CORONA – (INT) - The director and two residents of the Heart of Worship group home are accused of torturing and abusing a 13-year-old boy.

Police say the boy’s mother took him to the home for guidance. Pastor Lonnie Remmers allegedly ordered the two men to drive him to the desert to ‘scare’ him. After arriving in the Barstow area, the pair threatened to kill the boy and forced him to dig a grave.

They returned to Remmers’ Corona home for Bible study. Instead, the youth was physically assaulted.

Remmers and the other two men, Nick Craig and Darryll Jeter, were later arrested.

About the Heart of Worship, police Sergeant Frank Barron said “There are no other children there. It’s a men’s home only.”

Pastor Remmers and the two other suspects remain jailed. They made their first court appearance Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.

Story Date: April 6, 2012