Creflo Dollar out on bail after alleged assault of daughter

Creflo Dollar was arrested on Friday over the alleged assault and battery of his 15-year-old daughter.

Dollar is the founder of World Changers Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and pastor of over 36,000 churchgoers

He was charged with battery after his attempt to discipline his child allegedly spun out of control in his Georgia home.

Dollar's attorney, Nikki Bonner, told the Christian Post his client is innocent until proven guilty.

"I think anyone who gets arrested doesn't believe they deserve to be arrested," he said.

Creflo Dollar's two daughters allege that their father physically choked, punched, and wrestled the 15-year-old to the ground.

Fayette County authorities responded to the domestic dispute at around 1am.

However, Dollar's own statement to police differs from his daughters' accounts. The 50-year-old minister claims he was simply disciplining and spanking the girl.

All the accounts of what happened on Thursday night at the Dollar home recall the beginning of the altercation in the same way, that Dollar had denied his 15-year-old daughter's request to go to a party. She became upset, and after that, accounts differ significantly.

Dollar's daughter claims that she was abused. After she told her father she didn't want to "talk right now" about his decision to ban her from the party, she claims he became violent, Fayette County spokesman Brent Rowan told TheCitizen.com.

Dollar "slammed her to the ground and began punching her and took his shoe off and started whooping her with it," investigators' reports read. Corroborating her story was a scratch on the girl's neck.

However, Pastor Dollar's account of the story left out many of the more violent elements. He told authorities that he restrained her, then wrestled her to the ground, spanking her on her buttocks and thighs. The middle-aged man also told police that his daughter struck him back, which is how the two ended up on the ground.

Dollar's older daughter reported to police that Dollar slapped his daughter, choked her briefly, then wrestled her to the ground- at that point, the witness went to get her mother, Taffy, to help. The 15-year-old called 911 soon after.

The pastor was charged on simple battery-family violence and cruelty to children at about 2am on Friday morning. He was released from Fayette County Jail on $5,000 bail.

No court date has been set, said Bonner. Georgia Judge Carla Wong McMillian will most likely preside in the court appearance.

News
Fear and silence grip Colombian hamlet after eight Christians vanish
Fear and silence grip Colombian hamlet after eight Christians vanish

A Colombian hamlet is gripped by fear following the forced disappearance of eight residents - seven of them Protestant church leaders and members - after responding to orders issued by a guerrilla group earlier this month.

A decade of bloodshed: NGO report reveals more than 20,000 Christians slain in south-east Nigeria
A decade of bloodshed: NGO report reveals more than 20,000 Christians slain in south-east Nigeria

More than 20,000 Christians have reportedly been brutally killed over the past decade across south-east Nigeria, according to a disturbing report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a Catholic-inspired human rights organisation.

Cardiff Council refuses to remove logo from church advertisements
Cardiff Council refuses to remove logo from church advertisements

In a surprising move, Cardiff Council has refused to give in to demands from humanists to remove its logo from adverts across the city encouraging people to go to church this Easter. 

Plea to meet MPs ahead of assisted suicide vote
Plea to meet MPs ahead of assisted suicide vote

If just 23 MPs change their mind, the Bill will fall.