Jury Convicts Pastor of Mobile Church of Improper Sexual Relationship with Teenager
By Brendan Kirby
MOBILE, Alabama – A jury today convicted a local pastor of sexually abusing a teenage girl. The jury found Cederick McMillan, 27, guilty of second-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse. The Eight Mile man is pastor of New Birth Community Church in Mobile and helped found Prichard Preparatory Academy. Law enforcement authorities accused him of sexually touching and having oral sex with a girl when she was 14 years old in 2007. "I'm very upset with the jury verdict," defense attorney Jeff Deen said. "But he had a good cross-section of the community, and I'm a very strong believer in the jury system." McMillan faces a prison term of two to 20 years in prison on the sodomy charge. Deen noted that his client has no criminal record and that there were no allegations of violence. "I would hope there would be a way to punish him without incarcerating him," he said. Deen noted that police did not receive a complaint about the alleged sexual contact until 2010 – three years after it supposedly happened. He argued to the jury that the contact was consensual and occurred after the girl's 17th birthday. He said his client had broken up with the girl's mother and later had a fling with the daughter. Deen said the girl initially denied having sexual contact with the defendant but then, in a second interview with police, reported that the first incident occurred when she was 14. McMillian served as the Prichard Preparatory Academy's headmaster from 2005 until Sept. 30, 2009. Contact: bkirby@al.com
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