Arrested San Jose church youth group leader had ‘porn addiction,’ investigators say

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — New information about the San Jose Police Department’s investigation into a former youth group director and church pastor was released in recently filed court documents.

Brett Franklin Bymaster, 47, of San Jose, is charged with committing sex crimes against a young girl, starting when she was 8 years old. Prosecutors charged Bymaster with six counts of lewd and lascivious acts for incidents that happened while the girl was between ages eight and 13.

For years, teenagers and their parents raised concerns about Bymaster’s conduct while he was a youth group director at The River Church Community in San Jose. Some parents claim church leaders covered up allegations, court documents state.

A 63-page investigation report filed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office includes a Child Protective Services report and SJPD police report. Youth group members said Bymaster “groomed” teens, took naked showers with minors on field trips, sexually harassed minors with unwanted touching, groped underage girls, and pressured youth group members into sexually explicit conversations, the report states.

Young members of the church said Bymaster was manipulative, a “bully,” psychologically abusive, “toxic,” and spiritually abusive, the report states.

Parents wrote in the report, “A teen girl attempted suicide in September 2018 in response to Brett’s bullying behavior, including ‘slut shaming.'” After she recovered in a hospital’s emergency room, parents met with church leadership urging for Bymaster to be fired.

Another girl reported Bymaster to SJPD on January 30, 2024. While she was part of the church’s youth group, “Brett would talk about his ‘porn addiction’ and heavily encouraged students to ‘confess’ their porn habits,” the girl wrote. “Beyond the sexual stuff, (Bymaster and his wife) were emotionally manipulative and abusive in numerous ways. The trauma they left me with affects me every day,” the girl wrote.

Bymaster left the church in 2019 and became the executive director of Healing Grove Health Center, a faith-based clinic on Alma Avenue in San Jose.

Concerned parents wrote in court documents, “Brett’s pattern of abuse — both spiritual and sexual in nature — inflicted immense damage. The River’s cover-up jeopardizes current youth and families who are exposed to Brett … (at) Healing Grove ministry.”

Bymaster’s most recent blog post on HGHC’s website is dated April 1, 2024. Healing Grove Health Center sent a prepared statement to KRON4 on Tuesday, writing, “Mr. Bymaster has been placed on unpaid leave pending outcome of the investigation. We have no further information at this time.”

A police report filed on April 4 says one alleged victim was sexually abused for years. When she was 8 years old, she attended an after-school program, Willow House, where Bymaster worked and taught children Bible stories. During one incident, Bymaster took her into a backyard shed at Willow House. “He was standing directly behind her with his entire body pressed up against her body and she could feel his erect penis on her buttocks. She felt like she could not escape. She felt scared,” the police report states.

When she was 13 and 14 years old at The River Church Community, Bymaster frequently touched and fondled the girl’s private areas by shoving his hands in her pants, the police report states. After one of the alleged assaults, the girl tried to kill herself, investigators said.

SJPD launched an investigation into Bymaster in January. Detectives arrested the former pastor on April 11 in Manteca, Calif., and booked him into a Santa Clara County jail.

Bymaster made his first court appearance on April 12 and he did not enter a plea. He will return to court on April 19, when his defense attorneys will ask a judge to reduce bail.

He is currently being held in jail in lieu of $400,000 bail, inmate records show.

Bymaster’s defense attorneys are Dana Fite and Renee Hessling. While he worked at the church, the youth pastor ministered on Christian ideas of sex health according to the church’s interpretation of the Bible, the defense attorneys said.

Fite and Hessling told KRON4, “Some of the topics discussed in the curriculum included how young people should abstain from viewing pornography, and the dangers of becoming addicted to pornography. Other topics included completely abstaining from sex outside of marriage.”

The River Church Community wrote a statement on its website about the investigation. The church’s statement writes, “We are currently undergoing an investigation of our youth ministry from 2014-2019. A third-party investigator has been hired to explore the harm students and volunteers experienced during that time. This situation was initially explored in 2021 through a pastoral inquiry.”

The church’s independent investigator is Amy Stier of The Stier Group.

The River Church Community sent a statement to KRON4 on Tuesday, writing, “We are deeply saddened by these developments and continue to express our concerns, prayers, and support for the young people who have bravely raised their voices, for all victims of abuse, and for our entire church community during these distressing times. Our congregational leaders were contacted by the San Jose Police Department soon after the latest investigation launched. We have been fully cooperative. Our previous employment reviews identified performance deficiencies leading to Mr. Bymaster’s departure in 2019. The subsequent 2021 pastoral inquiry further resulted in numerous substantive findings of inappropriate and unprofessional conduct by Mr. Bymaster.”

Bymaster’s defense attorneys said he left the church because his “Christian values were more conservative than those of the members of The River church. As a result, he was not a good theological or cultural fit for that institution.”

SJPD’s investigation is ongoing. Police are asking anyone with information about this case to call Detective Camarillo of the San Jose Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force at 408-273-2959, or email 4576@sanjoseca.gov.

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