The 31-year-old music director of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal, an influential West Baltimore church, was in jail yesterday on charges that he raped and abused a 12-year-old female parishioner during three encounters, city police and church officials said.
Timothy D. Price III of Owings Mills has been held in lieu of $1 million bail at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center since he was arrested Wednesday, according to court records. He was charged with second-degree rape, assault, child abuse and multiple sex offenses.
"For everybody involved, it is a great tragedy," said the Rev. Frank M. Reid III, the church's pastor. "He had a good reputation, as far as I was aware. ... The people loved him."
Price and the girl had sexual encounters on three occasions in his car between early November and January, according to police charging documents. The meetings were all off church property, two in a West Baltimore alley and one in a parking lot near Druid Hill Park, the documents say.
The encounters occurred after Price obtained permission from the girl's mother to take her to an outreach center and home from church Bible study and a dance class, the documents say.
Price confessed to having sex with the girl, who is now 13, according to the charging documents.
Bethel AME Church has more than 17,000 registered members and a national reputation. Many of those who attend services on Druid Hill Avenue in Upton commute from surrounding counties.
A number of the city's top leaders, including Mayor Sheila Dixon and Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, are Bethel members. Former Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is Reid's stepbrother, and Sunday services are frequent stops for candidates for city and statewide office.
In an interview yesterday, Reid called Price's arrest "a real shock."
He said his church had not received any prior written or oral complaints about Price, whose full-time job was leading musical programs at the church.
"It's a great tragedy for the child and the child's family," Reid said.
The last time he saw Price was during services this week for Ash Wednesday, Reid said. Later that day, he said, he got a phone call from someone who said Price had been arrested.
Reid said Price was hired in 2006 after the church went through a national recruitment process for a new music director. He said Price's references were checked and that he came from a church in Houston. He has a wife and a 1-year-old daughter, Reid said.
