Ex-pastor Pleads Guilty in Injury to a Child Case
By Megan Gray-Hatfield
Jeffrey Dale Williams, the former pastor of The Church of Corinth, was sentenced Wednesday in a Denton County courtroom to five years deferred probation and fined $1,000 after pleading guilty to causing injury to a child. He pleaded guilty after a plea agreement reduced the original charge of solicitation of a minor, stemming from an incident two years ago. Williams heard his sentence from 211th District Court Judge Brody Shanklin. Lauri Frohbieter, chief of the Child Abuse Unit of the Denton County District Attorney’s Office, presented the case, where the original indictment was amended for the plea. Williams, 48, was indicted on the state felony charge of solicitation of a minor, officials said, and according to the original indictment, he attempted to “request, command or attempt to induce an individual younger than 17 years of age to expose her genitals.” The amended indictment, to which Williams pleaded guilty, states he caused “serious mental deficiency to ... a child 14 years of age or younger.” First Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck said the plea bargain the state agreed to did not require him to register as a sex offender but included all other sex offender terms and conditions. “This case was not pled ‘down,’” Beck said in an email. “Both were/are State Jail Felonies. Pled ‘down’ to me means a lesser crime.” According to the arrest affidavit, Williams is accused of spending two hours trying to persuade a young girl to take off her clothes and show herself nude at her home in March 2013. The Denton Record-Chronicle does not release names of victims of sexual assault without their consent. Records obtained from Corinth police show that Williams allegedly locked a door and put a chair against it before asking the victim to take off her clothes so he could see “eye candy.” The persuasion, records show, continued for more than two hours. During their investigation, police were provided with five audio recordings that included the voices of Williams and the girl who was “high school-aged.” Derek Adame, Williams’ attorney, said the situation all around is less than ideal, but his client is looking to get on with his life now and put this all behind him. “We felt we were treated fair,” Adame said, while agreeing that his client was pleased to not have the registered sex offender tag stuck to his name. “While I wouldn’t say it’s usual for this to be agreed upon, it’s unique. Each case has their own unique circumstances and this was one of those.” Some of the terms of Williams’ probation agreement state he cannot be around anyone — even his own children — younger than 18 years old without a chaperone supervising, or “reside, go in, go on or go within” 1,000 feet of a premise where children commonly gather, including parks, schools and pools without being approved by a supervision officer. In addition, he must not have any direct or indirect contact with the victim or her immediate family. Beck said the victim did not want to participate in the proceedings, and Williams now resides in Oklahoma.
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