CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES

A former employee of First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles accused the pastor, John Hunter, in a civil lawsuit of forcing her into sexual service for four years and firing her when she finally refused to comply.

The Rev. Brenda Lamothe, who worked with Hunter as his executive assistant and in other posts starting in 2004, charged in the suit filed Tuesday that the pastor began pressuring her into inappropriate hugging and kissing in 2005 and escalated to demands for sex. The complaint charges that Hunter told her it was “God’s will” to satisfy his desires and regularly demanded sex both at his church office and at hotels in Southern California, Virginia and North Carolina.

Hunter’s attorney, Robert W. Brockman Jr., said the allegations were categorically untrue. The pastor; his wife, Denise; and the church filed their own lawsuit Tuesday against Lamothe, charging her with stealing documents from the Hunters and using them to try to extract money from the couple.

-- Teresa Watanabe