Pastor Lonny Lee Remmers, 54, has been charged with felony assault and inflicting injury on a 13-year-old child with pliers and directing two church members to discipline the youth. He is the pastor of the Heart of Worship Community Church in Corona. After his arrest, many parishioners learned that Remmers has previously served time for fraud. Two other church members — Nicholas Craig, 22, and Darryl Duane Jeter Jr., 28 — have also been charged. Craig is Remmers’ stepson.
The boy’s mother had gone to Remmers out of fear that the boy was engaging in sexual misconduct.
Jeter and Craig has been accused of driving the boy into the desert and forcing him to dig a grave. They then allegedly threw dirt on him and then beat him with a belt.
Craig was a volunteer with the Corona Police Department. Remmers was a member of the city’s Youth Safety Task Force.
While they were first investigated for torture, they have not been charged with that higher crime — at least not yet. I am not sure why that charge would not be brought even the alleged evidence that the boy was zip-tied to a chair at the group home and sprayed in the face with Mace. Later, at a church meeting, Remmers is accused of taking a pair of pliers to the boy’s nipples while the victim cried and begged him to stop.
Here is the criminal code definition of the crime of torture:
206. Every person who, with the intent to cause cruel or extreme
pain and suffering for the purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion, or for any sadistic purpose, inflicts great bodily injury as defined in Section 12022.7 upon the person of another, is guilty of torture.
The crime of torture does not require any proof that the victim
suffered pain.
206.1. Torture is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison
for a term of life.
It is not clear if the problem is a showing of “great bodily injury” but it would seem odd that you can tie a boy to a chair, mace him, and take pliers to his chest but not commit the legal definition of torture.
Remmers served time in 1998 for a telemarketing scam. When he was caught defrauding investors, he then proceeded to start another such scam and was given 46 months in federal prison for criminal contempt. He and his wife, Lisa Remmers, are still being sued in federal court in Ohio in a separate civil fraud case involving a different $10.5 million investment fraud.
Source: PE as first seen on Reddit.
Mail order reverend who practiced on convicts needs to be put away immediately. Also that is right if he was a man of god he would admit the truth and do time for the crime. Quit throwing your stepson under the bus lonnie. Coward
More detail from Huff Po article:
The Rev. Lonny Lee Remmers [. . . ] has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon and child abuse [. . . ] Nicholas James Craig, 22, and Darryl Duane Jeter Jr., 28, have each been charged with nine felonies related to the incident. The charges filed against Craig and Jeter include one count each of kidnapping, making criminal threats, false imprisonment and assault of a person by force; two counts of assault with a deadly weapon; and three counts of child abuse. Authorities said they are considering additional charges against the three men.
[. . . ]
The abuses the teen suffered were committed as a form of discipline after his 30-year-old mother told Remmers that she believed her son had misbehaved, Hall said.
The boy’s mother, who has not yet been named by police, has not been arrested. Authorities said they are still trying to determine is she was aware of the alleged incidents. Meanwhile, the boy and his 7-year-old sister have been placed in protective custody.
[. . . ]
On April 4, Remmers and his co-defendants each pleaded not guilty. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Becky Dugan set Remmers’ bail at $35,000, and at $150,000 each for Craig and Jeter.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether Remmers or his co-defendants had obtained attorneys. All three men are scheduled to appear in court again April 19.
If convicted as charged, Remmers faces up to seven years in state prison. Craig and Jeter each face up to 19 years behind bars.
DHMCarver The purported offence was “sexual misconduct” — am I the only one who suspects the boy is gay? And would that make this a hate crime? I agree that the boy was certainly gay because I do not believe the mother would be concerned if her son would care if he had sex with a girl.
While I know lefticles like to pull it out and stroke it over Bush, it hardly seems relevant to a case of a probably pedophilic minister torturing a child. Can we please stick to the subject?
The purported offence was “sexual misconduct” — am I the only one who suspects the boy is gay? And would that make this a hate crime?
Attach two Vice-grips to his nipples, and hang him from the steeples of his church by chains welded to the ends of those vice grips.