LOUISIANA
Baptist News
By Bob Allen
A Southern Baptist youth minister fired by his church after he was seen on surveillance video sneaking into a closet with a 14-year-old girl faces up to 10 years in prison on a charge of sexual battery.
Jonathan Bailey, 33, minister of youth at First Baptist Church in New Orleans for about two years, was originally arrested Feb. 23 on a lesser charge of indecent behavior with a juvenile and released on $35,000 bond.
Police re-booked him March 4 on the more serious charge, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, after the alleged victim gave details in a second interview she hadn’t previously shared with her parents or police.
The new warrant indicates that since the first arrest a second church contacted police reporting it fired Bailey as youth minister about 10 years ago, because of similar allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a juvenile congregant. The warrant did not name the church or say where it is located.
According to a cached copy of the church staff page before his firing Feb. 9, Bailey is a 2004 graduate of Louisiana College who went on to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. While there he met his future wife, Tiffany Atkins. The two were married in January 2008 and have a young daughter.
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