Hammond Megachurch Pastor Schaap Admits Sex with Teen Girl, Says He ‘was Not Aware of Law’

By Teresa Auch SChultz
Southtown Star
September 27, 2012

http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/news/15399562-418/hammond-megachurch-pastor-schaap-admits-sex-with-teen-girl-says-he-was-not-aware-of.html

Jack Alan Schaap, the former pastor of a Hammond megachurch, said Wednesday he didn’t know he was committing a crime when he transported a teen girl across state lines for sexual activity.

“I was not aware of the law,” he said during a hearing in federal court in Hammond.

He did say, though, he was aware it was unprofessional conduct and a sin.

Schaap, 54, of Dyer, Ind., was charged last week with taking someone under the age of 18 across state lines for sexual activity and ordered held without bond. Wednesday, he described the three trips he and the teen took, starting on June 20.

Schaap, wearing orange prison garb, said someone else actually transported the girl, who was then 16, into Crete but that he made that happen. They took another trip to Illinois a week later, after she had turned 17, and then a third trip on July 10 to Michigan, near the city of Cadillac.