Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Lake County, Waukegan, Illinois, USA · 1994

Illinois: head pastor and 'bishop' convicted of sexually assaulting two minor members of his international church

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

founder and head pastor ('bishop'), Christian Fellowship Church

Organization

Christian Fellowship Church

Spiritual nexus

Davis was the founder and head pastor of the Christian Fellowship Church across four branch locations; both victims were minor members of the church, not his own children.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Scope decision

VERIFICATION LIMITATION: the 1994 opinion predates CourtListener's CDN full-text coverage (no local_path available) and could not be read in full directly. This record is built from the extensive facts and holding recited in a 2022 Illinois appellate opinion (People v. Stowe) that relies on Davis's evidentiary ruling as controlling precedent, corroborated by independent web search summarizing the original opinion's facts and disposition. No source located a reversal, vacatur or remand of Davis's conviction. Recommend a follow-up primary-source read of 260 Ill. App. 3d 176 before treating this as fully verified to the project's standard CDN-read bar. SOURCING CAVEAT: this pre-2000 opinion has no full text available through the court CDN. The conviction and its disposition were established from a later opinion citing this case as controlling precedent, corroborated against independent reporting. That is a weaker tier than the direct full-text reads behind most records here, and a primary-source read should replace it.

Evidence structure

Proceedings

Date in cited record · bench trial and sentence

Lake County Circuit Court, Illinois. Lloyd R. Davis, founder and head pastor ('bishop') of the Christian Fellowship Church (branches in Waukegan, San Diego, Norfolk and Tijuana), was convicted after a bench trial of 5 counts of criminal sexual assault and 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against two minor church members, A.C. and C.L. He was sentenced to 31 years.
1994-03-25 · direct appeal, 260 Ill. App. 3d 176

Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District. The 1994 appellate opinion (People v. Davis) is itself the direct-appeal decision; a 2022 Illinois appellate opinion (People v. Stowe) relies on Davis as good, uncriticized precedent for its Rule 404(b) evidentiary holding, indicating the conviction was not disturbed on appeal.

Appellate history

Illinois Appellate Court, Second District decided the direct appeal March 25, 1994; the opinion is cited as settled precedent as recently as 2022 without any noted reversal.

Documented coercion mechanisms

position as founder and head pastor of a multi-branch church
access to child members through church activities at multiple branch locations

Primary record

Sources

secondary court citation appellate judgment cited as precedent People v. Davis, 260 Ill. App. 3d 176, 631 N.E.2d 392 (Ill. App. Ct., 2d Dist. 1994).: Illinois Appellate Court opinion affirming Lloyd Davis's convictions for sexually assaulting two minor members of his Christian Fellowship Church; no local_path/CDN copy available (pre-2000), summary reconstructed from a 2022 Illinois appellate opinion relying on it as precedent plus independent web corroboration of the facts and disposition.
official court judgment appellate judgment citing precedent People v. Stowe, 2022 IL App (2d) 210296 (Nov. 29, 2022).: 2022 Illinois appellate opinion citing and reciting the facts of People v. Davis (1994) as controlling precedent on admission of other-acts evidence, without any indication of reversal.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

← Explore all cases