By Rich Bockmann
The pastor of the Community Baptist Church in Bayside, who is awaiting court dates for two separate incidences in Queens and Connecticut, was arrested last month by Norwalk, Conn., police for allegedly violating a court-imposed protective order, according to Norwalk Superior Court.
On July 5, Phillip Joubert was arrested for allegedly placing a call to a supposed assault victim from his phone, according to Norwalk’s The Hour newspaper. The police claim Joubert did not talk to the victim, but she could hear him speaking in the background.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, on Nov. 14, 2009,Joubert allegedly hit a female relative in the face and several times about her torso after he came home to find his Norwalk apartment messy, The Hour reported. Norwalk Superior Court has his address in that city listed as 21 Lexington Ave.
The Queens district attorney’s office previously said the alleged victim was 13 years old.
According to court documents, the child’s mother reported the alleged abuse to police after Joubert had left on a trip to Israel, telling officers he hit the girl with “as much force as he would use if he was hitting a grown man,” The Hour reported.
Norwalk police said that while the officers were interviewing the victim and her mother, the victim allegedly confided in her mother that Joubert had sexually abused her at his Queens home, at 45-57 206th St. in Bayside, in the summer of 2009, according to The Hour.
The police officers turned the sex abuse case over to police in Queens and applied for a warrant for Joubert’s arrest on the domestic violence case, the newspaper reported. He was arrested in Norwalk on Dec. 31, 2009, and a judge at Norwalk Superior Court issued a protective order that stipulated he was to stay away from the alleged victim and have no contact with her.
His next court date in Norwalk is Sept. 15 on charges of third-degree assault and risk of injury to a child.
In Queens, Joubert was arraigned before Queens Criminal Court Judge Lenora Gerald on Nov. 25, 2009, on two counts of rape in the first degree, according to the Queens district attorney’s office. His next court date on the charges is Oct. 12.
Victor Robinson, the sexton at Community Baptist, said he expected the reverend’s “situation” to be over by the end of the year “one way or the other.”
“People ask me if they think he did it. Is he the type? I don’t know. What is the type?” he said.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
