A 63-year-old East New York pastor has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and 10 years of post-release supervision after a Brooklyn jury convicted him of repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl from his own congregation, starting when she was just 11 years old. Paul Lewis founded and led Messengers for Christ World Healing Center, a church with branches stretching from Brooklyn to Jamaica, Trinidad and Germany.
A Decade-Old Crime Finally Reaches Sentencing
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Naiburg handed down the sentence, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. Lewis was convicted on September 24 following a jury trial on a charge of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, the office says. The victim and her family were members of his congregation, and prosecutors say he knew them well through the church.
Between September 3 and December 23, 2014, prosecutors say Lewis repeatedly picked the 11-year-old up from her home in his vehicle under the guise of getting food, then sexually assaulted her in the car on multiple occasions. On one occasion, the office's account states, he brought her to a brownstone in Brooklyn, removed her clothes and assaulted her there as well, according to the same release from the DA's office.
The Girl Who Walked Into a Precinct a Decade Later
The abuse went unreported for years. The victim ultimately walked into the 81st Precinct stationhouse on February 26, 2024, and told police what had happened to her as a child, prosecutors say. That report set off an investigation that led to Lewis's arrest and, eventually, trial.
Assistant District Attorneys Jourdan Thompson and Linda Weinman prosecuted the case, with Weinman identified in the office's release as deputy chief of the Special Victims Bureau. As Brooklyn Paper reported, the sentencing closes out a case that stretched from a church community more than a decade ago to a Brooklyn courtroom this year.
DA Says Office Will Keep Pursuing Such Cases
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez addressed the broader toll of the crime in a statement tied to the sentencing. “Rape results in trauma that lasts a lifetime and we will never stop seeking justice for those who have been sexually violated,” he said, per the DA's office's announcement.
Lewis's case is not the only recent prosecution of a New York pastor on child sexual abuse charges. In June, a Long Island pastor, Jose Saez Jr. of Iglesia Cristiana Alumbrando El Camino in Brentwood, was sentenced in federal court in Central Islip to 210 months in prison for sexual exploitation of a child, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. That case was prosecuted separately in federal court and is unrelated to the Brooklyn proceedings against Lewis.
