuse.

Sarah McAmis, director of the Crimes Against Children Division in the district attorney’s office says:

“They did nothing, and they let down their church and the entire community.They cannot be allowed to escape responsibility.”

Ex-church janitor Chris Denman, 20, was sentenced in December to 55 years in prison for the stairwell rape. Another ex-janitor at the church, 23-year-old Israel Castillo, faces an August jury trial on charges he sent lewd Facebook messages to a 14-year-old girl. He has pleaded not guilty.

SOURCE: AP