Former Baptist pastor indicted
Posted on 02/08/2003 4:22:45 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Former Baptist pastor indicted
Minister who left Flower Mound in 2001 faces sex charges
02/08/2003
A former Flower Mound Baptist pastor has been indicted by a Denton County grand jury in connection with sexual misconduct involving a 14-year-old girl and a woman in her 30s.
Grand jurors issued two indictments this week against Michael Wayne O'Guin, 34, who left The Church at Wichita Creek in Flower Mound amid allegations of misconduct in August 2001.
Mr. O'Guin, who arrived at the church in fall 1999, now lives in Tennessee.
Denton County District Attorney Bruce Isaacks said his office will seek to extradite Mr. O'Guin to Texas.
Mr. O'Guin was indicted on charges of the sexual assault of the girl and the attempted sexual assault of the woman. Officials say the later incident took place at the church.
Mr. O'Guin declined to comment Friday. He works at an insurance company in Dyersburg, Tenn.
He referred questions to his attorney, Knox Fitzpatrick, in Dallas. Mr. Fitzpatrick could not be reached for comment.
The girl was raped in spring 2001, said Flower Mound police Lt. Wendell Mitchell. The incident occurred at a residence on Devonshire Court in Flower Mound, according to police reports. Mr. O'Guin at one time lived on that street, Lt. Mitchell said. The girl reported the incident in September, he said.
The incident involving the woman occurred in fall 2000 at the church on Wichita Trail, Lt. Mitchell said. She reported the crime to police in October, he said.
Attempted sexual assault is a third-degree felony, punishable by two to 10 years in prison. Sexual assault is a second-degree felony, punishable by two to 20 years in prison.
"He is innocent until proven guilty, but any time you have an allegations of a sex crime involving a minister, that's fairly egregious," Mr. Isaacks said. "Any allegations like this tears up a church. This church, from what I understand, has pretty well recovered. They're moving down the road, but nevertheless, it had to be done."
The church's current pastor, David Sylvester, said in a written statement that the church is cooperating with authorities.
"The pastor and leadership group of The Church at Wichita Creek in Flower Mound has only recently been informed by local law enforcement officials of the pending legal charges against Mr. O'Guin," said Dr. Sylvester, who joined the church in June. "As church leaders, we are fully cooperating with all requests from legal authorities and trust that this matter will be resolved in a manner fully consistent with the law."
He said the Flower Mound church, which has about 175 members, is recovering and counseling is being offered.
"The church is a healthy church that has experienced growth in recent days and has a bright future," Dr. Sylvester said. "Our primary concern and prayer as a church is for the full restoration and spiritual healing of all the individuals who may have been involved in this matter."
Lt. Mitchell said he did not know why the women did not alert police sooner.
Two weeks after the second report was made, Flower Mound detectives traveled to Tennessee to question Mr. O'Guin, Lt. Mitchell said. He was arrested on the two charges and taken to the Dyer County jail.
Lt. Mitchell declined to say whether Mr. O'Guin gave investigators a statement.
Mr. O'Guin was released after posting a $1,000 bond the same day, Dyer County jail officials said.
Mr. Isaacks said that he was surprised when the Tennessee court set such a low bail for Mr. O'Guin.
"I'd be shocked if a ... [Texas] judge released someone like that on a $1,000 bond," Mr. Isaacks said.
He added that Mr. O'Guin's father-in-law is the Dyersburg police chief. The chief did not return phone calls Friday.
Mr. O'Guin was formerly a minister in Brookport, Ill., and also has lived in Missouri and Arizona, Mr. Isaacks said.
E-mail jtrahan@dallasnews.com
Yeah, Ronald Reagan. :)
Blondes always get a bad rap! :o)
Blondes??
I've never seen a thread bumped by more "new signups" than this one. Very odd.
Anyway, I should add this to my collection of links, for the next time someone says to me, "The only time pedophilia ever happens in a Church, it's in a Catholic church".
(and yes, I know we don't have any definitive answers about this case, but we often don't hear much more after a priest is merely charged with this crime either)
I know, it's strange the newbies flocking here.Yep, yep, and yep. :)
ALLEGED Pedophilia!!!! Remember, innocent until proven guilty!
All the "newbies" are personally involved with the accused. Will leave it at that.
Good point. I'll remember that the next time the anti-Catholic bleats start up after a preist is ONLY accused of the same crime.
Thanks.
Now my curiousity is really piqued. Do you know the accused personally? If so, what's the satus of his case?
I can't understand why others would possibly spend their time here to constantly "beat a dead horse".
Why are you intrigued by this 2 yr old case?
Why are you?
Do you all have other cases you post to or is this it?
I told you already....I KNOW the alleged.
Nope, this is it. We've been discussing nothing but this case for the last two years now. You must have missed the (very busy) "Flower Mound Sex Abuse" forum here, and just found this one thread....
wow. CLEANUP ON ISLES 5,6, and 7.
Thank you!! Thank you!!! For explaining this whole process to me. I have been chewed up and spit out over my not knowing how this all operates. All I know, is that I am very close to the alleged. Someone notified me about this site just recently. I have no other business on FreeRepublic but this, therefore I feel that justifies my ignorance of this website. Again...THANK YOU!
Why does that matter, and how is it you showed up? Are there self-appointed newbie cleaner-uppers roaming the forums like outlaws, picking off "curious" newbies? And when do people stop getting the newbie label? Is there a specific number of posts, or do we have to post on other forums?
Well, you are showing a fair amount of intelligence by using the proper word for your 'status'. I mean Ignorance. So many posters think it means stupid or dumb, and it in no way means that at all. I was completely ignorant of this whole case until it got 'bumped to the top' by the recent flurry of posts.
As the other poster was explaining, each new 'post' to a thread puts it closer to the top of the NEWEST POSTS listing. The more posts the higher it goes in the list. That is why you may see people just posting "BTTT". It means BUMP TO THE TOP.
There are several mixups that happen here on F.R. that cause confusion to users. One is posting a reply to the wrong poster NAME. A second one is misinterpreting the wording in a post to you. It is so difficult to get the proper context of a statement when there are no facial movements or tone of voice indicators.
After a while, one learns to be very careful with their wording, and tries to make sure they provide additional clarification as often as possible.
As someone said earlier this month, "in a court of law, you are presumed innocent until proven guilty" (although it doesn't really work that way in court either), but on an OPEN FORUM on the INTERNET, there are no such laws in place.
It pays to read very carefully, noting DATES first. The 'old article' bit has 'bitten' many, many posters.
What interests me, concerning your posts, is what has happened to this man that was accused of these two crimes?
It has been two years since the original accusations, and 99% of these POSTED ARTICLES are never followed up on.
Has he gone to trial? Were the charges founded, or were the accusers making false claims for some reason?
You have made me curious, now.
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