SAFFORD — After calling him a “great danger to society,” Graham County Superior Court Judge R. Douglas Holt sentenced pastor Dennis Wayne McGinnis, 67, to the maximum allowable penalty of 24 years in prison.
McGinnis previously pleaded no contest to molestation of a child — a class-2 felony — and attempted sexual conduct with a minor — a class-3 felony. On Monday, Judge Holt accepted the plea agreement and found McGinnis guilty of both charges.
“There is a significant need to deter you from future conduct like this, so I need to have you in prison for as long as I can,” Holt said as he sentenced McGinnis.
Allegations first arose against McGinnis in February 2012, when he was employed by the Mt. Graham Hospice as its chaplain. He also previously served as the visitation chaplain for the Victory Fellowship Church from November 2007 to March 2011, according to his resumé.
At that time, the father of the alleged victim asked a Sheriff’s Office detective to meet with his then 8-year-old daughter to discuss the molestation she suffered at the hands of McGinnis. The victim described multiple incidents of inappropriate touching by McGinnis beginning when she was 7. She also added further information about McGinnis’ body that gave credence to her allegations.
The investigation seemed to stall, however, and didn’t move forward until another detective was asked to reopen the case on Feb. 25, 2014, to provide additional follow-up.
The detective re-interviewed family members and had the victim taken to the Children’s Advocacy Center in Tucson to have a forensic interview. McGinnis continued to deny the allegations, but the Graham County Attorney’s Office filed charges against him July 10 after receiving the additional reports from the Sheriff’s Office.
In his argument for the stiffest possible penalty, Graham County Chief Deputy County Attorney L. Scott Bennett described the case as horrific as they come without involving a death. He added that the defendant’s lack of remorse and excuse for the victim’s intimate knowledge of himself was appalling.
“I am as offended as I have ever been prosecuting one of these cases,” Bennett said.
McGinnis’ attorney, Josi Lopez, argued for leniency and listed his advanced age, medical history, lack of prior felony history and past pastoral work as mitigators. She added that McGinnis chose to plead no contest, in part, to save the victim and her family of the strain of a trial.
“He’s having to deal with very serious offenses that have torn the family and strained the family, and that’s been extremely difficult for him,” Lopez said. “He recognizes that he is going to be serving a significant amount of prison time regardless if it's the lowest that the court could possibly impose.”
Holt said he didn’t find the mitigation argument sufficient to rise to the level of being a significant mitigator and said McGinnis’ pastoral work was more of an aggravator than a mitigator because it was a position of trust that was utilized to do what he did.
After McGinnis declined to speak on his own behalf, Judge Holt sentenced him to the maximum allowable term of 24 years, which must be served day for day. Should McGinnis live to see his release date in July 2038, he will then be placed on lifetime sexual offender probation.