LEXINGTON — A former pastor charged with molesting a teenage boy from his church is asking that his upcoming trial be moved from Rockbridge County.
Larry McKinley Clark’s attorney argued Tuesday that extensive publicity about the case would make it all but impossible to seat an impartial jury. Complicating the problem for Clark, attorney Dirk Padgett said, that news media coverage includes that of an earlier trial in which Clark was convicted of sexually abusing a second young parishioner.
“I do think it raises it to a different level if [potential jurors] are aware of a conviction,” Padgett argued during a hearing in Rockbridge County Circuit Court.
Judge Michael Irvine took the motion for a change of venue under advisement, saying he will first try to seat a jury in Lexington as the law requires. Irvine also agreed to postpone Clark’s trial, which had been set for next week, until Sept. 14.
Clark, 63, is the former pastor of the Pentecostal Outreach Church in Buena Vista.
Prosecutors said Clark sexually abused three young boys on numerous occasions after getting to know them through his ministry and youth group meetings associated with the church. The allegations have been divided into three trials, one for each victim.
In October, a jury convicted Clark of sexually assaulting a boy, who was 16 at the time of his testimony, over the course of three years, beginning in 2011. Clark was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Clark — who continues to deny all the allegations — is now facing a second set of charges involving a boy who was 13 or 14 at the time of six alleged offenses, which include taking indecent liberties with a minor and cruelty to a child.
At Tuesday’s hearing, prosecutor Christopher Billias said he believes a jury can be seated for the case in Rockbridge County.