Former Garland Youth Pastor Gets 12 Years for Sexting with 16-year-old Girl

By Kevin Krause
Dallas Morning News
February 12, 2014

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/garland-mesquite/headlines/20140212-former-garland-youth-pastor-sentenced-to-federal-prison.ece?nclick_check=1

Joshua Earls

A former Garland youth pastor who exchanged sexually explicit text messages and photos with an underage girl from his church was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in federal prison.

Joshua Earls, 30, and the 16-year-old girl had sent each other text messages with photos of each other’s genitalia. Earls met the victim through Arapaho Road Baptist Church in Garland.

Earls pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography in October and had faced up to 20 years in prison. He also faces a lifetime of probation when he is released.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn listened to hours of sentencing testimony Wednesday from Earls and his family, as well as the victim and her mother. Families from the church packed the courtroom.

Lynn said Earls had done a lot of good in his life, including ministering to other inmates in the federal prison in Seagoville where he has been held since April.

But she added: “I also see the evil you have done.”

Earls and his parents, sister and fiancee asked the judge for mercy and a lenient sentence, as well as asking the victim and her family for forgiveness.

Lynn said her job is not to forgive, however, but to follow the law and consider risk to the community. Earls, she said, was attracted to “vile images” of children subjected to bondage and torture.

Lynn said she couldn’t imagine the anguish an offense like this must cause in a “family of preachers.”

Earls’ brother, Jordan Earls, 25, who was a student pastor at his father’s church in South Carolina and a former volunteer at the Garland church, was arrested in South Carolina on child abuse charges. He faces felony charges in Dallas County state court, including indecency with a child and sexual assault of a child.

During Joshua Earls’ sentencing hearing Wednesday, defense attorney John Teakell called two forensic psychologists to the witness stand. They both testified that they examined Earls and concluded he had a low to moderate risk of re-offending. But Lynn called their opinions nothing more than “educated guesswork.”

The victim’s mother said Earls became close to their family as he did with other church families, attending birthdays and other gatherings. But he betrayed their trust and robbed her daughter of her innocence, she said.

“We had loved Josh and we totally trusted him,” she said. “It was so confusing.”

She said her daughter has since left the church she began attending at age 5.

“She will have to deal with this for many years to come,” she said.

Agents found the photos on Earls’ cellphone, which was seized during a search of his Garland home in Ap

ril. He had downloaded hundreds of child pornography photographs to his computer, and he had videos of the victim masturbating at his request.

“Earls admitted to ‘sexting’ with several girls, as well as exchanging nude pictures and videos” with the victim, according to a criminal complaint.

The victim, who is now 18, said Earls was the closest friend she had and that when the inappropriate conduct began, “I didn’t want to say no to him.” She said she currently suffers from anxiety, depression and severe migraine headaches as a result of the abuse.

She also said the ordeal caused her to “put up a wall to people” and that it has hurt her relationships with male authority figures.

Earls, who attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, tearfully apologized for his actions and asked for mercy and forgiveness.

“I love that family, and I still do. I wronged them,” Earls said. “I stand before you as a broken man.”

Earls said the victim first reached out to him with innocent questions about touching and sexual acts. She wanted to know if certain things were a sin, he said. Earls said he should have referred her to someone else at that point but began asking her about her sexual activities. That later led to sexual text messages and “fantasy situations,” he said.

His father, Bobby Earls, the pastor at Northgate Baptist Church in Florence, S.C., told the judge he still loves his son, whom he called a likable young man with a pleasant personality and many friends. He described him as a “model son” who caused his parents no problems before this case.

“Josh has always made us proud,” he said, sometimes quoting from Scripture. “Josh is not a lifetime criminal.”