Ex-Minister Arrested in Murder Try : Crime: He is taken into custody at a Los Angeles church after being indicted in Texas on charges of attempting to kill his wife in 1987. She has been comatose since.

A once-prominent Texas minister whose wife was choked and left for dead in 1987 was arrested Tuesday at the Los Angeles church where he serves as an executive after being indicted by a Dallas grand jury on charges of attempted murder.

Walker Railey, 45, was arrested by Los Angeles police, accompanied by an officer from Dallas, in his offices at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in the Mid-Wilshire district, authorities said.

Officers led the ex-minister out of the church in handcuffs shortly after 3 p.m.

“It’s just so sad, there are no words,” said a female church member, fighting back tears.

Railey was being held without bail Tuesday night, police said. An extradition hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. today.

Margaret (Peggy) Railey, 43, was choked senseless and left for dead at the couple’s home on April 21, 1987, in a crime that shocked Dallas religious circles and is still among the most talked about scandals in the city’s recent history.

She remains comatose in a persistent vegetative state in an East Texas nursing home, authorities said.

As the former senior pastor of the 6,000-member First United Methodist Church of Dallas, Walker Railey was also regarded as among Dallas’ emerging civic leaders before the attack. He has long been considered by Texas authorities as a prime suspect in the case. But no charges had been filed against him before Tuesday.

“He must be held accountable for this,” Dallas County Assistant Dist. Atty. Cecil Emerson told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s time for Walker to come home.”

Railey voluntarily stepped down as pastor of the Dallas church that he headed for seven years and gave up his religious credentials after the incident. He has always maintained that he found his wife on the floor of the couple’s garage after returning home from a night of research at a nearby library.

In the months following the attack, Railey divorced his comatose wife and gave up custody of their children, Ryan, 10, and Megan, 7. He then moved to California with the daughter of the man he succeeded as senior pastor of one of Dallas’ largest churches. He confessed having had an extramarital affair with the woman.

The children now live in Arkansas with church friends who have become their legal guardians, authorities said.

On Tuesday, friends and colleagues at Los Angeles’ 900-member Immanuel Presbyterian Church--where Railey’s past was no secret--expressed shock and dismay upon learning of his arrest.

“It’s a great shock because he has done an extraordinary job here,” said Tina Van Gorder, the church’s parish life coordinator. “He was loved by all his staff, and we are saddened to see this happen.”

Colleagues said that Railey had given an occasional sermon at the church and also had been invited to speak last year at a Methodist Church in Orange County.

Although he had declined media interviews, friends said Railey had never shied away from talking about his past troubles.

In a sermon at Immanuel last October, he dramatically recounted details of his life, including his extramarital affair. In the sermon--which the church later reprinted--he confessed to having betrayed his former wife and children and the thousands of Dallas parishioners who, for seven years, had placed their confidence in him as their spiritual leader.

However, as he had done before, Railey steadfastly denied having anything to do with the attack on his former wife.

In a rare interview in 1991, he told a Dallas television reporter that he had no plans to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister.

“I’m here because they offered me a job,” he said. “They needed someone who knew what I know (how) to do, and I needed a job, and we got together.”

Emerson, the Dallas prosecutor, said the district attorney’s office decided to seek the indictment after five years following a re-evaluation of evidence with the help of the FBI and new “high-tech” techniques.

“There’s no new evidence,” he said. “And quite frankly, I’m not sure there ever will be any new dramatic evidence that will prevail other than what we have.”

Railey’s Dallas lawyer, Doug Mulder, expressed shock at the arrest and said he expected that his client was also surprised. Mulder said Railey had called before the arrest to say that rumors that he might be arrested were spreading in the Los Angeles church.