Georgia Dem Candidate Was Arrested for Allegedly Obstructing Abuse Investigation at Church Camp
In the runup to the Georgia Senate runoffs in January, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s campaign has raised questions about Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock’s arrest for allegedly obstructing a police investigation into alleged child abuse in Maryland.
In 2002, Warnock was a senior pastor of the Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore and was accused of trying to prevent a state trooper from interviewing counselors at the church’s Camp Farthest Our in Eldersburg, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reported at the time.
He was not a suspect in the child abuse investigation, but he and another minister, Mark Wainwright, had allegedly interfered with authorities conducting interviews with potential witnesses.
The ministers were arrested and charged, but Warnock denied any wrongdoing.
“Reverend Wainwright and I acted well within the framework of the law, and I am confident that we will be exonerated. It’s just unfortunate that our children had to see their pastors carried away in handcuffs,” he said at the time.
“My concern simply had to do with the presence of counsel. We cooperated fully with their investigation. We have nothing to hide.”
The charges were dropped a few months later, and a prosecutor said the arrest came after “some miscommunication,” Fox News reported.
A spokesman for Loeffler called the allegation from the case “disgusting” and asked for Warnock to address it.
“What exactly was going on there?” Stephen Lawson asked.
“What was the nature of the child abuse? What was his involvement? If he wants Georgia voters to believe anything he says, he needs to come clean and explain what happened.”
Warnock’s campaign responded to the resurfaced charge by saying it was not surprising that “false attacks” had started.
“It’s no surprise that as Reverend Warnock’s support grows, the false attacks start,” a campaign representative told Fox News.
“Thus truth is, he was protecting the rights of young people to make sure they had a lawyer or a parent when being questioned. Law enforcement officials later apologized and praised him for his help in this investigation.”
Warnock is also being criticized for his role at a church that hosted former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, the Washington Examiner reported.
His campaign has said Warnock was a junior member of the church staff at the time of the 1995 event, during which the congregation reportedly chanted, “Fidel! Fidel! Fidel!”
“Twenty-five years ago, Reverend Warnock was a youth pastor and was not involved in any decisions at that time,” a representative of the Warnock campaign said.
The Democrat also has come under fire for naming as his “mentor” James Hal Cone, who wrote, “The goal of black theology is the destruction of everything white, so that blacks can be liberated from alien gods.”
The Jan. 5 runoff election between Warnock and Loeffler will be crucial to determining which political party will have control of the Senate.
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