929: Nicholas Kelley

Nicholas Kelley was a youth pastor at New Bridges Church, in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He sexually abused a fourteen=year=old girl. His crime was revealed when she had a nervous breakdown and hospitalized. That is when her parents learned of the “relationship.” He confessed to the church elders the next day that he had “inappropriate physical interactions” with her.

He agreed to surrender to the police who were called to arrest him. He was charged with child molestation, statutory rape and aggravated sexual battery. He was convicted and sentenced to twenty years.

• 11 Alive: Youth pastor admits to ‘inappropriate physical interactions’ with 14-year-old girl
• Gwinnet Daily Post: New Bridges Church youth pastor arrested, charged for relationship with 14-year-old
• re:SearchGA: State vs. Kelley Case #: 17-B-00785-8

The Atlanta Constitution
Atlanta, Georgia · Thursday, December 29, 2016

928: Jeffrey Winston Forrest

Jeffrey Winston Forrest was a youth pastor at Pioneer Baptist Church in Abilene, Texas. In 1998, there were allegations against him for sexual abuse. Children’s Protective Services investigated but the police did not pursue as there were discrepancies between the child’s two interviews. He did not face justice for 23 more years.

That victim got to testify when Forrest was finally prosecuted in 2021. In 2011, an adult who had been abuse by Forrest since he was six years old until he was in 7th or 8th grade came forward. A new CPS investigation was opened, but nothing happened again.

He admitted the abuse to his wife who stayed with him, but then divorced him and said she needed sole custody because he molested children. There was another CPS investigation and while he had not molested his own children, they learned he had molested several people. He was arrested in 2015, but skipped on bail, fleeing to Mexico where he was finally arrested four years later.

He was convicted in April 2021. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison for two counts, running concurrently.

• Abilene Reporter News: Update: Jeffrey Forrest found guilty of child sexual assault charges
• The Cinemaholic: Where is Serial Child Abuser Jeffrey Forrest Now?
• Abilene Reporter News: Forrest given 99 years for each conviction of sexual assault of a child

Jeffrey Winston Forrest

924: Ronnie Lee Barron

Ronnie Lee Barron was the youth pastor at Loris Presbyterian Church, in Loris, South Carolina. He was also volunteer baseball coach at the high school. He was arrested in December 2021, accused of sexual exploitation of a minor and sexual battery. The minor was a student at Loris High School and 17 years old. Barron sexually abused the youth several times from March to June 2021. He also took nude photos and made a video of a sex act with the youth.

He pled guilty and was sentenced an eight year prison sentence that was suspended, probation and registry as a sex offender for life.

• My Horry News: Loris youth pastor resigns after arrest in connection to sex crimes against a minor
• My Horry News: Former Loris assistant baseball coach gets probation for sexual exploitation of a minor

Sun-News
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina · Thursday, December 30, 2021

921: Dustin Colony-Herrera

Dustin Colony-Herrera was the youth pastor at Yucaipa Christian Church in San Bernadino County, California back in 2004 when the first allegations of child sexual abuse were made. Meanwhile, he lived over the county line in Riverside County where some of the abuse is said to have occurred. So, some of the abuse was reported in one county and some in another and due to that, investigators had no idea of the scope of his abuse. To make things worse, when they began investigating, he moved to Medford, Oregon, and didn’t show up for his court date.

In 2009, a person abused by Colony-Herrera in both counties reported what happened to him, leading to the two investigations finally being aware of each other and a realization that they were dealing with a serial predator. He is alleged to have abused eight pre-teen children.

He was arrested, finally, in 2019, and extradited to California. He denied the allegations, claiming they misunderstood his affectionate manner.

• Press-Enterprise: Ex-youth leader at Yucaipa church accused of molesting 8 children in Calimesa
• Palm Springs Desert Sun: Youth pastor’s alleged sex abuse obscured by county, state lines for 15 years

The Desert Sun
Palm Springs, California · Tuesday, April 16, 2019

920: Peter Bass

Peter Bass was youth pastor at Brooks Assembly of God. Brooks is an unincorporated community north of Salem, Oregon. He was accused of repeatedly raping an underage girl. The police said he did not know her through church.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 33 years in prison plus 46 years and 8 months of post-prison supervision and registry as a sex offended.

