In a news release, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Becky Herrin said deputies were informed of what happened after an anonymous caller reported overhearing a girl telling an adult that she had been raped. Herrin said the girl and her grandmother had boarded a dinghy and headed out to the harbor.

Meanwhile, as deputies were searching for her, authorities received a second call. It was from Chitty, Herrin said.

Chitty, Herrin said, told dispatchers “he believed he was about to be accused of something and he wanted to get ahead of it,” saying that “a young girl at his church had been drinking and had passed out on a couch in the library of the church. He said he helped her to lie down on the couch but did not touch her after that.”

Authorities said the girl was found on board a boat where she lives and told deputies that “Chitty gave her alcohol that she thinks might have been ‘spiked’ with something else. She said she immediately began to feel weak and lost consciousness.”

When she woke up, she found Chitty molesting her, Herrin said the girl told deputies.

“Further investigation by detectives revealed text messages between the victim and Chitty,” Herrin said. “In those messages, which were found on both his and her phones, Chitty made reference to having sexual relations with the girl while she was impaired.”

Herrin said Chitty “was a registered volunteer with the Sheriff’s Office who offered his services as a pastor” beginning last April, but, to date, “he has not performed any services for the office.”

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In court, the lead detective said the clergyman has lived in 25 states where he’s worked in churches and may have places to hide out; Ward echoed those concerns.

“This guy’s a former cop from Alaska and a preacher and he violated a 15-year-old girl,” Ward said. “So I’m concerned about everybody in this guy’s path.”