By Beth Hundsdorfer
News-democrat
February 5, 2009
http://www.bnd.com/news/crime/story/643762.html
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| James K. Gullen - Provided to BND |
TROY -- A former Lutheran minister has been charged with aggravated predatory criminal sexual assault for the molestation in the church's parsonage of a boy who is less than 6 years old.
James K. Gullen, 53, served as the minister of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Troy until he received a felony driving under the influence charge last year, said the Rev. Herb Mueller, president of the Southern Illinois District of the Lutheran Churches of the Missouri Synod. Gullen has two prior DUI convictions.
"I had been trying to help him with his alcohol issues, but the felony charge was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak," Mueller said.
On March 31, the congregation accepted Gullen's resignation, Mueller said, but the congregation allowed Gullen and his wife to continue to live in the parsonage as an act of mercy for the wife, who taught at St. Paul's school.
In June, Troy police received a report that Gullen engaged in inappropriate behavior with a young boy who is related to Gullen, Detective James Newcombe said. The report was made very close in time to the abuse, Newcombe said.
The victim was taken to the Child Advocacy Center, where he was interviewed. A medical examination also was conducted, Newcombe said. The child was then returned to his parents.
Gullen was charged Jan. 22 and was arrested by Jacksonsville police that day at the new home he shares with his wife, who taught fifth and sixth grade at Salem Lutheran School in Jacksonville.
After his arrest, St. Paul's interim minister read the charges during the Sunday service, Mueller said.
"I helped them with that. I think they have tried to handle this in an open and up-front manner," Mueller said.
Gullen was ordained in 1982. He served in Michigan and Nebraska. Before coming to St. Paul's in Troy, Gullen served at Trinity Lutheran Church in Centralia, Mueller said.
After leaving Troy, Gullen taught adult bible school at Salem Lutheran Church. His class was studying the book of Exodus. On the Sunday after his arrest, Gullen was set to teach that faith-building, "foreshadows God's grace in Christ in bringing us from being slaves of sin to forgiven children of God with a heavenly inheritance," according to the church's newsletter.
Gullen remains in the Madison County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail.
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