Creflo Dollar, Megachurch pastor, denies punching his 15-year-old daughter

Megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar denied punching and choking his 15-year-old daughter, addressing the charges from the pulpit Sunday before a sermon.

Dollar got an "enthusiastic ovation" at the World Changers Church International in metro Atlanta, according to the Associated Press.

"I will say this emphatically: I should have never been arrested," he said, adding the allegations in a police report are nothing but "exaggeration and sensationalism."

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It was Dollar's first public appearance since Friday when police charged him with misdemeanor counts of simple battery and cruelty to children and released him on $5,000 bail, USA Today reported. 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Fayette County Sheriff’s deputies arrested him after his 15-year-old daughter called 911. Deputies also spoke with his older daughter 19-year-old, Alexandria Dollar, who confirmed that her father "choked her little sister for about five seconds with both his hands before grabbing the younger teen by the shoulders, slapping her, then throwing her to the ground."

“A family conversation with our youngest daughter got emotional,” Dollar told the congregation Sunday. “She was not choked. She was not punched.”

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Dollar is one of the nation's most prominent African-American preachers with 30,000 members in and around the Atlanta area and other churches across the country, the AP wrote.