OAK PARK – Days before a newspaper report was published alleging sexual abuse by a church pastor in the 1990s, administrators of St.Paul Missionary Baptist Church, briefed the congregation on the precarious situation.

Dated Oct. 2, Rev. Kenneth Ray Reece said in a letter that the Oak Park church had “learned that a lawsuit has been filed” by a female adult “alleging that she was abused as a minor” approximately 20 to 25 years ago.

Rev. Reece, who assumed the pastorship of St. Paul this summer, also made it clear that pastor emeritus Rev. Ephraim Williams is not the accused but is a part of the legal matter.

An allegation states that abuse occurred on the grounds of the church, specifically stated in the parking lot and stairwell of the facility. The report says that Rev. Williams allegedly had knowledge of the abuse, offering to counsel the accuser and her family.

“Our former Senior Pastor Dr. Ephraim Williams is also named as a defendant (in the filed lawsuit), but he is not alleged to have committed any sexual abuse,” Rev. Reece stated in the written letter.

In accordance with Rev. Reece’s letter, the person making the allegations, now an adult, claims she was abused as a minor by her stepfather, John Bernard Black Sr., who is no longer associated with St. Paul.

Black’s wife, Kelli Adriann Black, is also a defendant in the lawsuit, Reece stated.

“Most of the abuse by Mr. Black is alleged to have occurred in the plaintiff’s family home or elsewhere, but there is an allegation that abuse by Mr. Black also occurred somewhere on (St. Paul’s) church property,” Rev. Reece stated.

The plaintiff, as revealed in a published report by the Sacramento Bee, is Giana Lee. Ms. Lee, now 37, says that the abuse first started when she was 11 years old. She is no longer a member of the church.

“This lawsuit is about truth and accountability,” Giana Lee said in a video interview that’s circulating through the airwave of social networks. “I’m looking through this lawsuit to have the truth come out, and for those who have hurt me to be held accountable for that.”

Giana Lee is being represented by Shawn Tillis, an Oakland attorney who specializes in personal injury, employment harassment and discrimination, and sexual abuse cases.

The OBSERVER has reached out to Tillis, but at press time, has received no reply. The attorney stated in a published report that he is in the process of subpoenaing documents from the Sacramento Police Department in regard to an investigation concerning Giana Lee’s allegations.

In a text message to The OBSERVER from Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn, he did not specify knowledge of a previous investigation or a subpoena of his department. Tillis publicly stated that there were a “couple of investigations.”

No charges were filed against Mr. Black, though Giana Lee said St. Paul was in the midst of the family’s alleged issues. She was interviewed by police for hours but was influenced to recant her story by her mother, she said.

By Giana Lee’s accounts in the filed lawsuit, when she was in conference with Dr. Rev. Ephriam Williams, he told her that “‘we don’t lie on good pastors’” and “‘we do not lie on good men.’”

Giana Lee said she responded to Rev. Williams, “‘I am not lying.’” Rev. Williams retired as pastor of St. Paul in July after nearly 50 years of service to the congregation and community.

The OBSERVER contacted St. Paul’s spokesperson Lamont Harris about the allegations and Harris said Rev. Williams is aware of the published report and the lawsuit filed partly in his name.

“I’m sure it’s a tough and challenging time for him. I spoke to him and gave him a copy of The Bee. He’s obviously concerned for everybody involved,” Harris said of Rev. Williams.

Harris also told The OBSERVER that, to his knowledge, the church did not initiate an investigation when the alleged abuse was brought to its attention. But he confirmed that Rev. Williams did talk to Giana Lee over two decades ago.

“Pastor met with her but really couldn’t determine accuracy based on (the fact) that she was 10 or 11 at the time,” Harris said.

When Harris, St. Paul’s longtime administrative assistant, was asked whether the sexual abuse allegations by Ginana Lee were factual, he said, “I don’t know one way or the other.”

Currently, officials from the church have not been served with the lawsuit. But Harris said St. Paul has hired an attorney and informed its insurance company of the matter.

In March 1948, St. Paul started out as a mission with 12 members. By October of that same year, Rev. G.C. Northern moved the church to 2417 Burnett Way.

By 1957, the church agreed to purchase the property of First Southern Baptist Church and moved into the 4020 12th Avenue location in Oak Park.
In May of 1971, Dr. Rev. Ephraim Williams began serving as St. Paul’s pastor. The church grew from 135 parishioners up to about 4,000. In 1993, members of the church marched to their new place of worship at its current location.

Eleven years later, St. Paul broke ground on the Family Life Center, which bears Rev. Williams’ name. During a Special Church Business Meeting at the church in Oct. 2019, parishioners voted for Rev. Reece to succeed Rev. Williams.

Rev. Reece held the position of St. Paul Baptist Church’s very first full-time staff minister from 1992 until 1996. He was ordained to the ministry in 1994 at St. Paul Baptist Church under Rev. Williams.

Rev. Reece returned to the Oak Park church after spending two decades as pastor of Cornerstone in San Francisco. Rev. Reece and John Bernard Black, the accused, were on St. Paul’s ministry staff in the mid-1990s.

Now Rev. Reece, a John F. Kennedy High School graduate, must oversee what is clearly brewing into a scandal, the likes St. Paul has not faced since it was formed in 1948.

“As a church, we take these matters seriously and will cooperate with any law enforcement investigation,” Rev. Reece said in the Oct. 2 letter. “Please lift up in prayer the plaintiff and all the defendants.”

By Antonio R. Harvey