‘I’m Watching You’: Inside MorningStar Ministries Sex Abuse Investigation

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An ex-U.S. Marine and former North Carolina police officer who posed as a youth minister is serving a nine-year prison sentence at an undisclosed South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) facility after sexually abusing multiple teen boys at a church-run youth program.

Accountability for these crimes did not end with the conviction of 27-year-old Erickson Douglas Lee in September 2024, however. His victims – and their families – are now seeking justice in civil court.

Four of the boys (now young men) abused by Lee have filed separate civil lawsuits in York County against Fort Mill, S.C.-based MorningStar Ministries and its leadership – claiming the abuse was not just the act of one predator, but rather the result of a system that failed to protect them.

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The lawsuits — filed by four John Does — name Erickson Lee, youth group volunteer Chase Portello, and MorningStar Ministries as primary defendants. Also named are several church officials, including MorningStar founder Rick Joyner, vice president David Yarnes, and Douglas Lee — Erickson Lee’s father and a former security officer at the church.

Ten additional unnamed individuals are also listed as defendants.

The allegations contained in the lawsuits focus not only on Lee’s actions, but also on what church leaders allegedly knew (or should have known) about them.

FITSNews filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on November 19, 2024 seeking records related to the criminal investigation. We finally received these documents on July 14, 2025. What they reveal is both damning and disturbing.

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RELATED | LAWSUITS EXPOSE MORNINGSTAR SEX ABUSE SCANDAL

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THE TIMELINE AND INVESTIGATION

Youth Special Forces was a faith-based leadership program that used military iconography to appeal to teen and tween boys. The program was Lee’s idea — he pitched the concept to church leaders in 2018.

Here is a timeline related to the launch of the program and the criminal investigation into its founder:

• 2018 – Erickson Lee launches Youth Special Forces (YSF) at MorningStar.
• ~2020: Lee brings a 13-year-old boy to Camp Lejune to help him move out of barracks. This marks the first reported assault noted in the investigation.
• 2020 – 2023: Victims say YSF meetings involved alcohol, nudity-based games, and coercive sexual conduct.
• January 2023: MorningStar disbands YSF.
• April 26, 2023: MorningStar’s Safety Coordinator, Nate DeGrandpre, contacts the York County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO).
• April 27–28, 2023: Detectives begin collecting interviews and digital evidence.
• May 2, 2023: Lee turns himself in.
• September 2024: Lee pleads guilty to multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, first-degree assault and battery and dissemination of obscene material to a minor.

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As noted in the timeline above, the report that initiated the investigation came from MorningStar’s safety coordinator, Nate DeGrandpre, on April 26, 2023.

“The three young boys stated that during the last two to three years Erickson Lee had provided them with alcohol, gotten them drunk, committed acts of a sexual nature, watched porn and repeatedly lied to their parents regarding their activities,” DeGrandpre said in a statement to investigators included in the report (.pdf).

DeGrandpre said he learned of the inappropriate behaviors on April 25, 2023 when contacted by parents of the boys. 

One of the parents told DeGrandpre he “became suspicious of Erickson at the beginning of 2023 when he found inappropriate text messages on his son’s phone.”

“Those messages were sexual in nature and included nude photos,” the report noted.

The father, whose name is redacted, stated he went to church leadership and Lee was removed immediately from the Youth Special Forces program. Dissolving the program did not end the bad behavior, however.

“Erickson was still contacting their sons through text,” DeGrandpre reported. “In recent weeks the two boys and their friends began to reveal that in the past two to three years Erickson had been giving them alcohol, getting them blackout drunk, wrestling and touching the minors inappropriately, and watching porn.”

DeGrandpre reported the misconduct to authorities four months after YSF had already been dissolved — a delay that raises significant concerns about institutional inaction. According to the investigative file, the church had shut down the program in January 2023 due to unrelated concerns raised by Lee’s mother. If church leadership had cause to shut down the program, it is unclear why they did not immediately report the situation to law enforcement or child protection agencies.

