TBO
December 17, 2011
www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2011/dec/17/1/assistant-pastor-in-polk-charged-with-sexual-batte-ar-335934/
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| Arnold Maurice Mathis, 40, the assistant pastor at Higher Praise Ministries in Lake Wales, was arrested at 4:30 a.m. Saturday. |
[with video]
An assistant pastor in Lake Wales has been charged with sexual battery on a 14-year-old for crimes that took place six years ago, Polk County deputies said.
Arnold Maurice Mathis, 40, the assistant pastor at Higher Praise Ministries in Lake Wales, was arrested at 4:30 a.m. Saturday after the victim called police on Friday, said Donna Wood, spokeswoman for the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
Mathis, who had already been convicted of a sex offence in 1997, met the victim at a basketball game, Wood said. He offered to buy him new shoes and help him financially, Wood said.
The victim had no father figure in his life and believed Mathis was trying to mentor him, Wood said.
Mathis gave the victim his phone number. When the victim called Mathis the next day, they met at a park and later went to Mathis' home. Mathis had sex with the victim and then gave him $100 to buy a pre-paid phone so they could keep in contact.
Over the next two months, Mathis had sex with the victim and then gave him money and gifts after.
Mathis faces five counts of sexual battery by a person of authority on a child over 12 and under 18.
In addition to spending four years in prison for the 1997 Leon County conviction, Mathis was arrested in August 2004 and January 2011 for failing to register as a sex offender.
In 2005, Mathis was the senior pastor for Saint City Power and Praise Ministries in Winter Haven.
Mathis is the fourth man in a week to be arrested on child sex charges in Polk County.
On Wednesday, Polk deputies arrested a high school football coach, a middle school teacher and a youth pastor on unrelated sex charges.
Ricardo Navarro, 28, was charged with having lewd contact with a girl a year ago when he was youth minister at First Assembly Ministries in Mulberry. The girl, who attended the church, was 14 at the time.
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