FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A South Florida pastor accused of raping a 13-year-old girl was released from jail Tuesday.
Ricardo Strachan, 40, was fitted with a GPS ankle monitor before being released on $100,000 bond.
He ignored Local 10 News reporter Sanela Sabovic's questions as he hurried toward an awaiting vehicle.
According to an arrest warrant from the Lauderhill Police Department, Strachan and his friend, Avo Avard Roker, 32, who is also a pastor, repeatedly sexually abused the girl for almost a year.
Roker threatened the girl, telling her that Strachan would harm her and her mother if she didn't comply, the warrant said.
Authorities said the victim in the case is Roker's stepdaughter.
Strachan is listed as president of the Prophetic Worshippers International Church in Lauderhill. He faces a charge of lewd and lascivious battery on a child between the age of 12 and 16. He was arrested last Wednesday.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Strachan raped the victim about 10 times in the parking lot of Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale and about 15 other times from January to December 2016.
Police said the girl claimed Strachan practiced voodoo and had her steal from her family "in an effort to perform rituals."
A website from 2015 listed Roker as the senior pastor of Believer Community Church in Nassau, Bahamas. The church now appears to have new leadership.
Roker is being held without bond at the Broward County main jail in Fort Lauderdale.