APNewsBreak: Police investigating how teenage Christian convert ran away to Florida from Ohio

APNewsBreak: Police probe how Ohio convert fled

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio minister accused of driving a teenage runaway to a bus station last year has retained a lawyer as police say they’re investigating whether anyone broke the law in helping the Christian convert leave home for Florida.

The minister, Brian Williams, has retained Michigan attorney Keith Corbett of the Thomas More Law Center, Corbett told The Associated Press on Friday.

“We’re representing Mr. Williams in the event he’s contacted by police authorities … and asked to provide information,” Corbett said.

A message was left with Williams on Facebook. No charges have been filed. The Thomas More Law Center frequently represents clients in religious freedom cases.

The Columbus Police Department is investigating “any criminal wrongdoing with anyone involved in getting her from one location to another,” Sgt. Rich Weiner said Friday.

Bary, a 17-year-old from a Muslim family, disappeared from her home in New Albany in suburban Columbus in July and was discovered in Orlando, Fla., a few weeks later living with a minister and his wife, whom she had met on Facebook.

The girl claimed she could be harmed or killed for converting to Christianity, a charge her parents, immigrants from Sri Lanka, have denied.

Bary was returned to Ohio after custody hearings in Florida and an investigation by Florida police, who found no credible threats to the girl.

Bary and her parents, Aysha and Mohamed Bary, initially agreed she would stay in foster care and they would undergo counseling instead of going to trial to determine where the girl should live.

That deal broke down when the Barys alleged that Franklin County Children Services was permitting Rifqa to communicate with the Florida pastor and his wife.

Attorneys for both Rifqa Bary and her parents are under a gag order and said Friday they could not comment.

An Oct. 15 affidavit filed in Franklin County Juvenile Court alleged Williams drove the girl to the Columbus Greyhound station in late July. There, Bary received a bus ticket purchased by certain “Christian Associates” the teen met on Facebook, the affidavit said.

The affidavit also said “conspiring adults” had planned locations around the country for the girl to run away to but that Orlando was the primary “Planned Sanctuary.”