| Maplewood Pastor Gets 24 Years for Raping 2 Girls over Years
By Emily Gurnon
Pioneer Press
October 2, 2014
http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_26650361/maplewood-pastor-gets-24-years-raping-two-girls
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Jacoby Kindred (Courtesy of Ramsey County sheriff)
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A Maplewood pastor was sentenced to 24 years in prison for raping two young girls over a period of several years.
Jacoby Kindred Sr., 62, insisted, as he had at trial, that he was innocent.
"I did nothing to those children," he told Ramsey County District Judge Rosanne Nathanson on Thursday. "I never touched them."
He said the sisters falsely accused him because their family was angry with his family.
A jury convicted Kindred on July 17 on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, one for each victim. The older girl was about 6 or 7 when the abuse began, she testified.
The younger girl was in elementary school.
Ramsey County prosecutor Shereen Askalani read written statements from the victims in court.
The older girl said she sometimes acts as if she's OK, but in reality she is lost and hurt.
"Why was this old man doing this to me? ... A man who claimed he was so holy and right with God, and went to church every Sunday?"
Her younger sister said she would not feel safe unless he were sentenced to a long prison term.
"I want to not be scared of my own shadow," she wrote in her statement. "I want to enjoy my life again."
Kindred told the younger girl she needed to go along with his sexual abuse because he was ill, she testified at trial. "He would tell me that his legs were messed up. He told me that the doctor said in order to get his legs better, he needed to do that (sexual) stuff."
The abuse started with touching and progressed to oral and anal sex, she said.
The older victim testified that Kindred told her about a religious meeting he had attended in which "a sex demon went inside him through some girl he was praying for." The only way for him to get the demon out was to have sex with her, he said.
Kindred told police he was a pastor with One Accord Ministries, which has no building, according to the criminal complaint against him. He referred to himself on his now-defunct Facebook page as "Jacoby Preacherman."
Kindred testified that he was ordained by Sarah Family Ministries of St. Paul and worked out of the Maplewood home he shared with his wife.
The judge sentenced Kindred to 12 years for each of the convictions, denying the defense request for concurrent sentences.
His attorney, Gary Wolf, said he would appeal the convictions.
Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522. Follow her at twitter.com/emilygurnon.
Contact: egurnon@pioneerpress.com
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