Minister Denies Sex Charges, Quits Gardena Church

A Lutheran minister from Gardena, whose arrest on sex charges has shocked many in the church and community, pleaded not guilty this week to allegations that he seduced a teen-age girl in his parish by threatening her with the wrath of God.

“It’s all lies,” said Arleigh Eugene Cox, who resigned as pastor of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church earlier this month after 13 years heading the small congregation. Cox, who turns 60 today, also withdrew from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, ending his 35-year ministerial career.

“This is a tragedy for all persons involved,” said Bishop J. Roger Anderson, who presides over a five-county region including Los Angeles. “The church has concern for all suffering parties and is attempting to provide spiritual and emotional support.”

The 16-year-old Torrance girl, whose family was friendly with Cox for more than a decade and gave him access to their home, alleges in a court document that the pastor first made advances toward her several years ago when he would keep her after catechism class and tell her God did not want her to have boyfriends. In mid-1989, she said she began finding notes almost every day in her bedroom that were signed “P.C.,” Pastor Cox’s nickname at the church.

The notes, the girl alleged in an interview with a Gardena police detective, declared the pastor’s love and desire to have sex with her. She said he would frequently embrace her. Then last year, when she was 15, the notes became more threatening, with one saying that the girl would have an accident if she did not “obey God’s will and love the pastor,” according to the girl’s interviews, which police used to obtain a search warrant for Cox’s home and office.

In August, shortly after receiving the threat, the teen-ager was injured in an accident and became terrified. She went to Cox’s church office and, at the pastor’s urging, agreed to disrobe and pose for a Polaroid photograph, according to the court document. Then, she alleges, the pastor drove her to a secluded spot in his camper and had sex with her.

On several occasions from August to December, the girl alleges, she and the pastor had sexual relations in the camper. She also alleged that she had posed for nude photographs. After each encounter, the girl alleges, she would find $50 in a cookie can in her bedroom closet.

The girl’s mother had given Cox a garage door opener so he could check on the house while she was at work or on vacation, police said.

Cox’s arrest on Jan. 25 came several days after the girl spoke to a church counselor, who advised her to tell her mother, police said. The girl was taken to the Children’s Crisis Center at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and then interviewed by Gardena police. They arrested Cox after seizing at his home a Polaroid camera, some spermicidal jelly, a sexual lubricant, women’s panties and a copy of “My Secret Garden,” a book about women’s sexual fantasies. They found no nude Polaroid pictures of the teen-ager, according to the document.

Cox is married and has adult children.

After hearing her daughter’s allegations, the mother quit the church and demanded that Cox return the garage door opener, according to the court document.

Cox, interviewed Monday night at the front door of the church-owned house where he lives, vigorously denied the 14 separate sex charges against him and said there are reasons, which will come out in court, for the girl’s statements. Cox is free on $30,000 bail.

“I’ve had some tragedy in my life, but I have never had anything quite so shocking happen to me,” said Cox, who spoke calmly with both his hands behind his back. “This impinges on my integrity.”

Cox announced the allegations to the congregation at a church service two days after his arrest. Church officials said Cox submitted his resignation to the church council Feb. 3 but cited an adulterous relationship he had had years before with an adult woman as the reason.

After his arraignment Tuesday morning in South Bay Municipal Court, Cox was ordered to provide a handwriting sample so prosecutors could compare it with the notes. A preliminary hearing is set for March 19.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Geltz declined to discuss other evidence against Cox, but said the girl will testify in court.

The allegations against the veteran pastor, who is an active member of both the Kiwanis Club and city Beautification Committee, have hit the church hard and rippled through the community. The story has been on the front page of a local weekly and other local pastors have discussed it with their congregations.

Some at Cox’s former church, which has 45 active members, are strongly backing him, although others are waiting for the whole story to come out in court.

“We are not going to condemn or pass judgment on what has happened,” said Emmanuel Valdez, president of the church council. “We’re concentrating on what we have to do to get our little church back on track. We’re going through a healing process.”

Cox, who previously was pastor of churches in Long Beach and Salt Lake City, will receive his salary from St. John and use of the parsonage for three months after his resignation, Valdez said.

The Rev. Donald Ansland, of Loving Shepherd Lutheran Church in Gardena, has taken over duties at St. John, but Cox’s name remains on the sign out front, his voice was still on the answering machine at the church office Wednesday and the pastor has visited the church as recently as Monday.

Valdez said the church council did not endorse a letter sent out to church members earlier this month soliciting funds for Cox’s legal defense and for a farewell luncheon held Feb. 10. In the letter, three members of the congregation said they believe Cox is innocent of the charges.

Barbara Lacasella, the church secretary and one of those who signed the letter, said many people have donated for Cox’s defense.

“There is a lot of support,” she said.

Gardena Councilman James W. Cragin, a friend of Cox for about a decade and a fellow Rotary Club member, said he almost fell down when he heard of Cox’s arrest.

“I think those allegations, and that’s all they are, leave one in a state of shock,” he said.