Chris Amico: Journalist

LITTLEROCK — Lancaster Mayor Henry Hearns apologized to the Antelope Valley and the Lancaster City Council on Wednesday for allowing a convicted child molester to help plan a youth sports camp at Jackie Robinson Park.

The camp is a church event sponsored by the Living Stone Cathedral of Worship, where Hearns serves as bishop.

Maurice Wyre will no longer work with the camp, which ends Friday, Hearns said at a press conference at the park. He was responding to an article published in Sunday’s Valley Press disclosing Wyre’s role in the camp. While Hearns spoke, about 50 children inside the park’s gym listened to a former Olympic athlete instruct them to work hard, persevere and live a balanced life. (more…)

LITTLEROCK — A convicted child molester listed on the Megan’s Law sex-offender registry is helping plan a youth sports camp at Jackie Robinson Park for the Living Stone Cathedral of Worship, with the support of the church’s leader, Bishop Henry Hearns, the mayor of Lancaster.

Maurice Wyre is listed on the registry for continuous sexual abuse of a child.

He underwent 90 days of psychiatric evaluation after pleading no contest to molestation — a lesser charge — in 1995 and served five years’ probation, which would have ended in 2000.

The 42-year-old former athlete and scion of a locally renowned sports family will not coach or be a counselor at the camp, which starts Monday and runs for a week, according to Hearns. The mayor and clergyman said he is aware of Wyre’s criminal record but that he is unwilling to cast the man out. (more…)