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	Pastor Faces Four Separate Trials Culpeper Preacher Facing Trials in Child-Endangerment Cases By Donnie Johnston Free Lance-Star October 17, 2006 http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/102006/10172006/229830 The Culpeper minister accused of child endangerment will face four separate trials early next year. Culpeper County Circuit Court Judge John Cullen yesterday denied a prosecution motion to enjoin six of the seven counts against Charles V. Shifflett into a single trial. Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Close's office had sought to try the seventh and final charge, which is sexual in nature, as a separate case. Orange County attorneys Charles Bowman and Sammy Higginbotham, representing Shifflett, were seeking six separate trials, combining only two counts that involved the same alleged incident against the same complainant. Cullen lumped three charges which involved incidents that allegedly occurred during tree-cutting sessions at the Calvary Baptist Academy into a single trial, and combined two other charges related to an alleged sexual incident for another court date. A third alleged sexual offense involving a female student at the rural Christian school was ordered to be tried separately, as was a paddling charge that allegedly occurred in 1999, almost eight years after the other alleged incidents. "That's just too distant in time to have any relationship," Cullen said of the paddling charge. All the charges allege child endangerment misconduct against students at the Calvary Baptist Academy during the years that Shifflett, 55, was both a school administrator and pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, where the school was located. The allegations range from Shifflett paddling a student with a 2-by-4 in front of his class, to the preacher firing a gun behind a slow-moving black student and yelling a racial slur, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Smith. Smith argued that a single jury should hear all the cases except the sex charge involving the girl. "Justice actually requires that all these trials be combined," he told the court. "All the offenses occurred on school property, and [the defendant] acted in his capacity as a school administrator. The motive in each of these cases is to control the students' behavior." Bowman didn't agree. "These are all very, very different cases," he told the judge. Judge Cullen attempted to set the first of the four trials for November, but Higginbotham, citing preparation time and a family illness, requested that all the cases be heard after the first of the year. Shifflett, who was first charged in mid-January of this year, waived his right to a speedy trial. Three trials will be held in January (Jan. 17, 24 and 30) with the final charge being heard Feb. 28. All will be heard by juries. Because of the extensive publicity surrounding the cases, Higginbotham suggested very large jury pools. He said that finding an impartial jury would "not be impossible, but may become difficult." While the first three trials will involve jurors from a single term of court, jurors from a new pool will be available for the February trial. Shifflett, who now pastors a new church, remains free on bond. His wife and several supporters were seated in court yesterday, as was one of the complainants. To reach DONNIE JOHNSTON: Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com
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