San Jose: Nonprofit director charged with sex abuse from time as youth pastor

SAN JOSE — A well-known leader of a nonprofit that serves low-income residents in San Jose has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing a child under his supervision from when he was a youth pastor in the 2010s, according to authorities and court records.

Brett Bymaster, executive director of the Healing Grove Health Center, was criminally charged Tuesday and booked Thursday into the Elmwood men’s jail. He was arraigned Friday in a San Jose courtroom to answer to six felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child between 2013 and 2019; the first alleged crime occurred when the child was 8 years old and the last when the child was 14 years old.

At a Friday arraignment, Judge Hector Ramon changed Bymaster’s jail status from being held in lieu $400,000 to no bail allowed, and set an April 19 court hearing to rule further on bail. Ramon also issued a protective order for two people — one presumably being the reported victim and the other who was unnamed in court — that bars Bymaster from contacting them.

Attorneys Renee Hessling and Dana Fite appeared on behalf of Bymaster, who did not speak in court before being taken back to jail custody.

Bymaster, 47, became the subject of scrutiny in late January when the San Jose-based church called The River sent a letter to its community informing them of an independent investigation commissioned by the church to look into abuse allegations from his time as the church’s youth pastor from 2014 to 2019.

A San Jose police investigation, seemingly based on the church investigation, was later presented to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. The church and authorities have acknowledged multiple abuse claims that are not reflected in initial criminal charges against Bymaster.

According to the church, Bymaster stepped down from his role after his management style was criticized by students and volunteers and prompted the church to require him to make “significant changes.”

The new investigation stemmed from complaints that a 2021 church inquiry into Bymaster that concluded “Brett was a toxic leader who was spiritually abusive towards many of the students, volunteers and staff” and was poorly supervised by the church, but was later found to have sidestepped allegations of possible sexual misconduct.

Additionally, the church acknowledged that the original inquiry excluded “some students who did not feel safe to share freely” with the Rev. Theresa Marks, who conducted the probe.

“We now see that we nevertheless should have shared that some of the students’ complaints were sexual in nature. We understand that the failure to do so caused great pain,” The River letter reads. “It was our responsibility to bring the full extent of the damage done under Brett’s leadership into clear focus. We failed to meet the high standard of protection and care that our students and families deserve. And we embrace this new investigation as a critical step towards rectifying our leadership shortcomings, healing victims’ pain, and preventing future harm.”

The church letter was accompanied by a letter from nine parents from five church-involved families that was authored anonymously — to protect the identities of minors who claimed abuse — that contended that “the way in which Brett was managed allowed abuse to take place over many years,” and that the families themselves were unaware of the full scope of his alleged misconduct because of the shortcomings of the earlier inquiry.

“If we as parents had understood the scale and scope of the abuse, we would have been much more equipped to guide our children’s healing process,” the parents’ letter states. “The leadership’s failure in transparency hindered our ability as parents to care for our children.”

Bymaster has previously denied all of the abuse allegations against him, telling San Jose Spotlight in January that he expected to be cleared of any misconduct by the church investigation.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.