The State : TV Preacher Is Inquiry Target

Irvine police said they are investigating allegations that TV evangelist Richard Hogue may have misappropriated church money while pastor of Metrochurch, the Irvine church he quit abruptly last week on the eve of its first anniversary. Former members said his resignation probably spells the end of the charismatic, nondenominational Pentecostal church, whose membership peaked at 1,400 last summer. Efforts to reach Hogue were unsuccessful. Nearly a year after moving to Orange County from Edmond, Okla., where he had founded a similar Metrochurch and reportedly had been enmeshed in debt and financial worries, Hogue, 41, has come under legal attacks. Former church members June and David Muehlberger of Palm Springs filed suit against the church and Hogue in Orange County Superior Court last December. They alleged that he repaid just $2,000 of a $126,000 personal loan they gave him to buy church pews.