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RELATED | MORNINGSTAR MOUNTS AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE

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Interviews with the survivors revealed that Lee’s sexual abuse of the boys – and the control he wielded over them as a result – did not stop in between YSF camping trips. One of the boys told detectives about gatherings at Lee’s apartment where they would watch horror movies and rape documentaries – or explicit deviant pornography.

Invariably, Lee would find ways to get the boys to undress – often taking photos or videos of them. Alcohol was always a part of the equation. One of the boys said Lee gave him alcohol “too many times to count.” He also talked about a card game called “do this or drink this” in which the boys were dared to take their clothes off and perform or simulate sexual acts. Similarly, after getting them drunk and exposing them to pornography, Erickson encouraged the boys to engage in self-gratification – or to gratify each other. 

In between meetups, Lee used social media to communicate with the boys via a Snapchat group. Within that group, he sent nudes of himself to the boys. Lee and the boys also used FaceTime for one-on-one mutual self-gratification. One of the boys reported this occurred between 30 and 50 times when he was 14 and 15 years old. 

Perhaps most shocking, one of the boys told detectives in April 2023 that he still had a tracking app on his phone connected to Lee – so that Lee could check on him and know his location.

On April 28, 2023, as the boys were being interviewed by law enforcement, one of the minors received a text message that read “windshield wipers.” On his car, he found a picture of himself at the age of 13 or 14 and with it a note that said, “I’m watching you.”

Four months after YSF was dissolved, Lee was still in command – or trying to be, according to the investigative file.

Once the misconduct was reported to the York County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO), the victims were interviewed immediately and Lee was arrested and charged within a week.

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A PREDATOR’S PROFILE

The investigation revealed that Lee’s pattern was one of slow, calculated manipulation and collective coercion. Victim interviews revealed that he typically waited until he knew the boys for about a year before providing vapes, alcohol and pornography as a means of grooming. Not only did Lee provide the forbidden contraband, he also partook alongside the boys – establishing himself as something of a peer for purposes of bonding with them.

Lee’s attitudes toward substance use also factored into his control. While he freely provided alcohol and vapes, he tested the boys for other substances – positioning himself as both enabler and judge.

It is worth noting Lee had no prior criminal record. A background check could not have predicted the extreme sexual misconduct the church volunteer was capable of committing.

The lawsuits filed against MorningStar have converged with public calls for change. A petition circulating among former church members echoes the allegations against the church – and calls for structural reform. This petition demands Joyner’s resignation, independent audits of the ministry’s board and multiple child protection practices – including the implementation of mandatory sexual abuse prevention training across all levels of MorningStar, including its K-12 and ministry schools.

Lee is currently serving his sentence in a South Carolina prison, with a projected release date of April 2032. Count on FITSNews to continue tracking the civil lawsuits – which have become a central focus in an expanding narrative of institutional failure.

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THE INVESTIGATIVE REPORT…

(York County Sheriff’s Office)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Callie Lyons is a relentless investigative journalist, researcher, and author known for exposing hard truths with heart and precision. As a journalist for FITSNews, she dives into high-profile and murky cases—like that of Mica Francis Miller— with fearless resolve and a sharp eye for detail, whether it’s tracking white-collar crime, uncovering religious abuse, or examining the often-bizarre behavior of those who believe they’re above the law.

Callie made waves with her groundbreaking 2007 book Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof and Lethal, the first to reveal the dangers of forever chemicals, a story that helped inspire the film Dark Waters and influenced global scientific dialogue. Her work has appeared in numerous documentaries, including Toxic Soup, National Geographic’s Parched: Toxic Waters, and more recently Citizen Sleuth, which examines the complexities of true crime podcasting.

Whether she’s navigating environmental disasters or the darker corners of society, Lyons operates with one guiding belief: “Truth never damages a cause that is just.”

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