Abuse Case Talks Called Privileged, by Ruth Ingram, The Clarion-Ledger, August 28, 2011

Abuse Case Talks Called Privileged

By Ruth Ingram
The Clarion-Ledger
August 28, 2011

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20110828/NEWS/108280371/Abuse-case-talks-called-privileged?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|s

Langworthy

Any discussions between embattled ex-minister John Langworthy of Clinton, his church's pastor, and its board of elders is privileged and can't be divulged, the church's attorney says.

But prosecutors investigating allegations that Langworthy sexually abused children two decades ago say they're entitled to whatever Langworthy may have revealed to the ministers.

"I don't think it's privileged," said Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Jamie McBride. Morrison Heights Baptist Church, represented by attorney Philip Gunn, "asked if it's privileged or not," McBride said.

During Aug. 7 services at Morrison Heights, Langworthy told the congregation of what he termed his "sexual indiscretions" in the past with boys in Mississippi and Texas.

Langworthy told congregants he moved to Mississippi because of the "sexual indiscretions" more than two decades ago when he was a music minister at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.

"The admission was so publicly made," McBride said in citing reasons why he believes conversations between Langworthy, Pastor Greg Belser and the elders is not privileged information. "The elder got up at the service and talked about them conducting an investigation."

McBride said his office is investigating the possibility of more victims in Mississippi "and possibly three in Texas."

Since Langworthy's public statements at church, accusations of child sex abuse have been lodged by a former metro-area resident against Langworthy, who until recently was a Clinton High choir director and Morrison Heights minister of music.

Langworthy resigned from his church position May 29, said Gunn, who also is an elder at Morrison Heights. The 49-year-old married father of two girls did not return this fall to Clinton High.

The accuser, who now lives in another state, contacted Clinton Police Chief Don Byington Aug. 12 alleging he had been sexually abused by Langworthy as a child about 20 years ago in the Clinton area.

The man met last week at the Clinton Police Department with Byington, McBride and other investigators. The Clarion-Ledger does not name victims of sexual abuse.

The alleged victim has not signed an affidavit against Langworthy, said McBride, who assists in the prosecution of sex crimes. But an affidavit is not needed to bring allegations before a Hinds County grand jury, he said.

"These are very serious allegations," McBride has said.

The investigation shows Langworthy allegedly sexually abused the victim when he was baby-sitting him, McBride said.

Criminal statutes at the time that would apply to such acts were sexual battery and gratification of lust, he said. The victim told authorities the alleged abuse included lustful touching and other sex acts, McBride said.

"In an indictment, those things would be spelled out," McBride said.

Gunn said earlier that church leaders, upon hearing accusations against Langworthy earlier this year, "took immediate action to protect the church family," although Langworthy did not resign his position until late May.

Langworthy and his family remain members of Morrison Heights, Gunn said.

Langworthy has retained attorney Jeff Rimes as a family spokesman. "His focus right now is on his family," Rimes said. "We want to let everyone know John is spending all his time and all of his energy on his family."

Gunn said Langworthy "has done nothing in Clinton, Mississippi, in the last 22 years. There's no evidence of it. No one has come forward."

He said church leaders have fully cooperated with the district attorney's office in its investigation - but that based on rules of evidence they cannot divulge what they were told under what's termed priest-penitent privilege.

In the Baptist church, he said, elders are ordained pastors and bound by the same privilege laws as other pastors.

"As far as talking to the school system, talking to witnesses, talking to other people, we can divulge that," Gunn said. "In my mind, we've been fully cooperative and have done everything we are allowed to by law."

Contact: ringram@clarionledger.com