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A Randolph County minister and director of the Pearls of Promise Religious School for Girls near Roanoke was arrested Thursday and charged with rape, sodomy and 18 misdemeanor counts of distributing pornographic material.
Stanley Robert Daniel, 58, pastor of El Bethel Church was arrested around 6 p.m. Thursday, according to a press release from the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office. Daniel was released on $240,000 bond before noon on Friday.
The press release said Daniel’s arrest stemmed from a complaint made by a student at the school.
Randolph County Sheriff Jeff Fuller said Friday that the student made the complaint about a week ago, and the resulting investigation involved one student.
The sheriff described the school as an all-girls boarding school. The school’s online code of conduct states that at the school, “Bible discipline is practiced” and students must wear at least knee-length dresses or skirts. “Punk rock” hairstyles are prohibited.
The school also bans cell phones, forbids diaries, and screens all incoming and outgoing mail to students.
Fuller said all students have been removed from the school’s campus.
The 18 misdemeanor counts are based on allegations that Daniel transmitted pornographic pictures to one of the students at the school, Fuller said. The pornographic images were not of minors, or else the charge would be a felony.
Calls to the El Bethel Church and the parsonage where Daniel is listed as living were not answered.
A man who answered the phone at the school said Daniel no longer worked there. He said the school’s staff was told not to talk to the media. He said two deacons were speaking for the school, but he would not give their names. He refused to give his own name and hung up when asked for further comment.
Additional calls to the school went unanswered, but Daniel’s voice was still on the school’s answering machine.
Daniel is to appear in court on July 24.
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