Fugitive Reverend Gets Day in Court

The central figure in a controversial case of child abuse in church is expected in court Monday.

Reverend Arthur Allen, of the House of Prayer church, is due in DeKalb County court for an alleged violation of his parole. Police caught up with the elusive Allen a week ago when an officer sought to arrest him for a parking violation.

U.S. Park Rangers found Allen, his wife and their eight children on Sope Creek Road near Johnson Ferry Road.

Lt. Clarence Huber said, “Earlier this evening, we received word from the U.S. Park Rangers that Reverend Allen was picked up in North Fulton County at Johnson Ferry and Sope Creek Road. We discovered that he was illegally parked in that area.”

“The officer approached him. They came to recognize him as being Arthur Allen, they went back and they did check to make sure it was in fact him, that he was wanted and he was taken into custody,” Lt. Huber said.

Authorities allowed Rev. Allen’s wife to leave with their children.

A DeKalb County judge convicted Allen, along with two of his parishioners, Sharon Duncan and David Duncan, last January on charges of aggravated assault and cruelty to children. The charges stemmed from the whipping of two boys in front of the House of Prayer congregation in 2001.

Allen and the Duncans — who are married and parents of one of the boys in the whipping incident — were declared fugitives last March when they failed to show up for a scheduled hearing. Authorities reported that the Allens and the Duncans had taken off with their children.

It was not made known if the Duncans were also taken into custody at the time of Allen’s arrest.

Allen had already completed serving a previous 90-day jail sentence.

If convicted of probation violations, Allen could face up to 10 years in prison. David Duncan could face eight years and Sharon Duncan could face up to five.

Read Another Article

Some former victims of defrocked Boston Catholic priest disappointed by his death
Evangelicals poised to take over the Church

Related News Articles Topic(s): House of Prayer Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates Subscribe to Religion News Blog [What is this?] Get Religion News Blog's headline by Email [What is this?] Follow Religion News Blog at Twitter Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults: ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs. CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support. Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com House of Prayer Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles Kent Hovind: Evangelist arrested on federal charges Beast’s real mark devalued to ’616′ Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam Kent Hovind, ‘Dr. Dino,’ guilty on all counts The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson Search False prophet Harold Camping sets another date for rapture: May 21, 2011 Watch the film Theo van Gogh was murdered for Kent Hovind — Dr. Dino — sentenced to 10 years in prison

Search Religion News Blog