Warnock allegedly 'extremely uncooperative' during 2002 child-abuse investigation, police records show

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Georgia Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock allegedly disrupted a police investigation into child abuse at a church-affiliated summer camp, according to state police records obtained by a local newspaper. 

Warnock was ‘extremely uncooperative and disruptive’ of the 2002 investigation, and he demanded that the camp's attorneys should be present when police were interviewing the counselors interviewing with police have the camp’s attorneys present, even though the counselors could only request a lawyer for themselves and Warnock could not do so on their behalf. At the time, Warnock was senior pastor of the church that operated the camp.  

The records were obtained by the Free Beacon.

Warnock is running against Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a runoff for one of Georgia’s two Senate seats up for election this year. 

Warnock claimed Loeffler was “a liar” when she said he was arrested for obstructing a probe into child abuse.

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I was "working at trying to make sure that young people who were being questioned by law enforcement had the benefit of counsel, a lawyer or a parent,” Warnock said. “The law enforcement officers actually later thanked me for my cooperation and for helping them.”

"This is yet another one of Senator Loeffler’s lowest of the low attacks that independent fact checkers have said is 'mostly false.' The 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 praised him for his help in this investigation," Michael Brewer, the Warnock campaign's rapid response director, told Fox News. 

The names in the 2002 police record have been redacted, but the reports line up with news articles about the incident, which led to Warnock’s arrest. The unidentified pair of ministers, who the criminal complaint was filed against, are only referred to as “the reverends.” 

Charges were later dropped, at a prosecutor's request, who blamed "miscommunication." 

On July 31, 2002 investigators showed up to Camp Farthest Out in Eldersberg, Md. Police reports detailed how the two unidentified reverends allegedly disrupted interviews: "This investigator informed [camp administrators] that if the counselors requested that an attorney be present that was their right, however, no one else could [invoke] their rights to an attorney on their behalf," the report reads.

A 2002 Baltimore Sun report detailed the arrest of Warnock and his colleague Rev. Mark Andre Wright after they were charged with obstructing a police investigation at Camp Farthest Out. 

 A state trooper assigned to the case said neither of the clergymen were suspected of being involved in the original criminal matter that brought the police to the camp.

The officer would not describe the nature of the abuse, but Warnock later said it was not sexual and refused to comment further. 

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As police conducted interviews for the investigation, the reverends provided them with a private room to talk with counselors. They asked if they could be present for the interviews and were denied. As the second counselor was taken into the private office, one of the reverends argued with the investigators, asking if it was against the law for him to be present as the counselor was only 17. One of the reverends told the officers he wouldn’t allow use of the camp’s private room for investigations anymore and the investigator began to conduct interviews outside. 

"I've never encountered resistance like that at all," Trooper Diane Barry of the state police Child and Sexual Assault Unit in Westminster told The Sun. She said the counselors consented to the interviews after being told they were free to walk away at any time. 

An officer then informed the reverends they were hindering the investigation and if they interfered in any more interviews, they could be arrested. The reverends questioned why the investigator was threatening them. 

The reverends approached the investigator again, saying they’d spoken to their attorney who advised them to sit in on the interview. 

After that the investigator began to look for the two counselors. As the investigator spoke with counselors, a camper approached and said, “You’re talking to the wrong guy. You want…”

Before the camper could finish the sentence one of the unidentified reverends grabbed him by the arm and instructed him to not talk to investigators. 

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Both reverends were then arrested, but a judge ultimately dropped the charges. Deputy State’s Attorney Tracy A. Gilmore blamed ‘some miscommunication’ between authorities and the ministers when Warnock was arrested. 

"They were very helpful with the continued investigation," Gilmore told The Sun.