Youth Pastor Charged with Sexually Exploiting Manchester Teen

By Jesse Leavenworth
Hartford Courant
August 4, 2015

http://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-manchester-youth-pastor-0805-2-20150804-story.html

Manchester Police Department

A Massachusetts youth pastor was arrested Tuesday, accused of manipulating a teenage girl in his charge into a long-term sexual relationship, police said.

Jimmy Chang, 32, of East Longmeadow, was charged with 12 counts of second-degree sexual assault. Chang was being held on bail of $350,000 and is to appear in Manchester Superior Court on Sept. 11.

Police say Chang persuaded the girl to sneak out of her Manchester house and convinced her that she did not have to save her virginity. The victim was 17 at the time of the offenses, from March 14 to Sept. 11, 2012, police said. State law prohibits sexual relations between a person over age 20 who "stands in a position of power, authority or supervision" over a person under age 18.

The girl was living in Manchester and was a member of a Christian youth group based in Agawam, Mass. at the time of the assaults, according to an arrest warrant. Chang was a leader of the group and also a tutor with a company based in Longmeadow, police said.

The girl reported the assaults to Manchester police on March 26. Her sister told police that she found detailed descriptions of the sexual relationship in the victim's online diary, police said.

Chang and the girl had sex in the back seat of his vehicle on several occasions, police said. Although she expressed love for Chang in her online diary, the girl also wrote that she felt "used and pathetic," police said.

Chang confessed to having sex with the girl in May, police said. He said he had left the unnamed church where he was a youth group leader because, "I realized I messed up as a volunteer leader and there was no way to go back," the warrant says.