Details Released on Temecula Pastor Accused of Rape

An assistant pastor of a Temecula church accused of raping a teen choirgirl repeatedly picked her up from school and took her to his apartment, according to documents released today.

Joseph Jermaine Spencer, 26, turned himself into San Bernardino law enforcement Thursday.

He was booked into the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on suspicion of rape by force or fear, oral copulation with a person younger than 18, sex with a minor three or more years younger and penetration with a foreign object.

He was held on $50,000 bail, according to police and jail records.

He was accused of raping a 16-year-old member of the choir he directed at .

The incident happened on Monday at Spencer’s apartment in the 33000 block of Mapleton Avenue in Murrieta, according to Murrieta police Officer Matthew Haddad.

Spencer picked up the victim from her school after her parents dropped her off and took her back to his apartment, Haddad wrote in a declaration supporting the arrest.

The two were lying on a bed watching television when Spencer started kissing the girl’s neck. He then started to undress her and kiss her body. She asked him to stop, but he continued, according to Haddad.

The man performed several sex acts on her as she told him to stop. He finally complied when she told him he was hurting her, Haddad wrote. “The victim was crying,” Haddad wrote in the declaration. “She told Spencer she wanted to leave.”

He took the girl back to school, and she reported what happened to her counselor, the record states.

Criminal history

The girl had been to the man’s apartment five times previously, and she reported he inappropriately touched her during one of those visits, according to Murrieta police Sgt. Julie Hoxmeier.

Spencer was on probation for a previous sex-crime conviction. He was convicted in 2008 of unlawful intercourse with a victim younger than 16 years. A second charge of penetration with a foreign object was dropped as part of a plea agreement, according to San Bernardino County court records.

The terms of his probation bar him from being around minors unsupervised, police officials said. His job as choir director had him working with 40-50 minors.

The case never went to trial, but Spencer was sentenced to four years of probation and 180 days of jail time. When he failed to report to the Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center in 2009 to serve the time, he was sentenced to 240 days, court records show.

His name was absent from the state’s sex offender database.

Messages to Mountain View Community Church went unreturned today. The church’s website had a profile featuring photos and a biography of Spencer, but it was erased today.

Police ask anyone with information about the incident call Detective Matt Haddad at 951-461-6367.