By Leslie Parrilla
The Press Enterprise
CORONA, Calif. — Former members of a Corona church where the pastor is accused of child abuse say a police officer, firefighter and other professionals failed to protect children from psychological and physical harm, even though those professionals are trained to report child abuse.
The professionals - “mandated reporters” required by state law to report child abuse if they learn about it while working - may have failed to act because they were torn between the law and a church culture. Ex-members contend the Heart of Worship church, led by Pastor Lonny Remmers, allowed mental, emotional and physical abuse of children and discouraged anyone from questioning it.
That environment nearly prevented authorities from learning of a case in which prosecutors say a teenage boy was taken to the desert, forced to dig his own grave and later taken to a prayer meeting where his nipple was twisted with pliers, former church members and experts say.
When off duty, mandated reporters are like anyone else - reporting suspected abuse is a moral decision, not a legal one.
Among some religious groups, it is common to keep alleged abuse private behind church doors and to believe spiritual laws outrank society’s laws, experts say. The practice can leave professionals conflicted on how to handle abuse they witness while off duty, experts said.
Corona police Cpl. Margaret Bell was on duty when Heart of Worship member Steve Larkey told her about the teenage boy, prosecutors allege. Bell and Remmers, because he is the pastor, are mandated reporters. Other such professionals in the church include at least two nurses, a firefighter and a school employee.
Larkey, a cook, was living in a church-operated group home in Corona when he saw two parishioners bring a 13-year-old boy into the home, naked and injured, he said. The boy was then assaulted, sprayed with mace and forced to eat off the floor, according to authorities and Larkey.
Larkey said he heard the boy screaming.
Prosecutors allege that Remmers ordered the punishment when the boy’s mother, a church member, brought him to the pastor for discipline after allegations he molested his sister.
Remmers, Darryll Jeter Jr. and Nicholas Craig face felony charges of kidnapping and assaulting the teenager. They have pleaded not guilty and await trial. Remmers’ attorney Larry Noe, who has been temporarily suspended from the case, could not be reached for comment. Remmers, 54, repeatedly has declined to comment about the allegations against him.
Bell has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to report the crime and is scheduled to return to court Jan. 9. She has not returned repeated calls for comment. Her attorney, Michael Schwartz of Upland, has declined to comment.
Culture of a Church
The small, tight-knit church met in homes and consisted of a diverse group of about 25 adults and children. Another professional member mandated to report child abuse was the pastor’s wife, Lisa Remmers, a licensed registered nurse, according to state Board of Registered Nursing records.
It’s unclear whether Lisa Remmers witnessed any abuse.
Larkey said it wasn’t unusual to see Lonny Remmers yelling at or verbally humiliating people, including children. But the assault on the boy was shocking, he said.
On March 18, Larkey said he saw Jeter and Craig bring the boy into the home. He heard someone play a cellphone recording of the assault in the desert. The assault continued at the home, he said. The next day, at a Bible study in Remmers’ garage, Remmers twisted the boy’s left nipple with a pair of pliers in front of a dozen men, authorities said.
“Every single man was there,” Larkey said. “Everybody just sat there and went along with the program.”
The first person he thought to turn to was Bell - a police officer, mandated reporter and a friend, he said. Larkey said he told a uniformed Bell on March 26 when she walked into the restaurant where he worked.
“I thought she believed me. She told me not to say anything about it until the next day, and her and I were going to have a conversation about what we were going to do,” Larkey said.
But that conversation never happened, he said.
Instead, Larkey said he was reprimanded later that day at a men’s Bible study session for seeking help outside the church.
Mandated reporter and firefighter Eric McNamara, who works for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, was among those who witnessed the abuse with the pliers, Larkey said. Reached at his home in Corona, McNamara declined to comment.
Ex-church members say Remmers was the main disciplinarian of children in the church. No one questioned his use of physical, emotional or verbal punishment, said Larkey and former church member Kathleen Krauss, 43, who joined the church in 2009 but left after Remmers’ arrest.
When McNamara’s four children needed discipline, they received it from Remmers, who used emotional and psychological abuse in punishments, Larkey and Krauss said.
“He would just make them sit on a chair in front of the church and embarrass them,” Larkey recalled.
Larkey said he once woke from a nap at Remmers’ house to hear the pastor screaming at a young girl. Remmers, he said, threatened to take the girl to the desert and abuse her like the boy.
“She (the girl) was crying,” Larkey said. “He said, ‘You don’t think I’ll do the same thing to you … except we’ll tie you up in a box.’”
Former member Matt Brown, who had lived in the men’s home in February 2011, said he never saw Remmers physically abuse a child. But Krauss said Remmers’ behavior escalated in the year leading to his arrest, and members felt there was little they could do.
