Youth Church Minister Charged with Sexually Assaulting 2 Girls

By Sue Epstein
NJ.com
April 8, 2015

http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2015/04/youth_church_minister_charged_with_sexually_assaul.html

Shawn Butler, a youth minister at a Franklin Township church, is charged with sexually assaulting two teenaged girls on various occasions. (Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office)

A youth minister at a church in Franklin Township has been charged with sexually assaulting two teenaged girls in separate incidents, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey announced Wednesday.

Shawn Butler, 48, of Hillsborough, was arrested at a relative's home in Millsboro, Delaware by members of the Delaware State Police Troop 7 on April 3, according to a statement released by Carey, South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond Hayducka and North Brunswick Police Director Kenneth McCormick.

Carey said Butler, a youth minister at the Eternal Life Christian Center, was charged with one count of sexual assault and two counts each of criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.

The prosecutor said police began the investigation after a 15-year-old girl contacted South Brunswick police in July.

Butler was charged after Detective Mark Morris of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office and Detective Roger Tuohy of the South Brunswick Police Department determined he improperly touched the 15-year-old girl in South Brunswick and in Hillsborough on a number of occasions between March 2014 and June 2014.

The detectives also determined Butler allegedly sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in North Brunswick on various occasions between July 2012 and August 2013.

Carey said during the investigation, it was determined Butler had been working as a youth minister at the church in the Somerset section of Franklin Township and served on the church's executive board at the time of the sexual assaults.

Butler was released from custody in Delaware after posting $50,000 bail and is scheduled to surrender to authorities in New Jersey on May 1. Bail in New Jersey is set at $300,000.

Carey said the investigation is active and continuing.

He said anyone with information is asked to call Detective Mark Morris at (732) 745-4194 or Detective Roger Tuohy at (732) 208-4896