OREGON
The Raw Story
JOAN SHIPPS
22 MAY 2015
A former youth pastor in Oregon was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison on Thursday for sexually assaulting two boys.
Dylan Ritterman, 28, pled guilty to sexual abuse charges for assaulting the boys, who were teenagers under his ministry at United Pentecostal Church in Hillsboro. His plea agreement stipulated that he will not be charged in connection with assaulting a third boy, the Oregonian reports.
Authorities began investigating Ritterman last fall, after one of the victims told his mother Ritterman had been touching him inappropriately, and the mother reported the crime to Oregon’s Department of Human Services. Police arrested Ritterman last December.
Prosecutor Kevin Barton said that the former pentecostal pastor had molested two boys, starting when they were 14 or 15 years of age, “inside the church, on church grounds, at his home, in his car, and in a grocery parking lot.”
Barton also said that church leaders were reluctant to cooperate with investigators. The church’s head pastor initially refused to speak to authorities without his insurance agent there.
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