LAUDERHILL, Fla. – A pastor accused of sexually abusing his 13-year-old stepdaughter was arrested Saturday at an airport, according to Broward County jail records.
Avo Avard Roker, 32, faces charges of sexual battery on a victim under 18 years old.
According to an arrest warrant from the Lauderhill Police Department, Roker, along with his friend and fellow pastor, Ricardo Strachan, repeatedly sexually abused the girl for almost a year. Roker threatened the girl, telling her that Strachan would harm her and her mother if she didn't comply, the warrant said.
Strachan, 40, is listed as president of the Prophetic Worshippers International Church in Lauderhill. He faces a charge of lewd and lascivious battery on a child between the age of 12 and 16. He was arrested Wednesday.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Strachan had sex with the teenager about 10 times in the parking lot of Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale and about 15 other times from January to December 2016.
Police said the girl claimed Strachan practiced voodoo and had her steal from her family "in an effort to perform rituals."
A website from 2015 listed Roker as the senior pastor of Believer Community Church in Nassau, Bahamas. The church now appears to have new leadership.
Roker is being held without bond at the Broward County main jail in Fort Lauderdale. Strachan is being held on $100,000 bond at the same facility.