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...

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...

Former Ocean Springs martial arts instructor Allan Todd Pisarich was convicted of six counts of sexual battery and three counts of touching a child for lustful purposes in the Circuit Court of Jackson County Monday morning. According to District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath, the 54-year-old pled guilty to the sexual battery and touching of a child for lustful purposes of two child victims who were between 10 and 14 years old at the time of the crimes. Judge Calvin Taylor sentenced Pisarich to 40 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with 20 years to serve day for...