JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The State Attorney’s Office has filed an additional sexual battery charge against three men linked to a Jacksonville church who were arrested after an almost 20-year investigation.
Paul Dyal, 78, pastor of the Jacksonville Assembly of the Body of Christ on Old Kings Road North, was arrested earlier this month after a coordinated police raid on the church.
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While investigators were making the arrest, additional warrants were being served in Oklahoma. The Sheriff’s Office said Jerome Teschendorf, 68, who was arrested in Newalla, Oklahoma, and Vernon Williamson, 85, who was arrested in Ardmore, Oklahoma, have both now been extradited to Jacksonville.
All three men are facing two counts each of sexual battery on a child.
“The investigation revealed both long-term sexual and physical abuse of minors in the church spanning a period of over thirty years,” the Sheriff’s Office said in its news release earlier this month.
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A report from 2003 names pastor Paul Dyal, 78, specifically. The report details a person telling police they were molested after staying overnight at the pastor’s house.
Dyal’s house is on the property of his church, the Jacksonville Assembly of the Body of Christ.
The JSO said that through the course of the investigation, the police “have identified and spoken to numerous victims and witnesses.” As a result, the Sheriff’s Office said, police believe there are additional suspects. It asked that anyone who believes they might have information to share to come forward by calling JSO or submitting an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida.
The Sheriff’s Office believes there could be more than a dozen victims.
Eight women have since shared their stories with News4JAX, saying they are survivors of mental, physical and emotional abuse from people at the Jacksonville Assembly of the Body of Christ Church.