Members’ Dilemma
Larkey said he kept quiet when Remmers disciplined children but fumed underneath.
“Why is everybody going to Lonny about their family issues? If you’re going to have kids, then discipline them yourself,” Larkey said.
That was the church’s culture, Krauss and Larkey said.
Jim Forbes, a Huntington Beach resident who helped Remmers start the ministry in 2001, said he believes his grandchildren were abused in the church.
Forbes introduced his daughter, Amanda “Mandy” Parks to Remmers, and she brought her mother, Forbes’ ex-wife, Karen Forbes, to the church.
Karen Forbes is a licensed nurse, state records show, making her a mandated reporter. She could not be reached for comment, but both still appear to be church members, Jim Forbes said.
A church member told him his grandson was knocked out of a chair and his granddaughter spanked by Remmers.
Amanda Parks and her husband, Ryan Parks, declined to comment about Remmers’ treatment of their children.
Experts say some religious professionals and groups can see repercussions no matter what they do - legal trouble for failing to uphold their legal responsibilities or being shunned by the church.
“There’s a real conflict when someone like Officer Bell is caught between her secular duty and religious commitment,” said USC Professor Diane Winston, who specializes in American evangelicalism and urban religion and has been following the case.
Sometimes, religious groups believe their church leader is delivering “God’s authority,” which takes precedence over society’s authority, Winston said.
Those professionals still have legal obligations, she said.
“In the United States the free exercise clause of the First Amendment gives us the right to believe anything we want but not to do anything we want, especially if we put others in harms’ way,” Winston said.
Kraus said that, in Remmers’ church, society’s laws were secondary.
“This church felt they were above the laws of the world, and that they were above having to answer to the police or social workers or to anyone,” Krauss said.
She said Remmers never planned to report allegations that the teenage boy had molested his sister.
“I remember Lonny (saying) … ‘We’re not going to let the police handle it. We’re going to handle it,’” Krauss said.
When Remmers spoke, it was like the Lord was speaking through him, she said, and church members listened.
“We don’t discuss anything with anybody outside the church. If there’s a problem, we go to him,” Larkey said, characterizing Remmers’ directive. “He would say because that’s the church, he’s the shepherd and we were his sheep, and everyone goes to him.”
Some members were financially, emotionally and socially dependent on Remmers and the church, creating additional dependence. Krauss said she didn’t seek outside help to avoid triggering Remmers’ temper.
“I wanted to do whatever I needed to please him and make him happy,” Krauss said.
That kind of fear is what experts say even well-educated, trained professionals, can’t always resist.
Moral Responsibility
Experts debate whether mandated reporters have a moral obligation 24 hours a day that surpasses the legal requirements that apply only while they’re working.
“It would turn your entire life into a mandated report,” if the law required mandated reporters to act on every instance of suspected abuse outside of their jobs, said Tom Lyon, a USC professor of law and psychology who specializes in the study of child abuse.
If mandated reporters are not at work when learning of suspected child abuse, they are like anyone else - they can report it but don’t have to, said Jan Costello, professor of child and family law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Some agencies require employees to report suspected abuse while off duty, Costello said. Corona Police Department is not one of them, Sgt. Kim Velasco said. Officers are expected to use their best ethical judgment, she said. “In my opinion, if you’re off duty, you do what’s right,” said Velasco, a 28-year law enforcement veteran.
At Ben Clark Training Center near Riverside, Sgt. Tony Hoxmeier said officers are not formally trained about off-duty situations, because the topic is not legally required.
“When the question is phrased, ‘What do I do off duty,’ it’s always instructed … ‘What do you think the right moral and ethical decision is?,’” Hoxmeier said.
Corona Fire Chief John Medina did not know he is not required to report child abuse he learns of while off duty. He considers himself “a fireman 24-7,” he said.
“I think most of us are cut from the same cloth,” Medina said. “That’s like driving by and not wanting to stop and help.”
An estimated 400 calls a month - some from mandated reporters - funnel into the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services hotline for child abuse, said Sylvia Deporto, assistant director of the children’s services division.
“To me, there’s no gray,” Deporto said. “It’s very black and white. If I see it happening, I need to report it.”
That moral tug led Larkey to report the suspected abuse a second time, to his boss, owner of Backwood’s BBQ and then-Corona Councilman Steve Nolan, triggering the case against Remmers.
If that had not worked, and he had been reprimanded by the church a second time for trying to report what he had seen and heard, Larkey planned to pack his bags.
“I was telling myself, if I got thrown under the bus (again), I was going to quit the church, my job and leave the area,” Larkey said.
He said he remains upset with Bell.
“She was somebody who was supposed to be trusted, as a friend, and police officer,” he said. “She would know what to do.”
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