954: Lawrence Hopkins
Solicitation of a Minor
Lawrence Hopkins was a pastor in Baytown, Texas. Before that he was a youth pastor. He was caught in an online sting by a police officer pretending to be a minor.
Tag: Pastor
953: David Pettigrew
Child Sexual Abuse Material
David Pettigrew was a pastor and educator who abused the trust of parents and parishioners to get access to their children whom he secretly filmed to create child sex abuse material. He was sentenced to thirty years.
952: William C. Robinson
Child Indecency, Child Molestation, Child Rape
William C. Robinson was a pastor working for Chi Alpha Campus Ministries in Corpus Christi. A young girl reported that he had continuously sexually abused her for five years, beginning when she was nine. The police said he wanted to confess to inappropriate touching. He is out on bond and has a hearing in June, 2023.
947: Benjamin Nelson
Child Molestation, Child Rape, Sexual Assault
Benjamin Nelson was the pastor of a small Baptist Church in Peoria, in Hill County, Texas. He was also a student at Baylor University, a private Baptist university. He used social media to draw a thirteen-year-old girl to meet him in a parking lot where he sexually abused her. Her mother found them and pulled the girl out of the car when Nelson reversed either accidentally or purposefully trying to hit them. For that he was charged with deadly conduct.
946: Frank Brown
Child Molestation, Child Rape, Sexual Abuse
William Frank Brown was the pastor at the Bellmead First Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. Before that he was the pastor of Panther Creek New Beginnings Baptist Church in Chandlerville, Illinois. He molested children at both churches.
944: Brian Pounds
Child Molestation, Child Rape, Grooming, Menacing
Brian Pounds was a minister at First Assembly of God in Vernon, Texas. He was arrested in 2021 after the mother of a fifteen-year-old girl took her to the police where she reported that Pounds had been providing her with meth and sexually abusing her, including choking her one time.
943: Aaron Duane Shipman
Child Molestation, Child Rape, Rape
Aaron Duane Shipman was the pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas. In January, 2022, he was arrested for sexual assault of a minor. On January 17th, 2022, an eighteen-year-old woman went to police to report that she had been raped the night before by her pastor, who had been sexually assaulting her repeatedly since she was sixteen. They did a rape exam and found evidence of sexual trauma. He was arrested on the 20th.
942: Conrad Estrada Valdez
Child Molestation, Child Rape
Conrad Estrada Valdez was the pastor of Restoration Outreach Church in Houston, Texas. Around 2005, a fifteen-year-old girl sought him out for counseling after she was sexually assaulted. He began touching her and eventually sexually abusing her. He threatened to expose her to her family which kept her quiet for fifteen years until she saw a documentary about sexual assault survivors.
941: Jonathan Ensey
Child Indecency, Solicitation of a Minor
Jonathan Ryan Ensey was music director and worship leader at Living Way Church where his father was pastor. He pursued a sexual relationship with a child he met when she was nine. As her pastoral leader, he persuaded her that what he was doing was perfectly fine. So fine that she mentioned to her father that she was in a relationship with him. The father found thousands of texts from him to his daughter including a photo Ensey took from the pulpit referencing fellatio that he sent to a child.
927: Jon Courson
Sexual Misconduct
Jon Courson was the pastor of Applegate Christian Fellowship. He abused his position to pursue a relationship with an employee and parishioner who subsequently left her job and her church. She told the pastor of the Medford Christian Fellowship, her new church, who arranged a meeting with her and an elder of Applegate. The other elders were informed but did nothing to discipline Courson.