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Pastor accused of dragging girl
behind his van
A trainer also faces charges in incident at boot camp
August 11, 2007
By Jeorge Zarazua
 Pastor
Charles Flowers A San Antonio pastor and an employee of his
Christian boot camp were arrested Friday on aggravated assault
charges, accused of dragging a girl behind a van after she failed to
keep up during a running exercise.
Investigators with the Nueces
County Sheriff's Office arrested Charles E. Flowers, 46, shortly
before noon at the Faith Outreach Center in northwest San Antonio,
said Brad E. Bailey, a spokesman for the Schertz Police Department.
Bailey said boot camp trainer
Stephanie Bassitt, 20, was later arrested without incident at her
home in Kirby.
Flowers and Bassitt each were being
held on $100,000 bail at the Nueces County Jail in Corpus Christi.
Girl alleges second assault
Authorities said both Flowers and Bassitt restrained the girl June
12, tying her to the back of a van with a piece of rope before
dragging her on her stomach at the Love Demonstrated Ministries'
boot camp in Banquete, about 10 miles west of Corpus Christi.
Schertz police assisted Nueces
County authorities in the arrests because the camp's orientation
sessions are held in Schertz, and the 15-year-old girl claimed she
was assaulted there, too.
Bailey said the second assault
claim was turned over to the Comal County district attorney's
office, which hasn't said if any criminal charges will result.
He said the assault described as
having occurred in Schertz isn't as severe as the dragging claim out
of Nueces County.
"Obviously force was used, but the
big question is whether or not it exceeded the force permitted by
the parents," Bailey said, adding camp officials said they had
permission slips from parents that allowed them to discipline their
children.
Flowers declined to comment on the
allegations Friday, evading reporters outside the offices of the
Faith Outreach Center.
Scrapes and bruises Authorities
interviewed on Friday could not say how far the teenager was
allegedly dragged. Her mother complained to authorities after boot
camp personnel took her daughter to get treated for scrapes and
bruises on her stomach, legs and arms.
Flowers, a retired U.S. Air Force
instructor, holds the title of commandant of the boot camp he has
operated with his wife, Janice, since the mid-1990s, states the
camp's Web site.
The camp was created to "reinstill
the values that have been lost in our society for a couple of
generations, values such as discipline, morality, unity and
integrity."
Exempt from regulation Last year,
Love Demonstrated Ministries reported private and government
contributions totaling $314,673 to operate the boot camp, with
nearly 89 percent of the costs, $278,549, going for salaries.
Associate pastors at the Faith
Outreach Center couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for
the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said it
"appeared that this operation is probably exempt from our
regulation."
He said for a camp to be licensed,
it needed to operate longer than 11 weeks.
The camp in Nueces County only
lasts 32 days.
jzarazua@express-news.net
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