Authorities said the pastor of a Minneapolis church and his son are accused of beating a 12-year-old boy because he was misbehaving in school and had rejected his faith.
Pastor Dong Wook Kim, 51, and Joo Seong Kim, 19, are charged with second- and third-degree assault and malicious punishment of a child. Prosecutors said the two men beat the boy with a piece of lumber, a wooden rod and an electrical cord last week.
One of the men told police the beatings were simple discipline done at the request of the boy's parents, the Star Tribune reported.
A criminal complaint said the boy was found wandering the streets in frigid temperatures after fleeing from the Good News Church. A neighbor took the boy in and called police. The complaint said he was taken to a hospital with bruising on his body, "one of which was the approximate size of a football." The boy's 4-year-old sister has been taken into protective custody after the 12-year-old said his sister had also been subjected to the same abuse, the complaint said.
Both defendants are being held in the Hennepin County jail.
It wasn't immediately clear if Kim and his son have attorneys who can speak on their behalf.
