A former youth pastor in Florida was apprehended by authorities after he sent nude photos and inappropriate messages to an underage girl.
A 26 year old former youth pastor at Wesley United Methodist Church on Marco Island, Florida was arrested for sending nude photographs of himself and lewd messages to a female minor on social media. Christopher Jaime Reyes was found to be " sending nude photographs, some of himself" to the victim, as per Detective Lorenzo Smith of the Marco Island Police Department.
On Friday, Reyes was arrested and charged with "transmission of material harmful to minors by electronic device or equipment" and "soliciting a child for unlawful sexual conduct using computer services or devices," the Marco Eagle reported. Reyes was a former youth pastor who worked for Wesley United Methodist Church from 2016 to 2021.
Smith told Wink News that the investigation into Reyes began in October 2021, when Reyes was still working as a youth pastor at the church. But he did not meet his victim at the church. Smith said, "The relationship formed all on social media platforms, Instagram, Snapchat." He added that Reyes had asked his victim more and more and even attempted to meet up with the underaged girl, but this never transpired.
"The victim provided us with screenshots of some of the lewd messaging," Smith confirmed. "It's always an unfortunate thing when somebody who is a custodian of children, you know, aging from five to you know the teenage years are doing this kind of behavior."
The Christian Post reported that investigators are now looking into whether Reyes had other victims in the church.
In Texas, a youth pastor was arrested on several charges of sexual assault against a child, KSAT reported last week. The 32 year old youth pastor and aide and counselor for a school district in Mesquite named Connor Penny was arrested on April 5 and booked into the Dallas County Jail for charges such as "aggravated sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child with sexual contact and continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14," as per court records.
The Mesquite Police Department reported that Penny had sexual contact with a female victim under the age of 17 several times between 2015 and 2018. Police added that since his arrest, more victims came forward to report abuse by Penny that occurred between 2013 and 2021.
Penny was a youth pastor at Inspiration Church, formerly known as Mimosa Lane Baptist Church and previously worked at the City of Mesquite and as a teacher's aide at the Mesquite Independent School District, where he served as a counselor for the Recreational After School Program. He is now set with a bond of $2.5 million.
In Las Vegas, an arrest report from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) in February revealed several sexual assault allegations and charges against 59 year old Reynaldo Crespin of New Horizon Christian Church, who was accused of committing various lewd and sexual acts on a child, specifically on an underage relative, 8News Now reported.
Crespin's arrest report details an explicit account of the pastor's assaults of his underage relative that began in 2014. Investigators claimed that the pastor performed the sexual assaults at home, at his church, and inside vehicles. He now faces four counts of sexual assault with a minor, three counts of lewdness with a child under the age of 14, six counts of lewdness with a child under 16, two counts of child abuse, and one count of open of gross lewdness.
