Pastor Spared Abuse Trial

By Bob Allen
Associated Baptist Press
September 26, 2012

www.abpnews.com/ministry/people/item/7834-pastor-charged-with-abuse-won%E2%80%99t-stand-trial

A Baptist preacher arrested in May will not stand trial for sexual assault of a child after a Texas grand jury found insufficient evidence to prosecute.

The Ennis Daily News reported Sept. 26 that an Ellis County grand jury returned a "no bill," or refusal to indict, in favor of Mark Allen Green, 41, a cowboy church preacher arrested May 31 after the Ellis County Sheriff's Office received reports he was in an improper relationship with a minor.

A prosecutor in the county's district attorney's office said that because grand jury proceedings are secret, he could not comment except to say that no indictment has been handed down in the case.

Green said his accuser gave a full confession saying her parents forced her to act, and that charges for making a false report are expected. After his arrest in Texas, Green was fired as pastor of the Cowboy Church of Marshall County in Albertville, Ala., which had called him as pastor a few months earlier.