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	Associate Pastor Arrested on Child Sexual Battery Charges By Matt Pleasant The Ledger December 17, 2011 http://www.theledger.com/article/20111217/NEWS/111219394/1410?Title=Associate-Pastor-Arrested-on-Child-Sexual-Battery-Charges WINTER HAVEN | When Pastor Arnold Mathis arrived home Saturday morning after a night at the casino, Polk County detectives were waiting. They arrested Mathis — a registered sex offender since a 1997 conviction in Leon County — outside his home after receiving accusations that Mathis had groomed a teenage boy for sex and repeatedly abused him six years ago, deputies said. The alleged abuse happened when the boy was about 14, deputies said. Mathis was a senior pastor with Saint City Power and Praise Ministries in Winter Haven at the time. He is now an assistant pastor with Higher Praise Ministries in Lake Wales. Mathis is charged with five counts of sexual battery by a person of authority and was booked into Polk County Jail. He was being held without bail as of Saturday evening. Detectives began looking for Mathis on Friday after the victim, now 21, contacted them about the alleged abuse. Sheriff Grady Judd said detectives are continuing to investigate Mathis and know of at least one other victim. He said Mathis has "grooming children down to a fine art." "He is without a doubt an absolute monster," he said. Mathis first approached the boy at the concession stand of a basketball game when the teen was a high school freshman, his arrest report says. He asked the boy whether he needed better shoes, and told him he could help him with his financial problems. The boy had no father figure at the time and thought Mathis was trying to care for him, the report says. Mathis picked the boy up at a park the next day and drove him to a Taco Bell. The report says Mathis sexually abused him later that day. He then gave him a $100 bill and told him to buy a cell phone so he could call him more frequently. Mathis also bought the boy a pair of expensive basketball shoes and a matching T-shirt during another encounter, the report says, and he would drive the boy to the bank after abusing him to give him money. Mathis abused the boy at least five times over the course of two months, Judd said. The arrest report says Mathis admitted to the accusations. Mathis was released from jail two years after his 1997 arrest in Leon County. Polk County authorities arrested him twice on charges of failing to register as a sex offender, including as recently as January. Judd is unsure how Mathis was able to find work as a pastor with his arrest history. "It's absolutely inexplicable," he said. A church official did not return a call to a phone number listed on the Higher Praise Ministries website. Contact: matthew.pleasant@theledger.com
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