David Young
RIO GRANDE — A Gallia County pastor was arrested on Tuesday afternoon and is being charged in relation to allegations that he had sexually assaulted a teenager who had been his student.
David Young, 46, was taken into custody by deputies with the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office with the assistance of agents with Crimes Against Children Unit of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) at the Simpson Chapel United Methodist Church in Rio Grande where he is the pastor.
According to a press release issued by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Young has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenager between the ages of 13 and 14 who was part of a class he had been teaching through the church.
“These allegations are extremely distressing because Ohioans should be able to trust people in positions of authority,” Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine commented about the case. “We will go to all lengths necessary to hold those who commit crimes against children accountable.”
A felony charge of the unlawful sexual conduct with a minor was officially filed by the Gallia County Prosecutor’s Office against the suspect on Wednesday afternoon with the Gallipolis Municipal Court and Young is reportedly scheduled to be arraigned before Municipal Court Judge Margaret Evans on Thursday.
Following his arraignment, a probable cause hearing will be scheduled in this case in which Judge Evans will decide whether the case will be bound over to the Common Pleas Court of Gallia County to be heard by a grand jury for further review.
According to the release, authorities are not commenting on the frequency of the alleged abuse or the locations where the incidents may have taken place. Investigators, however, are warning the community that there could be other victims.
“These are very serious allegations, and we urge anyone with additional information to come forward,” Gallia County Sheriff Joseph Browning stated. “We are thankful to the attorney general and the agents with Bureau of Criminal Investigation who quickly took action to help us investigate these allegations of abuse.”
Young is being held in the Gallia County Jail awaiting his initial court appearance.
Anyone with additional information regarding this case can contact the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 855-BCI-OHIO (855-224-6446) or the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office at 740-446-1221.
Child predators are very cunning and manipulative. They know every trick on how to groom, threaten, lie, and put the fear of god into their victims and sometimes even their family members.
They also appear to do a lot of goods things, they can be very charismatic and you may think they would never harm a child. They have to be this way, in order to not get caught and to continue to abuse
Sexual predators are often powerful and well-loved. It would be comforting if those who preyed on the vulnerable were obvious social misfits whose appearance would somehow set off alarm bells and give us the willies or the creeps. They rarely do. Usually, predators are among the last people we would suspect of sexually violating others. At a party, the predator isn't some oddball sitting alone in a corner because others feel uncomfortable with him. Most often, the predator is the guy throwing the party.
We must overcome the dangerous myth that because someone is successful or warm or caring, he or she couldn't have done that!
Also, we must stop thinking that because a man is old, that somehow he's automatically safe. It's just irresponsible to endanger kids by assuming an adult is harmless simply because he or she may be losing hair, wearing glasses, using hearing aids or walking with a cane. These can be signs of advancing age, but they are not signs that an individual is safe around kids.
This victim is extremely brave for taking action to expose the truth about being sexually abused and getting Pastor David Young arrested and away from kids.
Let's hope that every person who saw, suspected or suffered sex crimes by Young, will also find the courage and strength to speak up and call police.
Keep in mind that child predators rarely have only one victim. And your silence only hurts, and by speaking up there is a chance for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511. snapjudy@gmail.com,
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,) is the worlds oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims.
SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 12,000 members. Despite the word priest in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers and increasingly, victims who were assaulted in a wide range of institutional settings like summer camps, athletic programs, Boy Scouts, etc.