ROCKFORD (IL)
Rockford Register Star
By CORINA CURRY, Rockford Register Star
ROCKFORD -- A civil lawsuit has been filed against a pastor who had a sexual relationship with a teenage girl in his youth group. The suit also names the church's senior pastor and the church as defendants.
The Winnebago girl, who is now an adult, claims that her former youth pastor, Bradley Bounds of Rockford, "exploited and perverted his position of trust" by engaging in a consensual romantic and sexual relationship with her when she was 17.
Bounds, then 28, was married with a 2-year-old son.
She also claims that Rock Church, the Rockford church that she attended from age 7 to 17, and the church's senior pastor, John Sprecher, did not do enough to protect her from Bounds and was negligent in hiring and training him.