By Davin White
Charleston Gazette
May 20, 2011
http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201105191256
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| Pastor Mathew D. Jarrell |
A pastor from Texas allegedly forced a 36-year-old woman into "sexual acts" after driving her from a Charleston bar to a secluded area in Sissonville, according to the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.
Mathew D. Jarrell, 41, of Terrell, Texas, apparently offered the woman a ride home from the bar, which police did not identify. Instead, he drove to the secluded area. His truck got stuck in mud and the woman was able to flee.
Jarrell was arrested Thursday morning and charged with second-degree sexual assault, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court. He was taken to the South Central Regional Jail, where he remained under a $75,000 cash-only bail Thursday evening.
According to the complaint, the woman was approached by Jarrell, whom she did not know. She needed a ride home, and he said he would take her. Instead, he drove to an area off Martins Branch Road, where he held the woman's face down on the seat of his truck, forcibly pulled her pants down and sodomized her, according to the complaint.
After the woman escaped, she contacted police and described Jarrell and his truck. When a sheriff's deputy detained Jarrell, he originally denied having sex with the woman, but later admitted to it, according to the complaint.
"According to family members, Jarrell was supposed to be in Pennsylvania," Lt. Sean Crosier of the Sheriff's Department said in a news release.
Crosier said Jarrell has similar charges pending in San Antonio. Details of those charges were not available Thursday night.
According to the church's website, Jarrell is the pastor at Open Door Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas, a city of nearly 140,000 residents east of Dallas. A photograph on the website shows Jarrell with his wife and four children.
Jarrell had said he was a preacher from a Texas church, Crosier said.
A man who another church member identified as Open Door's associate pastor said Thursday evening that he was not ready to make a statement. He said he had just learned about the allegations against Jarrell.
"I'm just not making comment until I find out what I've got to do on this end," the man said. "I've got a lot to deal with here right now."
Reach Davin White at davinwh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1254.
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