Orlando Sentinel
January 4, 2007
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lbriefs04_507
jan04,0,7435608.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-lake
Tavares -- A pastor who repeatedly molested a parishioner's grandson was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison.
His head bowed, Douglas Myers, 57, who had been pastor of Triangle Community Church in Eustis, listened impassively as a prosecutor read a seething letter from the boy's mother.
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| Douglas Myers |
"You believe in God?" the letter demanded. "How, then, in God's eyes, could you do this?"
Myers pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious molestation.
Court records show he had sexual contact with the boy, then 13, over a six-month period in the youth's bedroom at his grandmother's home.
Myers befriended the boy, now in high school, by driving him to school, taking him to Walt Disney World and giving him money.
Although Myers initially denied sexual contact with the boy, he later admitted the crime in an interview with a Lake County deputy sheriff, saying it would destroy his life and family.
Myers had been a clergyman for 30 years.
Assistant State Attorney Jonathan Olson said investigators considered the possibility of other victims but did not find any.
Stephen Hudak, Christine Dellert and Nin-Hai Tseng of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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