Ex-Pastor Gets 38 Years in Sexual Abuse of Teen-Ager

A former Lutheran minister from Gardena has been sentenced to 38 years in prison for sexually abusing a 16-year-old parishioner, a term his defense attorney called “a death sentence.”

Arleigh Eugene Cox, 60, who has a heart condition, bowed his head during sentencing in Torrance Superior Court on Tuesday but made no comment. His wife, Carol, pleaded in vain with a bailiff for a chance to say goodby before Cox was handcuffed and led away.

“Just let me touch him, please,” she said, reaching out her hand. “I beg you, please.”

Before ordering Cox to serve the maximum sentence, Superior Court Judge William C. Beverly urged a crowd of more than 30 family friends and supporters “to meet the truth head-on in this case.”

“This defendant used his power of religious authority to perpetrate these crimes,” Beverly said. “He convinced her that God would punish her and her mother in severe and tragic ways if she did not continually comply with his sexual demands. . . . He has not demonstrated one iota of remorse for his actions.”

The developmentally disabled girl testified during the trial that Cox left her numerous notes to persuade her that it was God’s will that she have sex with him.

Cox resigned earlier this year from his 13-year ministry at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gardena. At the time, he said he was leaving his job because of an adulterous affair with a woman from the congregation.

Cox acknowledged during the trial that the affair was with the mother of the girl he was convicted of abusing. Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Geltz argued that the affair allowed Cox unusually easy access to the girl.

Defense attorney Dean Hall argued that the girl imagined the sexual encounters, which she said took place between August and December of 1990.

“Only one person has ever said anything bad about the man, and that’s the young lady in this case,” Hall said after Tuesday’s hearing. “There are only two people who know the truth, and neither of them got to sit on the jury.”

On Tuesday, Hall said a heart condition has kept Cox in the County Jail’s medical unit for most of the four weeks since his conviction. Cox underwent two open-heart surgeries about six years ago, his lawyer said.

“Hospital personnel cannot stabilize his heart rate. His blood pressure has soared to a critical level,” Hall told the judge before the sentence was pronounced. “This is being brought to the court’s attention to let the court know that any lengthy sentence will be a death sentence.”

The judge assured Hall that prisons have medical facilities to deal with ailments such as heart problems.

Afterward, Hall said Cox will be 79 before he becomes eligible for parole.

Supporters of Cox delivered more than 50 letters to the court, including one from Gardena City Councilman Mas Fukai and another from former Gardena Mayor Edmond J. Russ, urging leniency and praising the former pastor for his compassion.

“I can only testify to the goodness of the man,” said Bob Clough, a resident of Tustin, who met Cox through an Orange County prayer group formed in 1983 to help Clough recover from a neurological disease. “I have never known any wrong or malice to come from him.”

Instead of writing a letter, the young victim in the case spoke to the judge during the hearing, urging him to punish Cox severely.

“My life has changed a lot since this man abused me,” she said. “I’m scared of men. I avoid all of them, including my father. . . . I’m totally scared of having sex with a guy because I remember what it was like when I had sex with Pastor Cox.

“I should have the right to see this man go to jail for a long time.”

During the trial, the girl testified that she began finding notes in 1989 inside a cookie tin in her bedroom that told her God did not want her to have boyfriends and that God wanted her to have sex with “P.C.,” Pastor Cox’s nickname at the church.

In 1990, the notes became more threatening, she testified, with one saying that she would have an accident if she did not “obey God’s will and love the pastor.” The girl said she threw the notes away because she did not want her mother to know about them.

Shortly after receiving the note warning that she could have an accident, the girl was hurt slightly in a car crash. She became terrified and went to Cox’s church office, where she said he ordered her to disrobe and pose for photographs. Cox then took her to his camper, had sex with her and took more photographs of her, she said.

The encounters continued at least once a month until January, the girl said, when she found a photograph in a cookie tin. That photograph was of nine nude pictures of her that had been laid out on a table or floor. At that point, she decided to tell her mother what was going on.

Evidence at the trial included the girl’s diaries, which described the series of notes, and the photograph showing the naked poses.