MADISON (WI)
Channel 3000 [Madison WI]
July 31, 2023
By Naomi Knowles
A Baptist pastor at a small congregation in Madison has continued in active ministry around children as police investigated him for sexual abuse, a case that has led to law enforcement recommending charges to prosecutors of first-degree child sexual assault.
The investigation findings, concluded at the end of June, were enough for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to permanently revoke Bob Stine’s license to operate Midvale Baptist Church’s former Kid’s Best child care, citing child safety.
In their letter of revocation, the DCF cited the sexual assault police investigation findings, and substantiated allegations that threatened the health, safety, and welfare of the children at the facility.
Kid’s Best Child Care Notice of Revocation
State regulators and Madison police were tipped off in April that Stine was suspected of inappropriately touching children in his care while operating the church’s child care which was also open to the public, Kid’s Best.
Police and state regulators visited the daycare three days after getting the complaint, telling Stine he needed to temporarily close the facility immediately while they investigated, due to the seriousness of the complaint.
By the end of June, a Madison police spokesperson said they had completed their investigation and forwarded tentative charges of first-degree child sexual assault, as well as repeated sexual assault of the same child, to Dane County district attorney Ismael Ozanne.
A few days later, the DCF notified Stine that the investigation findings were enough for him to no longer pass a background check and to revoke his license to operate Kid’s Best. The facility had remained closed since April, with Stine telling parents in a letter provided by a parent to News 3 Investigates that he didn’t know why he was being investigated but that he would shut down and leave it permanently closed because of staffing shortages.
Stine has not yet been criminally charged in the case, four weeks since the investigation wrapped up and police forwarded their recommended charges. Ozanne said in an email that this was because he was still reviewing the case and asking for follow-up information.
Complaints about Stine’s treatment of children began two years ago
When Madison police and the DCF began investigating a tip about Stine in April, records show they started by asking the Wisconsin Department of Resources and the Middleton Police Department about an incident where Stine had taken a group of children to Devil’s Lake State Park in 2021.
Heavily redacted records from the DCF mean it’s unclear whether this year’s investigation was based only on that incident, or additional, recent incidents.
Reports from the DNR and Middleton police indicate that three different witnesses had complained that Stine had touched children inappropriately in the water while at the state park; after Stine denied the allegations, police took no further action.
This year’s investigation from Madison police and the DCF show at least two children sat for forensic interviews.
The DCF reports of the investigation were provided to News 3 Investigates, but with a number of redactions protecting details of when, how, and where children were suspected of being assaulted.
“This is an extremely tragic incident and no parent should ever have to worry about their child while in the care of someone whose job is to protect, care for, and nurture children,” a DCF spokesperson told News 3 Investigates in an email.
The investigative findings also found that Stine failed to report his contact with police in 2021 to state regulators, a step that’s required in Wisconsin for child care operators.
Stine could appeal the permanent license revocation, the DCF said, but he has not done so yet. A sexual assault conviction would permanently bar him from reapplying for a child care license in Wisconsin.
Stine continues ministry as investigation continues
Meanwhile, Stine has continued to preach on occasion and attend meetings at Midvale Baptist Church where children are present, according to YouTube livestreams of the services.
He last preached on July 23, according to the church’s YouTube channel, despite the finished police investigation with recommendation of serious child sex assault charges weeks earlier.*
He appeared to take a hiatus during some of May and June from preaching, with another man delivering sermons, according to the channel. Before July 23, he preached near the end of May and on April 30, days after he knew he was being investigated.
Stine was also present at three monthly congregation business meetings streamed to the channel as well during that time, two of which he led.
In the business meeting Stine led in May, which appeared to be the first after the investigation began, he did not mention the police investigation or Kid’s Best’s closure.
When a reporter visited Stine at his home in Middleton to ask about the charges or continuing to be around children while being investigated for sexual assault, Stine said there “was no conversation to be had.” He directed the reporter to his criminal defense attorney, Chris Van Wagner–a former federal prosecutor and, since 1994, a prominent defense attorney who has handled a number of high profile cases.
When reached for comment, Van Wagner told News 3 Investigates that Stine had been cooperating with the police investigation, and emphasized that no one is guilty until convicted.
“These are difficult cases to charge,” Van Wagner said when asked about the time that had elapsed without charges. “Four weeks is a very reasonable time.”
Southern Baptist Convention structure makes accountability ‘difficult’
The Midvale Baptist Church pays local dues to the Southern Wisconsin Baptist Association and lists themselves as affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention denomination on their website.
When SWBA’s director of missions Mark Millman was reached on the phone for comment, he said the association had no authority over whether Stine continued to preach or not while he was being investigated.
“You would have to talk to him and the church; the church is over him,” Millman said. “I have no comment.”
SBC churches are autonomous and self-governed and is the largest Baptist denomination with about 13 million baptized members, according to Curtis Freeman, a professor of theology and expert in Baptist policy with Duke Divinity School.
“The denominational structure can’t force congregations to do things; to hire and fire pastors,” Freeman said. “It certainly has made it much more difficult for there to be accountability.”
In 2019, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News published Abuse of Faith, an investigative series that uncovered hundreds of victims of sexual misconduct within the SBC organization, with predators moving from church to church with little to no accountability within the larger denominational structure.
The investigation launched a reckoning within the SBC and prompted a separate investigation from a third-party investigative firm, Guidepost Solutions. That firm now manages a database of SBC sexual abusers, as well as a hotline dedicated to sexual abuse within the SBC: 202-864-5578.
Anyone can report abuse to that hotline, Freeman said, which can prompt the SBC to look closer at an individual church or pastor.
“There’s not anything that denomination can do other than to simply remove that church from their friendly cooperation, and that has happened [in some cases],” Freeman said. “But again, it’s not a very clean process.”
About Bob Stine, the accused pastor
According to a Wisconsin State Journal profile of Bob Stine in 2016, Stine was born in West Texas and received his master’s of divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
He pastored at churches in Texas and Iowa before arriving in Madison in 2007, and led the Baptist student union at UW-Madison for 3 years.
Kid’s Best started as a low-cost basketball program in 2008, for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, before expanding to middle school, according to that profile.
Hundreds of children have passed through his programs over the years, with the WSJ reporting annual attendance for the Kid’s Best program at 225 children in 2016.
Resources
- Read more about how the DCF regulates child care in Wisconsin
- Check your child care facility’s rating with state regulators at YoungStar (minor regulatory citations are normal, even at well-performing facilities)
- Contact the Southern Baptist Convention sexual abuse hotline at 202-864-5578
*When Stine and his attorney were made aware that News 3 Investigates was reporting this story, the videos of Stine preaching on the dates mentioned were deleted from the channel, as were most videos from May through July. News 3 Investigates had downloaded copies of those videos prior to their deletion.
Photojournalist: Lance Heidt