No Bail for Broward Youth Pastor Charged with Molestation

By Rafael A. Olmeda
Orlando Sentinel
April 12, 2012

www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/fl-jeffery-london-no-bail-20120412,0,4367939.story

Jeffery London listens to an alleged victim testify about how London molested him over a 10-year period starting when he was 8 years old. London was ordered held without bail Thursday

FORT LAUDERDALE —

Breathless and ill-at-ease, an alleged victim of former youth pastor Jeffery London told a packed Broward courtroom how he quickly came to dread the man he was told to trust.

London, 48, was ordered held without bail by Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan, who found prosecutors had enough evidence of his guilt in 30 counts of sexual battery and child molestation to justify keeping him in custody until trial.

If convicted, London faces life in prison, and Assistant State Attorney Sheila Alu made it clear that she intends to seek "multiple life sentences."

London, who denies the allegations, was asking Usan to set a reasonable bail, despite the growing number of accusers who say he abused his position of trust to coerce pre-teens and teenage boys in his care to allow him to have sex with them.

London, revered as a father figure to teenage boys for nearly two decades, was a counselor at the Boys and Girls Club in Fort Lauderdale, a dean of students at Eagle Charter Academy in Lauderdale Lakes and a pastor at Fort Lauderdale's Bible Church of God.

At his home in Coral Springs, he took in more than 15 youngsters, all of whom came from troubled homes and turned to him for guidance and leadership.

Among them was the alleged victim who testified Thursday. Barely pausing between sentences, the man explained how he was 8 years old when London first molested him. He painted London's advances as relentless and frequent.

"Oh man, you've got to hear me," he said as he answered Alu's questions in graphic detail. The Sun Sentinel is not naming the man because he is the alleged victim of a sex crime.

London shook his head and laughed silently several times as the man testified.

Allegations against London surfaced in January. As of Thursday, charges had been brought on behalf of six victims.

Contact: raolmeda@tribune.com