Posted on 01/04/2006 4:32:56 PM PST by apoc
Tulsa Pastor Arrested In OKC On Lewdness Charge
OKLAHOMA CITY -- An executive committee member of the Southern Baptist Convention was arrested on a lewdness charge for propositioning a plainclothes policeman outside a hotel, police said.
Lonnie Latham, senior pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church, was booked into Oklahoma County Jail Tuesday night on a misdemeanor charge of offering to engage in an act of lewdness, police Capt. Jeffrey Becker said. Latham was released on $500 bail Wednesday afternoon.
Latham, who has spoken out against homosexuality, asked the officer to join him in his hotel room for oral sex. Latham was arrested and his 2005 Mercedes automobile was impounded, Becker said.
Calls to Latham at his church were not immediately returned Wednesday.
When he left jail, he told Oklahoma City television station KFOR:
"I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police."
The arrest took place in the parking lot of the Habana Inn, which is in an area where the public has complained about male prostitutes flagging down cars, Becker said. The plainclothes officers was investigating these complaints.
The lewdness charge carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Latham is one of four Southern Baptist Convention executive committee members from Oklahoma.
He spoke out last year against a measure, ultimately approved by voters, to expand tribal gaming.
He has also spoken out against same-sex marriage and in support of a Southern Baptist Convention directive urging its 42,000 churches to befriend gays and lesbians and try to convince them that they can become heterosexual "if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their 'sinful, destructive lifestyle."'
The Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
And here's the website for that church:
http://www.southtulsabaptist.org/
Impounded or confiscated? I'm not defending this Sky Pilot, but if the Tulsa PD can get to seize and keep cars for "undercover use" from offenses like this, that is a real temptation for a set up with false charges or planted evidence.
It wouldn't be the first time it's happened.
Pastoring???
Yeah, and oral sex isn't really sex doncha know?
"Yep. I wonder how/why they impounded his car. Since it was in a parking lot it doesn't sound like he was using the car in the commission of a crime."
I have no idea.
If he was set up, I hope his name is cleared.
If he did it, he knew very well what he was doing, and he needs to confess it and repent...not claim to be "pastoring". The "help" he needs can only come after that.
My guess would be - some jurisdictions fight prostitution not only by arresting the "john" but by taking his car away from him, since that's what he went cruising in for the purpose of finding a hooker. That might be what happened here.
Homophobia is a term pushed by homosexual activists or those that are morally devoid and or ignorant...
Are we to always believe the police because they are never corrupt and Southern Babtist pastors are known to lie?
Are we to always disbelieve the police because they are always corrupt and Southern Baptist pastors are known to never lie?
How does someone get "set up" when HE's the one asking another male to visit his happy place?
Latham didn't deny he made the request. He wants us to believe he somehow was manipulated into asking for something he wouldn't ordinarily ask for.
As an update:
From http://www.channeloklahoma.com/news/5872642/detail.html
SBC Has No Plans To Remove Pastor
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Southern Baptist Convention said Thursday it does not plan to remove a reverend from the convention's executive committee after he was arrested on charges of offering to engage in an act of lewdness.
Rev. Lonnie Latham, 59, senior pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church and a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee, was arrested Tuesday on an allegation that he propositioned a plainclothes police officer outside a hotel. He is accused of asking the officer to join him in his hotel room for oral sex, said police Capt. Jeffrey Becker.
"Typically when there's a moral failure of this sort, there's a voluntary resignation," Kenyn Cureton, vice president for convention relations, said Thursday. "If the charges are true, this is tragic news. I hope it's not true. But it doesn't look good, obviously. Certainly he and his church family are in our prayers."
Latham has supported a convention directive urging members to befriend gays and lesbians and try to convince them that they can become heterosexual "if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their 'sinful, destructive lifestyle."'
When he left Oklahoma County Jail Wednesday, he said he was pastoring to police when he was arrested and that he had been "set up."
The Nashville, Tenn.-based Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
The lewdness charge carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Apparently Latham has a history of "pastoring" in the area of the Habanna Inn, the "Southwest's largest gay resort". Public records show that on December 2, 1998, at about 11:30pm, Latham was issued a traffic ticket for "failure to stop for a stop sign" at NW 39th and Frankford. This intersection is only blocks from where Latham was arrested and serves as rear access (no pun intended) to the Habanna Inn.
How did he know the cop was a cop, when he was undercover and posing as a prostitute? The pastor is full of ****, he tried to pay for a lewinsky from a man and got busted and now he's in panic CYA mode.
The story doesn't even begin to pass the smell test.
According to their website, they're "TOUCHING the heart of South Tulsa"
No, there was no money offered or involved. It's a crime there, in a public place, to ask anyone to have sex with you, even if the sex is to be had in your bedroom with no coercion or money involved. Interesting.
Thx, Sweet.
MM
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