Counselors tossed urine on a 12-year-old boy and forced him to sleep outside at the summer camp run by Rev. Raphael Warnock, the former camper, now an adult, alleged in an interview.
Speaking to the Washington Free Beacon Monday, 30-year-old Anthony Washington discussed his summer 2002 experience at Camp Farthest Out in Carroll County, Maryland, which Warnock oversaw in his capacity as pastor of Douglas Memorial Community Church.
Washington was 12 when he was sent to the camp, which served inner-city children from Baltimore. He told the outlet that after wetting his bed one evening, he was forced to sleep outside without a pillow, blanket or anything else to keep him warm.
“[The counselors] wouldn’t let me in the house, not at all,” he told the Free Beacon. “Shut the door to the cabin, locked it.”
“It was dark,” Washington recalled, noting that there was nothing outside besides a nearby basketball court. “You’re not in a tent, you’re not in nothing. You’re just out, God knows where.”
Counselors also threw urine on him that was left in a bucket used when they didn’t have access to a bathroom.
Washington further alleged seeing counselors “grab kids,” but couldn’t speak to any accusations of abuse beyond that, only adding that he feared for himself and his sister.
Campers were prohibited from calling their parents, he told the outlet. Once Washington was eventually able to get his mother on the phone, she went to court.
That same year, Warnock, then 33, was taken away in handcuffs after interrupting a police interview with a camp counselor about possible instances of abuse.
Still, the August 2002 incident did not result in charges being pressed, and law enforcement later called what occurred “a miscommunication.”
“What we decided was there was some miscommunication that had occurred with them. They were very helpful with the continued investigation. It would not have been a prudent use of resources to have prosecuted them,” then-Deputy State’s Attorney Tracy Gilmore told the Baltimore Sun in November of that year.
Warnock defended himself at the time, telling the Sun in August of that year that he and the other reverend at the camp had acted “well within the framework of the law, and I am confident that we will be exonerated.”
“It’s just unfortunate that our children had to see their pastors carried away in handcuffs. My concern simply had to do with the presence of counsel. We cooperated fully with their investigation. We have nothing to hide.”
A spokesperson for Warnock could not immediately be reached for comment by The Post.
All eyes have focused on two Senate battles in Georgia, both with GOP incumbents. The current balance of the Senate is 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats, meaning that whichever way these two seats go will decide which party controls the upper chamber of Congress.
If Democrats were to win both seats and keep the body evenly split, tie votes would be broken by the vice president, Kamala Harris, thus effectively giving Democrats a single-vote majority.
President-elect Joe Biden narrowly carried Georgia over President Trump, marking the first time a Democrat carried the Southern state since Bill Clinton defeated President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Democratic strategists have said once-red Georgia is within reach for their party, but GOP analysts have argued it will be harder for the left to convince their voters to come out in an election without Trump on the ballot.
Warnock, currently the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where civil rights icon Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, is facing off against Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.).
Loeffler was not elected to her seat; she was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to fill the vacancy left by Sen. Johnny Isakson, who resigned in December due to health concerns.
The other race pits Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) against Jon Ossoff.
