TPD: Sex Offender Volunteering At Victory Christian Lied About Identity

Tulsa Police arrested a sex offender who's been volunteering at Victory Christian Center.

Police said the man kissed a 14-year-old girl on the lips at Victory Monday. She told her parents and they called the police.

They said the man lied to Victory Christian about his name when he became a member about five years ago then joined the host team as a volunteer a couple of years ago.

They said he also lied to detectives about his name, but, his fingerprints couldn't lie. Detectives said the prints showed the man calling himself Clint Avant was really Clinton Cochran, a sex offender from Colorado who has a warrant there for failing to register.

Police said Cochran gave a note to a 14-year-old girl at Victory with his name and phone number on it, then, later, walked up to her, kissed her on the lips and walked off without saying a word.

"We found it very suspicious because when he applied for his position at Victory Christian he had no photo ID or government documentation to confirm his name, so we asked if we could run his fingerprints and took him down and ran them and it came back as Clinton Cochran, a sex offender in Colorado," said Corporal Darren Ehrenrich.

Tulsa Police booked Cochran into jail for assault and battery for the kiss and false impersonation for lying about his name.

They expect to add a charge of failing to register here as well.

Police said Cochran told them he kissed the girl based on a Bible verse from the writings of Paul that says to greet one another with a kiss of love.

Police said Victory Christian has banned Cochran from the property.

Victory sent a brief statement saying, "It is our understanding that the incident occurred Thursday evening. Both Victory Security and the mother contacted the police Thursday evening upon learning of the incident. We also took appropriate steps to notify DHS and will continue to fully cooperate with TPD and the authorities on this matter. All appropriate steps have been taken to completely ban this individual from being on any Victory campus."