A 62-year-old man who served as a First Baptist Church pastor when a teenage girl accused him of giving her a spiked drink and sexually abusing her appeared in court on Saturday in the Florida Keys. Rev. Monte LaVelle Chitty, a registered police volunteer, appeared before Monroe County Circuit Judge James W. Morgan III at the Marathon Courthouse wearing a light blue jumpsuit and handcuffs. Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Chitty on March 4 after they found incriminating text messages to the girl including, “I prefer you pass out after I play not before” and “You can’t...

A South Florida pastor accused of sexually battering a 15-year-old girl in his church became a wanted man Monday after skipping out on scheduled court hearings. He’s believed to be on the run. Monte Chitty, the 62-year-old pastor of First Baptist Marathon, had been released on a $75,000 bond soon after his March arrest. Prosecutors say Chitty, who was supposed to be arraigned Monday, fled in a white van with out-of-state plates and is no longer believed to be in the Florida Keys. “Our understanding is that he’s already on the road and he’s left the state of Florida,” Monroe...

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...

William C. Robinson, a pastor working for Chi Alpha Campus Ministries in Corpus Christi, received 10 years probation after sexually abusing an underage family member. According to his indictment, Robinson sexually abused an underage family member between July 11, 2015 and June 27, 2022. The arrest affidavit states the sexual contact with the child began when she was nine. Robinson was arrested on June 11, 2022. On March 22, Robinson appeared in the 319th District Court where he accepted a plea deal that would avoid any jail time. He pleaded guilty to one count of continuous sexual...

Now, 25-year-old Zachary Luke Petree faces up to one year in prison as part of a deal where he pleaded guilty to one felony count of dissemination of matter harmful to minors. Allegations that Petree, who was the pastor of The Field Church in Markle, sent sexually explicit messages to the girl surfaced this past February when she told a woman she was living with about the messages, according to court documents. Some of the messages Petree is accused of sending asked the girl for sex, according to court documents. He’s also accused of giving the girl...

 - Set to plead guilty to the felony charge of indecency with a child under the age of 14 by sexual contact - a plea bargain with a pretrial diversion which may allow Murphy to avoid having to register as a sex offender - Murphy will have to pay a $500 fee upfront and serve two years of probation. If he completes the program, he will not be required to register as a sex offender. - Murphy would be allowed to pursue having the charges erased from his criminal record and still be allowed to continue preaching. - “Mr. Murphy...

Robert C. Stine, 60, of Middleton, who was pastor at Midvale Baptist Church, 821 S. Midvale Blvd., was charged  with two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child for alleged incidents about four years ago in which a girl who was then about 10 said he touched her improperly during a day camp that was held at the church. State regulators revoked the license of the daycare, called Kid’s Best Child Care, on June 30, 2023 after the girl’s mother reported the alleged abuse to police on April 21, 2023 according to a criminal complaint. A page...