First Coast News
May 19, 2006
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=58002
Jacksonville, FL -- A man who spent 38 years as pastor at a well-known church on the First Coast is under arrest, accused of molesting two girls decades ago.
Exclusive First Coast News video shows detectives arresting Bob Gray at his home Friday evening and walking him into JSO headquarters a short time later.
Gray is being held on capital sexual battery charges.
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The young girls are now adults in their thirties and forties, and they aren't the only ones saying Gray molested them.
A First Coast News investigation has learned at least fifteen women say Gray molested them as young girls.
First Coast News has been working alongside sex crimes investigators and the State Attorney's office to put the pieces of this case together.
The women spoke exclusively with First Coast news in separate interviews. Some still live on the First Coast, others live out of town now.
The women claim church leaders at Trinity Baptist knew about the accusations for years and tried to sweep it under the rug.
"I think there's been a terrible cover up, a huge cover up."
The woman say it happened while they were in elementary school, and told First Coast News' Jeannie Blaylock it took years for them to build up the courage to come forward.
"He was very well known in town," said one woman who did not want to be identified. We will call her "Sheila". "That's the reason I didn't say anything as a child. He was a christ-like figure to me," said "Sheila".
Monday night on First Coast News at 6 p.m. you'll hear from detectives working the case. And on First Coast News Monday at 11 p.m. the women will tell how the pastor of such a prominent church allegedly molested them for years in secret and the emotional impact it caused.
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