ALABAMA
Montgomery Advertiser
Marty Roney, Montgomery Advertiser September 20, 2016
WETUMPKA – News that a former pastor with a Wetumpka connection has been charged in a Florida child sex sting has shocked this close-knit community.
David Donald Hoppenjan, 52, was among 22 men recently arrested in a sting dubbed “Operation Undertow” according to the Pensacola Police Department. At the time of his arrest, Hoppenjan was a pastor at First United Methodist Church in Pace, Fla. He is no longer a United Methodist pastor, according to the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
According to media reports, Hoppenjan is a former youth minister at First United Methodist Church in Wetumpka. The district would not comment of any of Hoppenjan’s previous positions or the years that he served.
“I was shocked, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard about it,” said District Attorney Randall Houston, who attends First United Methodist Church in Wetumpka. “I remember I was sad when he left us, because he did such a good job. But it didn’t surprise me when he left and went on to bigger things, because he was such a good communicator.”
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