Former Wyckoff Pastor Charged with Sex Assault of Teens in Youth Group

By Noah Cohen
NJ
March 20, 2015

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2015/03/former_wyckoff_pastor_charged_with_sex_assault_of.html

David Hayman, 37

A former pastor at a Wyckoff church exchanged sexually explicit messages and videos with girls in a youth group he supervised and had sexual encounters with two of the teens, authorities said today.

David Hayman, 37, was arrested Thursday, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said in a statement. He was charged with two counts of sexual assault and five counts of child endangerment.

Hayman exchanged the videos with two girls in the youth group beginning when they were 16 years old and "engaged in inappropriate sexual activity," with the teens, Molinelli said. He traded explicit text messages with two other girls when they were 15 and another when she was 16.

"All of the victims were members of a church youth group, of which Hayman was the pastor and for whom he had direct supervisory responsibility," the prosecutor said.

Hayman led a high school-aged group at Cornerstone Christian Church, where he worked for about 10 years, authorities said. All of the alleged offenses occurred during Hayman's tenure at the non-denominational church.

Cornerstone Christian Church dismissed Hayman in May 2014 when the allegations were reported to the church, according to the prosecutor and a church leader.

Authorities did not receive any reports of sexual assault at the time, but recently developed information pointing to the names of Hayman's victims, Molinelli said. Detectives interviewed the girls and tracked down the others.

Senior Pastor Fred Provencher said the church alerted parents when the allegations were first made. The church launched its own probe of the alleged "improper behavior" and cooperated with law enforcement officials, he added.

"It was a violation of everything that he was called to do," Provencher said. "We are just deeply saddened."

There were no previous reports of anything improper involving Hayman, he said.

"It was stunning, to say the least," Provencher said.

Hayman, of Oradell, was ordered held at the Bergen County Jail on $250,000 bail, with no 10 percent option, according to records. It was not immediately clear if he had retained an attorney.