A 79-year-old California pastor has been arrested for multiple sexual crimes against a minor, according to a press release Tuesday from Riverside County Sheriff’s office.
David Lee Helbling, a pastor at The Blessing Center First Assembly of God in Moreno Valley, California, allegedly sexually assaulted a minor, police said. He is currently in custody at Robert Presley Detention Center with his bail set at $2 million.
According to court records, Helbling faces multiple charges, including committing a lewd act with a child under 14 with force, engaging oral copulation/sexual penetration with a child under 10, committing three or more lewd acts with a child under 14, and kidnapping a child under 14.
Police first learned of the allegations against Helbing while investigating reports of a past sexual assault of a minor at a property on the 23000 block of Hemlock Avenue in Moreno Valley, the sheriff’s office said.
After a two-week investigation, police then served a search warrant at the property and “evidence related to the crime was collected,” according to the press release. Helbing was taken into custody on Feb. 14.
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The pastor is scheduled for arraignment on March 1, according to court records. He has no prior criminal history in Riverside County, the records show.
Moreno Valley Sheriff’s Station investigators noted that the investigation is ongoing and believe there may be additional victims. Police are asking anyone with additional information to contact Investigator Andrew McCracken at 951-486-6710.
Several videos of sermons in 2020 and 2022 at The Blessing Center show Helbing preaching or leading prayer, according to the church’s Facebook page.
The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to the church by phone and email for comment on Helbling but did not hear back prior to publication.
The church seeks to serve God and minister to the Southern California area, according to a First Assembly of God church directory.
Freelance journalist Liz Lykins writes for WORLD Magazine, Christianity Today, Ministry Watch, and other publications.
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5 Responses
Wow, his age surprises me. But, I guess sexual abusers don’t necessarily retire.
May the Lord God protect us against Christians, or rather those that masquerade behind the false façade of their particular twisted version of Christianity, which sometimes only has a slight resemblance to what is actually said in the Bible. I have made it a practice to keep anybody who identifies as a Christian at arms length and I especially keep children very far from them.
Mr.Jacobs,
The key element in your observation is the first person pronoun “I”. That states that you own yourself, your observations, your reactions, and your accountability for/to those who depend on you or for whom you are an example or mentor. You are also willing to own the cost of owning all those aforementioned commitments. At times that is a costly choice. The hard news in these scenarios is that we are all owned by someone or something. The harder news, often assiduously avoided, is that many who do not own themselves and their action/choices, are in fact owned by the person/relationship/tradition, etc. that, by their own estimation, makes it too costly to step up and own themselves. TNSTAAFL*
*There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
I would submit perpetrating abuse of any kind is not about age. It is about:
-opportunity,
-the abuser’s behavioral propensities (whether related to personal boundaries, purported personal “needs”, power, revenge, control, their own past, yadda, yadda, yadda),
-the availability of potential victims,
-the potential for not being detected or called out,
-whether those in a position to intervene, report, or protect the potential victim know what to look for,
-and perhaps the most difficult, the willingness of others to do something or say something if/when they see something.
That last step will usually require upsetting a constituency network upon which all members depend for valued relationships. Raising questions may put those relationships at risk. Please don’t sit and say nothing because of the personal cost of saying something. Very few of these things happen where someone does/did not know. If one knows and says nothing, why should they not be considered an accomplice of the abuser? Is this easy? Never. There will likely always be a cost for doing something. There’s also a cost for doing nothing. The difference is found in who pays.
i just tired of alllof this, we wonder why people are leaving the church, maybe report on pastors and leaders that are doing the gos[el not sinning and whos heart is for his or her congregation, a great video is jim cybala story on you tube a pastor in need of jesus excellent video