Fullerton pastor who was attacked by gang was on probation for lewd conduct

What is up with Fullerton’s Rev. Willie Holmes?  The local media went nuts earlier this month when he was allegedly attacked by gang members in Fullerton.

“According to Holmes, the youths shouted “FTT” — short for Fullerton Tokers Town, a local Latino gang — and ran in front of the car. He said he drove around them and headed to the church, where he and his passengers ran from the car and hid inside. The attackers followed on foot and smashed the windows of the pastor’s car and the church office,” according to the L.A. Times.

However, it turns out there is more to this story than first meets the eye.

“Pastor Willie Ray Holmes, whose church and family were attacked last week, was ordered to report to the Orange County Jail next month for a probation violation stemming from a lewd-conduct conviction,” according to the O.C. Register.

And it turns out that Holmes was engaged in such actions as recently as Feb. 7!  Here are a few excerpts from the Register story about this mess:

Holmes, a pastor at Majesty Christian Fellowship, pleaded guilty to engaging in lewd conduct in a Nov. 30, 2006, incident. He was sentenced to three years’ probation for the misdemeanor, court records show.

Later, Holmes pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of contempt of court for violating the terms of his probation Feb. 4, 2008. He was sentenced to 360 days in jail and three years’ probation, and ordered to stay away from Hillcrest Park in Fullerton.

Holmes was arrested three days later, on Feb. 7, 2008, on suspicion of misdemeanor indecent exposure, lewd conduct in a public place and loitering around a public toilet. The indecent exposure count was dismissed, and he pleaded guilty to the other two counts. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years’ probation.

D’oh!  And Holmes’ wife says she doesn’t know anything about any of this and she wants to know what happened.  I smell a divorce cooking!

And there may be even more to this story.  Gustavo Arellano published a letter in his Navel Gazing blog, by a Fullerton community activist.  In that letter the activist disclosed that some gang members told him that the pastor’s son disrespected them, which led to the attack.  And much of the protesting against the attack quickly devolved into Latino bashing.  Click here to read that post.

Holmes needs to hold another press conference so he can tell us, and his wife, what the heck all of this is really all about.  But I suspect he is going to hide now that his issues have been outed.

What did the people of Fullerton do to deserve this mess?

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