Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991 TAG: 9102210570
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Philip Randall Thomas, 58, who resigned as pastor of King's Memorial Church the day after the alleged incident occurred, said the two members who said they witnessed the offenses "set me up so that they could take the church from me."
Thomas took the witness stand in the second day of testimony in Roanoke County Circuit Court. He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison for one count of aggravated sexual battery and one count of taking indecent liberties with a child under the age of 14.
Defense attorney Pat Doherty said Wednesday that the charges arose from a rift within the church, in which some members wanted to engage a new pastor and others wanted to keep Thomas.
Bobby Thurman, one of the witnesses who testified that he saw Thomas fondle the child, now is pastor of the church.
Doherty called several former church members as defense witnesses. They testified that they left the church after having problems with Thurman's sister-in-law, Judy Ralph, the other witness who said she saw the offenses.
Defense witnesses said Thomas had a good reputation in the community and that they trusted him with their children.
Thurman testified Wednesday that he and his wife went for a walk the night of Nov. 3 and stopped by Thomas' house - two doors from their home on Cleveland Avenue. Thurman said he went to the door, looked through a window next to the door and saw Thomas rubbing the child's legs.
He said he asked his wife to look through the window, but she refused. So, he said, they called Ralph, who drove from her Vinton home and joined him for another look at the window about 10 minutes later.
That time, Thurman said, he watched Thomas rub the girl's stomach as the two sat on Thomas's living room sofa.
Ralph testified that she saw Thomas fondle the girl and heard him tell her to fondle him.
Ralph said she told Thurman "we've got to do something to get her out of there or he's going to rape her."
The two returned to Thurman's home and Thurman's wife, Dot, called Thomas on the telephone.
Dot Thurman testified that she told Thomas, "Don't do it, do you understand me?" and suggested he take the child home to her parents, also members of the church.
A few minutes later, the Thurmans and Ralph watched Thomas and the child leave the home, they said.
Thomas admitted today on the stand that he might have rubbed the child's leg in his home that night, but said he couldn't remember doing so. He said he had not molested her and that she had not touched him sexually.
Thomas said the girl had asked to wear one of his shirts, and was wearing it as a dress, with panties. Thurman and Ralph had identified the shirt as the one they had seen the girl wearing. But Thomas said they probably saw the girl outside that evening wearing the shirt before she changed back into her own clothes to go home.
The husband of a church member reported the incident to Vinton police the night of Nov. 4.
by CNB