SAN JOSE — A well-known leader of a nonprofit that serves low-income residents in San Jose has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing a child under his supervision from when he was a youth pastor in the 2010s, according to authorities and court records.
Brett Bymaster, executive director of the Healing Grove Health Center, was criminally charged Tuesday and booked Thursday into the Elmwood men’s jail. He was arraigned Friday in a San Jose courtroom to answer to six felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child between 2013 and 2019; the first alleged crime occurred when the child was 8 years old and the last was when the child was 14 years old.
At a Friday arraignment, Judge Hector Ramon revoked Bymaster’s bail eligibility — it was initially set at $400,000 — and scheduled an April 19 court date to hear bail arguments. He will remain in jail at least until then.
Ramon also issued a protective order for two people — both unnamed in court, though one presumably is the reported victim — that bars Bymaster from contacting them.
Attorneys Renee Hessling and Dana Fite are representing Bymaster and asserted his innocence in a statement to his news organization.
“We will be working with him to address these false accusations. At this time we do not have a statement about the substance of the allegations, since we do not have a full picture of what the allegations entail,” the statement reads. “However, we are confident that as the case develops, our client’s innocence will become apparent and we are looking forward to contesting these allegations in court.”
Healing Grove Health Center acknowledged the criminal case against Bymaster and said in a statement that he has “been placed on unpaid leave pending (the) outcome of the investigation.”
“We are actively working to gather more information,” the statement reads. “We have no further information at this time.”
Bymaster, 47, became the subject of scrutiny in late January when the San Jose-based church called The River sent a letter to its community informing them of an independent investigation commissioned by the church to look into abuse allegations from his time as the church’s youth pastor from 2014 to 2019.
A San Jose police investigation, based in part on the church investigation, was later presented to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. The church and authorities have acknowledged multiple abuse claims that are not reflected in the initial criminal charges against Bymaster.
According to the church, Bymaster stepped down from his role after his management style was criticized by students and volunteers and prompted the church to require him to make “significant changes.”
The new investigation stemmed from complaints that a 2021 church inquiry into Bymaster that concluded “Brett was a toxic leader who was spiritually abusive towards many of the students, volunteers and staff” and was poorly supervised by the church, but was later found to have sidestepped allegations of possible sexual misconduct.
Additionally, the church acknowledged that the original inquiry excluded “some students who did not feel safe to share freely” with the Rev. Theresa Marks, who conducted the probe.
“We now see that we nevertheless should have shared that some of the students’ complaints were sexual in nature. We understand that the failure to do so caused great pain,” The River letter reads. “It was our responsibility to bring the full extent of the damage done under Brett’s leadership into clear focus. We failed to meet the high standard of protection and care that our students and families deserve. And we embrace this new investigation as a critical step towards rectifying our leadership shortcomings, healing victims’ pain, and preventing future harm.”
The church letter was accompanied by a letter from nine parents from five church-involved families that was authored anonymously — to protect the identities of minors who claimed abuse — that contended that “the way in which Brett was managed allowed abuse to take place over many years,” and that the families themselves were unaware of the full scope of his alleged misconduct because of the shortcomings of the earlier inquiry.
“If we as parents had understood the scale and scope of the abuse, we would have been much more equipped to guide our children’s healing process,” the parents’ letter states. “The leadership’s failure in transparency hindered our ability as parents to care for our children.”
The church did not immediately respond to an inquiry Friday about Bymaster’s arrest and charges.
Source: www.mercurynews.com