MARATHON (FL)
Christian Post [Washington DC]
March 7, 2024
By Leonardo Blair
Warning: Explicit details in the article might be disturbing to some readers
A Florida pastor accused of raping a 15-year-old girl drunk then sexually assaulting her while she was impaired recently lamented online that he was going through a difficult time with his wife of 40 years.
The pastor, 62-year-old Monte Lavelle Chitty of Marathon, who leads First Baptist of Marathon, and recently started a dockside ministry for a boating community in Boot Key Harbor, was charged with sexual battery of a minor, lewd and lascivious conduct and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.
In a post on Facebook on Jan. 9, Chitty revealed he was “going through some difficult times” with his sick wife.
“For the past month, my wife and I have been going through some difficult times. Brought my wife to the hospital for what was supposedly a simple surgery. There have been complications and now after two weeks we are still having complications. I have been trying to stay by my wife’s side (married 40yrs) and keep our church operating smoothly. If someone has something against me and or feel I am being negligent as a pastor then speak up,” he wrote.
“In most Christian circles the family of God helps pick up the load. When some have their issues that are more important than my wife laying in a hospital bed then they need to put it on the table so it can be helped. Many outside our church have offered to do things but it requires someone there to open things,” he added.
Get All Essential Microsoft Apps for Your Windows PC with This One-Time Purchase. Order Now“The list of things the small church pastor takes care of behind the scenes becomes problems when they are not taken care of. Mow, pick up trash in the yard and parking lots, janitor the building. Print bulletins, build the worship PowerPoint, prepare the Bible Study, prepare a sermon, follow up on visitor cards. I apologize that amongst this you also are feeling neglected. Try casting your cares on the Lord He is much big and more capable than me.”
Approximately two months after airing his personal struggles Chitty was accused of rape.
Police said in a release Monday that the allegations against the pastor were first reported by an anonymous caller who overheard the teenager telling an adult that she had been raped.
“The caller said the girl and her grandmother had boarded a dinghy and headed out into the harbor. As deputies attempted to find the victim, communications officers received a second call from the suspect, Monte Chitty, who is the pastor at the First Baptist Church in Marathon,” the release said.
“Chitty said he believed he was about to be accused of something and he wanted to get ahead of it. He said a young girl at his church had been drinking and had passed out on a couch in the library of the church. He said he helped her to lie down on the couch but did not touch her after that.”
Police contacted the teenager on a boat where she lives, and she told them that the pastor gave her alcohol which might have been “spiked.”
In an arrest report cited by Local 10, the girl told authorities that she woke up to the pastor performing oral sex on her.
“She stated after he was done and left, she got up and ran out and contacted her grandmother to pick her up,” deputies wrote in the report.
The teenager also showed police text messages from the pastor which came from the same number he used to call the police.
According to the report, the pastor used a cat emoji to compliment the teenager on her genitals.
“I prefer you pass out after I play not before,” deputies say Chitty texted her. “You can’t even remember what I did.”
He then pressed the teenager to find out how much of the assault she remembered. Chitty complimented the teenager’s genitals a second time and after she replied “ig” to indicate “I guess,” deputies said the pastor replied, “Just say thank you.”
Chitty allegedly went on to compliment the teenager’s breasts and encouraged her to sit on the couch in a way to make it “easier” to perform sex acts on her.
After corroborating the conversation on the pastor’s phone, officers wrote in their report that: “Mr. Chitty admitted to sending the text messages but later invoked his right to an attorney and denied the sexual contact.”
He is currently out of jail on a $75,000 bond.
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