At sentencing, Kurston Ross, a member of the church advocated for him, describing him as a great leader. “He was a great pastor,” Ross said. “I trust him. I always have. To this day I still trust him and respect him greatly. Our youth were devastated, but they tell me that they still love him and respect him.”

smh

• Oregonian: Former youth pastor sentenced to 33 years for raping girl
• Statesman Journal: Brooks youth pastor sentenced to 33 years in rape of girl

Statesman Journal
Salem, Oregon · Tuesday, May 05, 2015

919: Kenneth Baker

Kenneth Baker was the youth pastor at the First Baptist Church of Ashland, Oregon. He was accused of sexually abusing a child he knew through the church from 2006 and 2011. The abuse began when she was thirteen.

He confessed to the church when questioned and they reported him to the police and fired him.

He was arrested and charged with 4 felony and 2 misdemeanor counts. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 126 months plus life on sex offender registry. The judge noted it was the second case in a month were someone violated pastoral trust.

• KMTR: Former Ashland youth pastor arrested & faces sex charges
• Medford Mail Tribune: Former pastor gets prison for abuse

Associated Press State Wire: Oregon (OR)
December 6, 2016

914: Michael Paul Keech

Michael Paul Keech was a youth pastor at Saluda River Baptist Church in West Columbia, South Carolina. He began working there in 2019 and was fired in 2021 when a new pastor took over. Within two weeks of the new pastor taking over, Keech was fired. He said “there were some thing that were in the personnel file that I found to not being conducive of the personality and character of someone serving in the ministry. So we fired him.”

The pastor said they are fully cooperating with the police, but if the file contained information on predatory behavior, they did not inform police since he wasn’t arrested until the following year.

A family member noted signs of abuse in the victim and went to the police. Keech was arrested in October, 2022 for sexually abusing a child for two years. Bond was denied on the four charges against him.

• Lexington County Chronicle: Former West Columbia Youth Pastor Accused of Sexually Abusing Teen Boy
• Baptist Press: Former South Carolina youth pastor charged with criminal sexual conduct of minor

The State
Columbia, South Carolina · Monday, October 24, 2022

910: Jonathan Myers

Jonathan Mark Myers was a youth pastor and principal of a parochial school associated with the same church in Edinburgh, Indiana. As principal, he pursued an inappropriate relationship with a young girl. He gave her rides to and from church and began grooming her. Eventually, he began sexually abusing her.

When her parents’ home was damaged and unlivable, she was invited to stay with Myers and his wife. For three years, he repeatedly sexually assaulted her. When she was 18 he discovered she had a boyfriend. He showed her two bullets saying this was what he had to do. She threw his gun into the woods and had sex with him, though she did not think of it as consensual since she was afraid he would kill both of them.

Ten years later she went to the police. Her diary corroborated her allegations and after all this time, the police searched the woods and found the gun that traced back to Myers. He was arrested in October, 2022 on three counts of Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor, one count of Class C felony sexual misconduct with a minor and four counts of Class D felony child seduction.

A trial is schedule for August 2023.

• Fox 59: Court Docs: youth pastor groomed teenager, took her away from home
• Courier Times: Former youth pastor accused of sex crimes against a child
• Indiana Courts: Indiana vs Jonathan M Myers

903: Stephen Parshall

Stephen Parshall is one of the Boogaloo Bois and was part of a plot to create terror during the George Floyd and anti-lockdown protests. His stepdaughter alleged she was sexually abused by Parshall and one of his associates. When he was arrested, they found child sex abuse material on his phone. They found text conversations with a child under 18 whom he persuaded to send him explicit photos.

He pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

• Dept of Justice: Las Vegas Man Pleads Guilty to Child Sexual Exploitation
• 3 News: Man accused in Las Vegas ‘Boogaloo’ plot pleads guilty to child sex crimes
• Las Vegas Review Journal: Man tied to boogaloo movement sentenced for child sexual exploitation

Reno Gazette-Journal
Reno, Nevada · Wednesday, March 22, 2023

897: Warren Jeffs

Warren Jeffs is the leader of a reactionary Mormon cult that defies the official church by continuing to practice polygamy. He raped multiple children, fathered children by children, and married several children. Twenty-four of his 78 marriages were to children under seventeen. One was as young as twelve.

• ABC: Polygamist Warren Jeffs Guilty of Child Rape
• CNet: ‘Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey’ — What Happened to Warren Jeffs and the FLDS?

Times Record News
Wichita Falls, Texas · Wednesday, August 10, 2011