The Cincinnati Enquirer – Sunday, June 16, 2013
Winburn's philosophy helped young man find his way
Written by Krista Ramsey
Nine years ago, a kid from the neighborhood wandered into Pastor Charlie Winburn’s College Hill church.
Demetrius Hill was eager, friendly, helpful, charming. He was also fatherless and poor – and maybe, if truth be told, a little too charming for his own good.
Winburn, who had grown up in foster care, saw a little of himself in 15-year-old Demetrius. He recognized that bent toward public oratory. And he well remembered that longing to belong to something, that hunger to be somebody.
For his part, Demetrius thought of Charlie as “a nice old man.” The fact that his pastor was on the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and had served as a Cincinnati City Council member was of no importance to a teenager who thought politics a waste of time. “I didn’t really know who Charlie Winburn was,” he said.
But Winburn liked an entourage and needed a right-hand guy, and Demetrius needed to be needed. Soon the teen was moving in Winburn’s wake, passing out church literature with him, campaigning for Ken Blackwell and Steve Chabot with him, chauffeuring Winburn from appointment to appointment. “He gets more work done when somebody else is driving,” Demetrius said with a smile.
Winburn embraced him as a protege and surrogate son. “I give everybody 100 percent trust,” he says now. “People say you shouldn’t do that, but I think you have to.”
Then Demetrius – who had volunteered to clean toilets at Winburn’s church, who donned dress shirts and ties at Winburn’s suggestion, who says Winburn is the “only father I’ve ever known” – stole his pastor’s credit card number and used it to buy three used cars.
Winburn confronted him. Demetrius lied. The credit card company pressed charges. Winburn advocated for him. Demetrius avoided jail time and spent a year in a residential community program.
He came out broke and virtually unemployable. He started his own entertainment management company and was quickly in over his head. “I failed miserably,” he says. He wrote bad checks to cover himself. This time, he went to prison for 2 ½ years.
“In prison, people forget all about you,” he says. “After you write for a while, no one writes back.”
WORRYING ABOUT REPUTATION STOPS YOU FROM REACHING OUT
But one person who didn’t forget was Charlie Winburn. His old pastor was one of the first people Demetrius called upon release: “I memorized his number, and his number is always the same.”
So is Winburn’s belief – his insistence – that life has a higher calling for Demetrius.
For two years, Demetrius has been doing the humbling work of restoring the trust he so flagrantly betrayed. He’s held down jobs and stayed out of trouble. He’s a faithful member at Winburn’s church. Still, he is a former felon, a fact that dress shirts and charm won’t change.
But honesty might.
“Every time I fill out an application, I have to think, ‘Do I check that box (acknowledging I have felonies) or not?’ ” he says. “If I don’t check that box, I’ll have an interview the next day. If I do, I’ll never get a call back.”
Unless the caller is Charlie Winburn.
In July, Winburn plans to hire Demetrius as a part-time member of his staff, to work with neighborhood groups and, perhaps later, with ex-offenders. He will not be the first council member to have a former felon on staff, but he might be the most open about it. He says it does little good for the city to have revised its policy for employing former offenders if no one actually hires them.
He accepts that not all officials – and not all voters – will see it his way.
“People have told me, ‘Winburn, you’ve got to watch your reputation’ but Jesus had no reputation – he was friends with thieves, prostitutes and the poor,” he says. “If you’re worrying about a reputation, you’re never able to help the people you need to help.”
'I NEVER GAVE UP - I KNEW HE'D FIND HIS WAY BACK'
Demetrius says this time, like the biblical parable of the prodigal son, he’s going to be worthy of Winburn’s trust.
“Out of the 20 friends I had when I was locked up, 18 are back in prison. I just refuse to go back,” he says.
Winburn says he’ll “watch and pray,” but he’s ready to take another chance on Demetrius.
“I never gave up – I knew he’d find his way back. And I knew he needed what I had to give.” ■