Ohio Pastor Accused Of Abusing Stepdaughter After Bigamy Revelation
Ohio pastor Israel Ford, a bigamist whose recent announcement about his second wife made national headlines, is now being accused of sexual abuse.
Ford already had a history of domestic violence. He when he was convicted in 2020 for striking a teenage stepdaughter with a belt. Another stepdaughter came forward Oct. 27 with allegations of years of sexual abuse.
Kourtney Jones, who identifies Ford as her stepfather, said in a Facebook post that he sexually abused her during childhood and attempted to rape her when she was 15.
READ: Ohio Pastor Announces Second Wife, Embraces Polygamy As Biblical
Lydia Ford, Jones’ mother and the pastor’s first wife, denied the allegations during an Oct. 30 livestream, ChurchLeaders reported Nov. 2.
“We know that they’re serious. We know how damaging they can be. And I need y’all to know that they are not true,” Lydia Ford said, according to the website.
Roys Report previously reported that Ford, founder of LifeWorks Church in the Cleveland area, posted an Oct. 25 video announcing a second wife, Shakayla Talley Ford.
Lydia Ford introduced Shakayla to the congregation, which gave the trio a standing ovation. Ford described the teaching that a man should have only one wife as “unbiblical.”
In her Facebook post, Jones said her mother married Ford in June 2013, when Jones and her twin sister were 11. She alleged that Ford began showing sexual interest in her when she was 12.
Jones said his behavior escalated when she was 13, alleging that he entered her bedroom at night wearing only underwear and questioned her about sex.
“He would wake me up and force me to touch him,” she wrote.
Jones alleged the attempted rape came after Ford persuaded her mother and sister to stay overnight at a hospital with her grandmother. She said she fought him and escaped.
She also alleged that he isolated the family from relatives and friends and touched her when others were not looking, including at church. “He would tell us we wouldn’t make it to heaven without him,” Jones wrote.
Jones said the abuse continued until she left home at 17. She said she later told her sister, but her mother believed Ford’s account that Jones had been attracted to him. Jones wrote that she had not spoken to her mother in six years.
“I cannot tag my mother or Israel, they blocked me many years ago,” Jones wrote on Facebook. “Lydia, I know you will see this. I know you know the truth. It’s time to stop protecting him or you will fall with him.”
Her accusations seem to parallel a court case involving Ford’s other stepdaughter, identified in court documents as K.C., who was 17 during a Jan. 15, 2018, incident. The ruling concerns physical violence and does not adjudicate Jones’ sexual abuse allegations.
K.C. testified that her mother had struck her with a belt over content on her Snapchat account. She then told her mother that Ford had been exchanging text messages with a former wife, angering him, the opinion states.
She also testified that Ford grabbed her arm, pushed her to the floor and held her down with his knee on her neck after she refused another beating.
According to the court’s account of her testimony, she picked up a kitchen knife but put it down. Her police statement described Ford slamming her into a kitchen wall and throwing her around the living room before beating her with a belt.
Ford denied putting his knee on her neck, pushing her down or slamming her into a wall when he spoke at sentencing, according to the opinion. He did not testify at trial.
K.C. testified that Ford told her not to attend school the following day because she was “not going to school to be telling [her] teachers about this.”
An officer photographed bruises on her shoulder, arm, legs and thigh. K.C.’s father also testified that he saw bruises the day after the beating.
A county children’s services employee observed bruising but testified that K.C. did not require medical attention. The employee said the agency referred the family for counseling and closed its case in March 2018 without concerns about physical abuse in the family.
The trial judge acquitted Ford of three child endangering charges and Lydia Ford of one, finding prosecutors had not established the harm or risk required for those charges.
The judge convicted Ford of first-degree misdemeanor domestic violence, which required proof of physical harm rather than serious physical harm, the appeals court explained.
Ford received a 120-day county jail sentence for domestic violence, concurrent with a 120-day sentence for convictions involving a separate victim.
Ohio’s 8th District Court of Appeals upheld the conviction Sept. 3, 2020, rejecting Ford’s argument that the beating constituted reasonable parental discipline. The opinion said bruises were still visible three days later.
This article was originally published at The Roys Report.
Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the New York Post and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for The Washington Times. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.