IOWA: “A former youth pastor with a wife and young child was arrested this week after he was accused of sexually abusing two teenage congregation members and allegedly telling one she couldn’t be part of the ministry if she reported the incidents to anyone. Ryan M. McKelvey, 27, a former youth pastor at Heritage Assembly Church, was charged with two counts of sexual exploitation by clergy and two counts of third-degree sexual abuse…. The church’s pastor told police that McKelvey had been dismissed for laziness and ‘spending too much time with the female juveniles of the church,’ according to the police report.”
GEORGIA: “A 22-year-old former youth minister and substitute teacher was arrested last week following an obscenity charge that had been filed against him. Alexander ‘Alec’ Edwards was arrested Thursday for obscene Internet contact with a child after some questionable material was discovered on his phone by his parents and brought to the attention of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office…. Larry Walters, superintendent of the Lee County School System, verified that Edwards had acted as a substitute teacher last year—and that his name has now been moved to the system’s inactive list. Up until his arrest, Edwards had been serving as the youth minister at Providence Church on Archwood Drive in Albany.”
CALIFORNIA: “A Carpinteria youth pastor pleaded guilty Thursday morning to committing sexual acts on two underage girls in the hotel where he also worked as an assistant manager. Louis Bristol, 28, will be sentenced next month to one year in Santa Barbara County Jail and five years of felony probation. He’ll also be required to register as a sex offender during his probation term but can petition to be removed from the registry at the end of the five years.”
ARIZONA: “The former youth pastor of a Yuma church could have been sent to prison for admitting that he purchased two sex toys for a young girl, but he wasn’t, instead being sentenced to a term of probation Wednesday in Yuma County Superior Court. Appearing before Superior Court Judge David Haws, 44-year-old Robert Eric Warren was sentenced to 36 months of supervised probation for one count of criminal trespass with a sexual motivation, which he recently plead guilty to in a plea agreement…. Court records indicate the victim sent Warren a text message asking him to purchase two sex toys for her and to drop them off at her house, which he did.”
