Choir director charged with sexual assault

Chicago Tribune - August 10, 2007

Police: Teen victim belonged to group

By Karoun Demirjian

A gospel artist and musical director of Chicago's Rebirth of Liberty Gospel Choir has been charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old member of his choir in 2006.

Brian Scott, 34, was arrested Wednesday in connection with assaults that are alleged to have occurred on three occasions in July 2006: in a park, in the basement of a church and at Scott's home in the 1700 block of West 95th Place in Chicago. He appeared Thursday in bond court, where bail was set at $90,000.

The girl, who had met Scott at church before auditioning for his choir, told her parents about the abuse soon after it happened in 2006, prosecutors said Thursday.

The parents immediately confronted Scott, who they said admitted what he had done to the victim's mother and father and to the administrator of the choir, prosecutor Jodi Peterson said. The girl no longer sings in the choir.

Linda Greenwood manages the Rebirth of Liberty Gospel Choir, which was founded by Scott in 2005 as a musical outlet for young people 12 to 26. She said she contacted the parents of choir members when the Illinois Department of Children Family Services began to investigate Scott in late 2006.

When no one came forward with additional accusations, Greenwood said she decided not to remove Scott as leader of the choir. A DCFS official said the office determined there was credible evidence to substantiate the accusations of abuse on Dec. 1.

DCFS investigations are conducted independently of criminal probes, but it is standard practice for agency personnel and law enforcement officials to coordinate their investigations, said Kendall Marlowe, a spokesman for the department.

Greenwood said choir members will be hurt the most by the incident.

"They will be devastated," she said, calling Scott a mentor and a role model for many of the choristers, especially those who are considering music as a career.

Scott had worked as a church musician and a music teacher at Thornridge High School in south suburban Dolton.

A native of Chicago, Scott often traveled to perform on stages from Europe to the famed Apollo Theater to the Black Entertainment Television (BET), according to his biography posted on the choir's Web site.

Scott started the Rebirth of Liberty choir with many of the students he met through church and school. In a short time, the group was competing with the best of Chicago's youth gospel choirs, taking third place in Chicago's All-City Gospel Challenge Choir Competition in the youth choir category in 2005.

George Woodridge -- director of the New Revelation Choir, which won the category that year -- invited Scott and his choir to share the bill at Saturday's Back-to-School Rally Musical performance at Springfield Missionary Baptist Church in Evanston.

Woodridge said he was saddened and shocked by Scott's arrest.

"He has a huge reputation in the gospel choir community," he said, adding that he hoped the Rebirth of Liberty choir would pick a substitute leader before Saturday's show. "Without a musical director, you don't have any music."


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