Ex-pastor Arrested in Sumter on South Dakota Child-sex Charge

Tampa Tribune
October 9, 2014

http://tbo.com/news/crime/ex-pastor-arrested-in-sumter-on-south-dakota-child-sex-charge-20141008/

The Associated Press

A Sumter County real estate agent has been accused of having sex with a teenage girl from 2011 to 2013, when he worked as pastor at a South Dakota church.

A federal grand jury in South Dakota on Monday indicted Tony Haglund on counts of sexual penetration by a psychotherapist, sexual contact with a child younger than 16 and sexual contact by a psychotherapist.

He was being held Monday at the Sumter County Detention Center in Bushnell with bail set at $500,000, a jail spokeswoman said. Haglund could be brought back to face the charges in 10 days if he waives extradition from Florida, said Dennis Johnson, the sheriff in Lincoln County, South Dakota.

A woman who answered Haglund’s cellphone Wednesday told The Associated Press that he had no comment.

Authorities said Haglund had sexual contact with the girl between January 2011 and December 2013, while he worked as a pastor at Canton Lutheran Church in South Dakota’s Lincoln County. Investigators said the girl was 15 years old when the abuse started.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America South Dakota Synod asked Haglund to resign when the allegations arose, Bishop David Zellmer told the Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls.

Haglund resigned Sept. 15, 2013.

“The South Dakota Synod and the ELCA do not tolerate inappropriate sexual behavior of any kind by members of the clergy,” Zellmer said in a statement. “ELCA congregations seek to be safe and welcoming places for all who attend and worship.”

Zellmer declined to tell the AP whether the synod alerted authorities to the allegations but said, “we have cooperated with law enforcement since the beginning and will continue to do so.”

Haglund, who had been worker as a real estate agent in The Villages, could face 40 years in prison if convicted.

Tim Thies, the current pastor at Canton Lutheran Church, declined to comment to the Argus Leader.