Man charged with raping 13-year-old at Victory Christian Center
BY DAVID HARPER World Staff Writer
Thursday, September 13, 2012
9/13/12 at 9:36 PM
A former church employee was charged with first-degree rape Thursday on an allegation that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl at Victory Christian Center last month.
Chris Denman, 20, of Tulsa is also charged with forcible oral sodomy and use of a computer to facilitate a sex crime involving the same girl.
Denman was also charged Thursday with lewd molestation regarding “open mouth kissing” a 15-year-old girl sometime between Aug. 13 and Aug. 17.
Police allege that Denman sexually assaulted the 13-year-old in a stairwell near a band room at Victory Christian Church, 7700 S. Lewis Ave, on Aug. 13.
Police were informed Aug. 30 and conducted a forensic interview with the girl the following day, an arrest report says.
The girl said during the Aug. 31 interview that on Aug. 13, before a church service, Denman forcibly removed her clothes in a stairwell, “pushed her against a wall and had vaginal intercourse” with her, according to a Tulsa Police Department affidavit filed in Tulsa County District Court on Thursday.
The girl said Denman then grabbed her head, forced her to the floor and made her perform oral sex on him, the document says. She told police that she bit Denman’s penis and that he hit her on the side of the face.
The girl told youth leaders at Victory Christian Church of the rape on Aug. 15, and Denman was fired from his role at the church, the affidavit says.
Victory Christian Center staff waited more than two weeks to notify the police and the girl’s mother, the affidavit states.
The document also outlines a graphic sexual proposition allegedly received via Facebook by a 15-year-old girl — not the same one about whom the lewd molestation charge pertains — on Aug. 11.
That incident evidently involved another man who the document says was also fired by the church.
The second man has not yet been charged, but Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney Sarah McAmis said she anticipates that he will be. She also said additional charges likely will be filed against Denman.
“The girls met the two employees while attending summer camp at Camp Victory where the two employees were working as staff,” the affidavit says. “They continued contact after the summer camp on Facebook and cell phones. The two employees held positions at the church that led to additional contact with young females.”
As of Thursday night, officials at Victory Christian Center had not commented about Denman’s employment history and involvement at the church or issued a statement about the allegations.
Denman was arrested at an apartment in the 1800 block of East 73rd Street about 1:45 p.m. Sept. 5, according to police. He was still in Tulsa Jail as of Thursday evening, with bail set at $200,000.
Associated Images:
Chris Denman
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