Former Pekin Youth Minister Nicholas Lawrence Charged with Sex Assault of Preteen Girl
By Michael Smothers
A former Pekin church youth minister used the church to commit sexual acts with a preteen girl who considered him her “spiritual mentor,” according to charges revealed in court Thursday. Nicholas Lawrence, 27, already faces charges involving the same girl in Peoria County, where he led children in Bible classes at two Peoria Heights churches before he began his Pekin ministry. He pleaded not guilty Thursday in Tazewell County Circuit Court to four Class X felony charges that allege he carried on a four-year sexual relationship into last spring with the girl, whom he met when she was about 8. Lawrence, of 200 Matilda St., Apt. 4, was ordered held on $500,000 bond on the four Tazewell County charges of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child. The crime is punishable by up to 30 years in prison. The girl’s parents called Peoria police last summer after discovering “numerous” letters Lawrence wrote to their daughter, according to a prosecutor’s court affidavit. Peoria investigators pursued their side of the case and contacted Pekin police. Lawrence and the girl’s family became involved in youth activities in 2010 while Lawrence was affiliated with Peoria Heights Congregational Church, the affidavit stated. He also had practiced youth ministry before that year at Mount Hawley Community Church, and in 2012 he began youth Bible classes at First Church of God in Pekin, it stated. His relationship with the girl continued “by the defendant’s role in running a youth Bible study … held on various dates in all three churches,” the affidavit stated. Interviewed in late August, the girl said Lawrence was a “spiritual mentor” who began their relationship by discussing personal issues and advanced it to touching various parts of her body, the affidavit stated. Lawrence acknowledged he met with the girl in a closet at the Pekin church during breaks from Bible classes at least twice between November and June, the affidavit stated. The church’s pastor said Lawrence was dismissed from his duties there on June 30. He was charged in Peoria County on Sept. 2 with aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child younger than 13. In October, a charge of child pornography was added for allegedly soliciting and causing a child younger than 13 to appear in a sexually explicit photo last May. Those cases are set for trial March 2. Pekin police turned results of their investigation over to the county State’s Attorney’s Office in mid-December. Lawrence is next scheduled to appear in court on the resulting Tazewell County charges on Feb. 6.
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