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Church official accused of rape
Music director held in 3 city incidents involving girl, 12
February 9, 2008
The 31-year-old music director of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal, an
influential West Baltimore church, was in jail yesterday on charges that he
raped and abused a 12-year-old female parishioner during three encounters,
city police and church officials said.
Timothy D. Price III of Owings Mills has been held in lieu of $1 million
bail at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center since he was arrested
Wednesday, according to court records. He was charged with second-degree
rape, assault, child abuse and multiple sex offenses.
"For everybody involved, it is a great tragedy," said the Rev. Frank M. Reid
III, the church's pastor. "He had a good reputation, as far as I was aware.
.... The people loved him."
Price and the girl had sexual encounters on three occasions in his car
between early November and January, according to police charging documents.
The meetings were all off church property, two in a West Baltimore alley and
one in a parking lot near Druid Hill Park, the documents say.
The encounters occurred after Price obtained permission from the girl's
mother to take her to an outreach center and home from church Bible study
and a dance class, the documents say.
Price confessed to having sex with the girl, who is now 13, according to the
charging documents.
Bethel AME Church has more than 17,000 registered members and a national
reputation. Many of those who attend services on Druid Hill Avenue in Upton
commute from surrounding counties.
A number of the city's top leaders, including Mayor Sheila Dixon and
Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, are Bethel members. Former Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke
is Reid's stepbrother, and Sunday services are frequent stops for candidates
for city and statewide office.
In an interview yesterday, Reid called Price's arrest "a real shock."
He said his church had not received any prior written or oral complaints
about Price, whose full-time job was leading musical programs at the church.
"It's a great tragedy for the child and the child's family," Reid said.
The last time he saw Price was during services this week for Ash Wednesday,
Reid said. Later that day, he said, he got a phone call from someone who
said Price had been arrested.
Reid said Price was hired in 2006 after the church went through a national
recruitment process for a new music director. He said Price's references
were checked and that he came from a church in Houston. He has a wife and a
1-year-old daughter, Reid said.
"It's a very important and responsible position," Reid said. "He is in
contact with all members of the church because of the position he's in."
According to the charging documents, the girl admitted to her mother in
January that she had had sex with Price on three occasions. In interviews
with detectives, the girl said she began communicating with Price through
text messages and cellular phone calls in June or July, police said.
The girl also described keeping a written journal in which she described her
encounters with Price in detail, the documents say. Two encounters occurred
in an alley in the 300 block of Laurens St. and the other in a parking lot
near Druid Hill Park, the documents say.
Before all three encounters, Price asked permission from the girl's mother
to take her from the church to her home or to a nearby outreach center, the
documents say.
When he confessed to police, he said he wanted to call the girl's mother and
tell her what happened, "but he did not know how," the documents say.
Price was being represented by the public defender's office, which declined
to comment yesterday. A message left on his home phone was not returned.
Price, who lives in the 10800 block of Sherwood Hill Road, is scheduled to
appear in court for a preliminary hearing March 4, court records show.
Before coming to Baltimore in 2006, Price spent three years with Harvest
Time Church in Houston, where he was director of the fine-arts ministry.
In 2005, he and the founder of the church, Bishop Shelton Bady, released The
Voices of Harvest, a compact disc billed as music for "contemporary worship
and urban church."
A short biographical sketch about Price on a Web site that sells the CD
describes him as a "sought out" and "influential" man who has been "chosen
to change the face of evangelism."
"Be on the lookout for this man as he Wins Souls, Meet Needs, Heal Hurts,
and Birth Visions for the glory of God!" the Web site says.
Bady and other officials with his church could not be reached for comment.
When Bethel AME was looking for a new music director, Reid said, Price
emerged as the "best candidate."
He took over the church's music and arts ministry and, in October, led a
church choir in a gospel music competition at Morgan State University that
was sponsored by UniSun, an African-American lifestyle publication of The
Sun. The Bethel AME Church Outreach of Love Choir won.
Price was among several choir directors who spoke during a
question-and-answer session with people who attended the gospel celebration
at Morgan's Murphy Fine Arts Center. He said he had been involved with music
and ministry for 25 years, nearly "all my life."
"This is how I live," he said during the event, which The Sun videotaped.
"This is why I live. I believe it is to touch the lives, the hearts of
people, and to bring them back to the heart of God."
