BishopAccountability.org
	Former Youth Minister on Trial on Sex Charges Pittsburgh Post-Gazette May 7, 2008 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08128/879620-56.stm Testimony began yesterday for a former youth minister charged with sexually assaulting three boys under his tutelage. A jury was sworn in yesterday morning, and testimony began in the afternoon in the case against the Rev. David Baird, 45, of West Deer. He faces more than 20 charges, including statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under age 16, sexual assault, indecent assault, indecent assault of a person under 16 and indecent exposure. Mr. Baird was youth minister at Covenant Church of Pittsburgh in Wilkinsburg in 1999 when an East Hills boy, the first to file a complaint, was recruited to participate in programs. The boy was 9 or 10 years old when the alleged assaults began, according to his testimony at a hearing in June. The youth, now 19, testified in that hearing that Mr. Baird had sexually assaulted him 20 to 40 times over the years. The second boy told investigators that Mr. Baird assaulted him on about a half-dozen occasions at the Bairds' former home on Orchard Drive in Penn Hills. The third alleged victim told investigators that he was on juvenile probation in 2002, and had been ordered to perform community service in Wilkinsburg with Mr. Baird as his supervisor. Instead of working on the assigned project, the boy said in a sworn affidavit, Mr. Baird drove him to Friendship Park in Penn Hills. The boy said he was "shocked, afraid and offended" as Mr. Baird molested him. The youth said the assault ended only after he began to cry out in pain. Testimony will continue today.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.