Austin police have arrest warrants for two pastors accused of beating an 11-year-old boy, who attends their church, Capitol City Baptist, an independent, fundamentalist congregation with about 300 members.
Monday afternoon, officers interviewed a now-conscious 11-year-old boy, who's been in the pediatric intensive care unit of the Children's Hospital since Wednesday.
The child's attorney, Bobby Taylor, says Joshua and Caleb Thompson beat the boy for not taking his Bible verses seriously at a summer camp for Spanish-speaking children.
"They took him to this private home and the person who took him – I won't call him youth minister, but he was a 22-year-old minister, and apparently he may have been the son of the minister of the church – cut a branch off a tree made my client lay on the bed and beat him – and beat him for almost an hour," Taylor said.
This is how the child's back looks now, five days later. The child's parents, who refused to speak on camera, said when the pastors dropped the child off at home, one of them told the parents they should discipline the child further.
"This is a church that the family has been going to for over four years,” Taylor said. “And my client had, I think, four children at this school at various times, and two were in this program at the time this occurred. So, it's because it's church affiliated, it's devastated them."
Church officials would not comment on camera because they say this is not a church matter. But over the phone, the head pastor said he was broken-hearted about the situation.
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Arrest warrants for pastors
APD issued arrest warrants Monday for two pastors of the Capitol City Baptist Church. The 11-year-old has been in a pediatric intensive care unit since Wednesday.
 
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"Pastor Hank Thompson, the pastor of Capitol City Baptist Church would not – would never – he's instructed all his personnel not to use corporal punishment against the children of church members," defense attorney Jerald Finney said.
Because this is a sub-chapter for Spanish-speaking members, church leaders say the alleged abuse is not linked to the church. But the child's family says there might be more victims who are afraid to come forward.
"There may be some people who are considered illegal aliens who are fearful, who are afraid,” Taylor said. “And I would love for those people to contact the Austin Police Department because the police department wants to talk to anybody who has any information or can help put an understanding to what has been going on at this church."
Now it's up to the justice system to decide. Austin police expect to arrest Joshua and Caleb Thompson by Tuesday morning. The Thompsons’ lawyer said the men are not the type to resist arrest.
