CHENEY (KS)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By Susan Schrock
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
CHENEY, Kan. - The 8-year-old girl and her brother invited fellow church member Jeremiah Sexton to join them in a game of tag in the yard of Cheney Baptist Church.
It was Sunday, Jan. 9, 2000. Months later, the girl told her parents that Sexton had grabbed her and touched her inappropriately after her brother left the game. She said Sexton, who was 17, had told her "to keep it a secret."
She was one of four girls Sexton was convicted of fondling at the church during a nine-month period. Although many in the tight-knit congregation came to learn of Sexton's crimes, few people outside of the church were aware of them.
School officials, local media outlets and even his grandmother said they didn't know that Sexton withdrew from high school in April 2000 because he had been placed in a juvenile detention center and ordered into sex offender therapy.
After he was released in 2002, Sexton moved with his family to Springtown, Texas. Because he was convicted as a juvenile, Sexton wasn't required by Kansas law to tell anyone he was a sex offender.
His criminal past wasn't revealed until February when Sexton, now 22, was charged with abducting and sexually assaulting two young Arlington girls.
Posted by kshaw at March 6, 2005 08:04 AM