ROCKINGHAM — Police have charged a man with a new city ordinance after he allegedly moved a burning holy book into the street.
According to an arrest warrant, 32-year-old Anthony Jontathan Johnson refused to leave the property of Grace Fellowship Church on Midway Road on Aug. 20.
Johnson is also accused of threatening to burn down the church.
According to police, Johnson set fire to a Bible in the church parking lot before moving it into the road.
Johnson was arrested and charged with second-degree trespassing and communicating threats, as well as for violating an ordinance passed earlier this month by the Rockingham City Council that bans camping or setting fires on city property or public rights-of-way.
He is being held in the Richmond County Jail on a $5,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 28.
Johnson appears to have no other pending charges or prior convictions in the state. Online court records show he was cited for traffic violations last year, but those charges were dismissed.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
