By Stephen Tait
Times Herald
July 10, 2009
http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20090710/NEWS01/907100301/1002
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| IN TROUBLE: Youth pastor Craig Coon talks in 2004 at Cornerstone Church in Clyde Township. Coon, who no longer serves at the church, was arraigned Thursday on a charge of accosting a child for immoral purposes. Times Herald file photo by MARK R. RUMMEL |
Former Cornerstone leader arraigned in case involving child
A 46-year-old Kimball Township man who is a former local youth pastor is facing a felony charge of accosting a child for immoral purposes, a case that involves confiscated computers and electronics from a Clyde Township church, officials said.
Craig Coon is due in court for a preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. July 21 in front of District Court Judge John Monaghan, said Mike Wendling, St. Clair County Prosecutor.
Coon was arraigned Thursday.
The incident took place on or around Nov. 11, 2008, in Clyde Township, Wendling said, though he couldn't provide an address.
Wendling said a Blackberry cell phone, a laptop computer and a Dell computer tower were confiscated from the Cornerstone Church, 4025 North Road, Clyde Township.
Wendling said the property was given voluntarily by the church. He said the computer equipment was confiscated for "a communications issue."
The felony warrant said Coon was wanted since he "did accost, entice, or solicit (victim), a child less than 16 years of age, with the intent to induce or force that child to commit an immoral act, to submit to an act of sexual intercourse or an act of gross indecency, or other act of depravity or delinquency, or did encourage the child to engage in one of these acts."
St. Clair County Sheriff Department officials wouldn't comment on the case. Capt. Barry Brockdorf referred questions to the detective working the case, who was not on duty Thursday.
Bryan Black, a lawyer serving as spokesman for Cornerstone Church, said Coon no longer works at the church.
"The church has cooperated with law enforcement from the very beginning and until there is a resolution in the manner, there will be no further comment," he said.
A phone number listed for Coon at his Kimball Township home was disconnected. He could not be contacted for comment.
In 2004, the Times Herald reported about Coon as the leader of The Quest, a contemporary church service that attracted many teenagers and 20-somethings in a casual setting.
"I want to get people to start asking where they are spiritually, what they need to do to start walking with Jesus," Coon said in the article. "We need to get past those stereotypes they hold about church. They're roadblocks to Christianity."
Contact Stephen Tait at (810) 989-6275 or at stait@gannett.com
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