A South Carolina judge last week granted bond for a pastor’s wife who, along with her husband, has been charged with more than 90 child abuse charges dating back to the 1980s.
Kathleen and Myron Chorbajian, 71 and 73, were arrested last May in Tennessee and extradited back to South Carolina, WHNS reports. They were indicted in November.
Warrants for their arrest say that Myron Chorbajian forced one child to search dumpsters and eat rotten food, and another to sleep in an outdoor trashcan. He’s also accused of harsh paddling and killing family pets in front of the children.
Investigators say Kathleen Chorbajian was aware of the decades of abuse and did nothing to stop it. Her attorneys, however, filed a new request for bond saying that she was not a flight risk. The attorneys further claimed the state’s “case is not as the state has advertised” since adults let their children stay overnight with the couple unsupervised.
Prosecutors pushed back, saying that the Chorbajians weaponized their faith to harm the children.
“This case is essentially about the weaponization of Christianity to justify the abuse of children,” the state’s attorney said. “The time the abuse occurred, these victims were small children in foster care. They had nowhere else to go. These sadistic acts of abuse that were justified by religion against some of the most vulnerable members of our society, I don’t know a situation where someone could present a more clearly present danger to the community.”
The judge ultimately gave Kathleen Chorbajian a $120,000 bond, barring her from contact with the victims, anyone under the age of 18, or her husband. She also must wear a GPS monitor and is prohibited from leaving home except for medical, legal, or religious reasons.
According to previous reporting, the investigation began last April when one of the victims reported “extensive abuse” by Chorbajian. Arrest warrants say he sexually abused female children, paddled a naked victim 50 times, beat a child with a belt until the victim lost consciousness, and forced another child to eat dirt off the floor.
After killing the family dog in front of one child, he forced the child to bury the dog. He also ran over another child’s kitten and then shot it in the head in front of her.
Chorbajian remains behind bars without bond.
According to Law&Crime, He is charged with two counts of assault and battery with intent to kill, 15 counts of unlawfully placing a child at risk or harm, and eight counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, among others.
Kathleen Chorbajian faces at least 10 counts of unlawfully placing a child at risk or harm.
Chorbajian was the pastor at First Southern Methodist Church in Greenville before his arrest.
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[Featured image: Myron and Kathleen Chorbajian/Greenville County Sheriff’s Office]