PENSACOLA (FL)
Pensacola News Journal
Kristen Rasmussen
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
A former local pastor faces up to five years in prison after pleading no contest to charges that he solicited sex over the Internet from a sheriff's deputy posing as a teenage boy.
Michael Anthony Harris, 43, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 28 on the third-degree felony charges of attempted lewd or lascivious battery and using a computer to solicit the sexual conduct of a crime, according to court documents.
Harris served as pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Pensacola until he resigned shortly after his arrest on April 13.
Ron Sedlacek, a longtime member of St. Paul's, said the congregation is being led by an interim pastor and has "healed very well" in the months since Harris was arrested and resigned.
"We have a lot of good people in the church, and we have some good plans," Sedlacek said. "We recognize that things happen to all people, but it's not something to get mired down in. We need to move ahead.