Church official accused of rape
Music director held in 3 city incidents involving girl, 12
February 9, 2008
The 31-year-old music director of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal, an
influential West Baltimore church, was in jail yesterday on charges that he
raped and abused a 12-year-old female parishioner during three encounters,
city police and church officials said.
Timothy D. Price III of Owings Mills has been held in lieu of $1 million
bail at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center since he was arrested
Wednesday, according to court records. He was charged with second-degree
rape, assault, child abuse and multiple sex offenses.
"For everybody involved, it is a great tragedy," said the Rev. Frank M. Reid
III, the church's pastor. "He had a good reputation, as far as I was aware.
.... The people loved him."
Price and the girl had sexual encounters on three occasions in his car
between early November and January, according to police charging documents.
The meetings were all off church property, two in a West Baltimore alley and
one in a parking lot near Druid Hill Park, the documents say.
The encounters occurred after Price obtained permission from the girl's
mother to take her to an outreach center and home from church Bible study
and a dance class, the documents say.
Price confessed to having sex with the girl, who is now 13, according to the
charging documents.
Bethel AME Church has more than 17,000 registered members and a national
reputation. Many of those who attend services on Druid Hill Avenue in Upton
commute from surrounding counties.
A number of the city's top leaders, including Mayor Sheila Dixon and
Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, are Bethel members. Former Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke
is Reid's stepbrother, and Sunday services are frequent stops for candidates
for city and statewide office.
In an interview yesterday, Reid called Price's arrest "a real shock."
He said his church had not received any prior written or oral complaints
about Price, whose full-time job was leading musical programs at the church.
"It's a great tragedy for the child and the child's family," Reid said.
The last time he saw Price was during services this week for Ash Wednesday,
Reid said. Later that day, he said, he got a phone call from someone who
said Price had been arrested.
Reid said Price was hired in 2006 after the church went through a national
recruitment process for a new music director. He said Price's references
were checked and that he came from a church in Houston. He has a wife and a
1-year-old daughter, Reid said.
"It's a very important and responsible position," Reid said. "He is in
contact with all members of the church because of the position he's in."
According to the charging documents, the girl admitted to her mother in
January that she had had sex with Price on three occasions. In interviews
with detectives, the girl said she began communicating with Price through
text messages and cellular phone calls in June or July, police said.
The girl also described keeping a written journal in which she described her
encounters with Price in detail, the documents say. Two encounters occurred
in an alley in the 300 block of Laurens St. and the other in a parking lot
near Druid Hill Park, the documents say.
Before all three encounters, Price asked permission from the girl's mother
to take her from the church to her home or to a nearby outreach center, the
documents say.
When he confessed to police, he said he wanted to call the girl's mother and
tell her what happened, "but he did not know how," the documents say.
Price was being represented by the public defender's office, which declined
to comment yesterday. A message left on his home phone was not returned.
Price, who lives in the 10800 block of Sherwood Hill Road, is scheduled to
appear in court for a preliminary hearing March 4, court records show.
Before coming to Baltimore in 2006, Price spent three years with Harvest
Time Church in Houston, where he was director of the fine-arts ministry.
In 2005, he and the founder of the church, Bishop Shelton Bady, released The
Voices of Harvest, a compact disc billed as music for "contemporary worship
and urban church."
A short biographical sketch about Price on a Web site that sells the CD
describes him as a "sought out" and "influential" man who has been "chosen
to change the face of evangelism."
"Be on the lookout for this man as he Wins Souls, Meet Needs, Heal Hurts,
and Birth Visions for the glory of God!" the Web site says.
Bady and other officials with his church could not be reached for comment.
When Bethel AME was looking for a new music director, Reid said, Price
emerged as the "best candidate."
He took over the church's music and arts ministry and, in October, led a
church choir in a gospel music competition at Morgan State University that
was sponsored by UniSun, an African-American lifestyle publication of The
Sun. The Bethel AME Church Outreach of Love Choir won.
Price was among several choir directors who spoke during a
question-and-answer session with people who attended the gospel celebration
at Morgan's Murphy Fine Arts Center. He said he had been involved with music
and ministry for 25 years, nearly "all my life."
"This is how I live," he said during the event, which The Sun videotaped.
"This is why I live. I believe it is to touch the lives, the hearts of
people, and to bring them back to the heart of God."
