By Ruth Ingram
The Clarion-Ledger
September 8, 2011
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20110908/NEWS/110907034/Ex-minister-facing-sex-charge
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| John Langworthy, 49, of 309 Hunter’s Ridge Drive in Clinton, is escorted to a waiting van for transport to the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond on Wednesday. / Barbara Gauntt/The Clarion-Ledger |
A former music minister and high school choir teacher is accused of befriending boys at two Jackson Baptist churches more than two decades ago, then sexually abusing them.
Today, 49-year-old John Langworthy is charged with seven felony counts of gratification of lust stemming from alleged abuses in Jackson and Clinton.
The charge involves five boys between ages 10 and 13 at the time, Hinds County prosecutors and Clinton police say.
Langworthy is charged with two counts brought by Clinton police and five filed in Jackson.
Langworthy, of Clinton, was arrested at his home about 11 a.m. Wednesday, said Clinton Police Detective Josh Frazier. The Clinton counts stem from alleged acts with two boys between ages 10 and 13 between 1980 and 1984, Frazier said.
Langworthy posted a $200,000 bond in Clinton before being transported to Jackson for processing on the other five counts.
Bond was $500,000 ($100,000 per count) on the Jackson counts. Langworthy had not posted bond early Wednesday evening, police said.
Jackson police accuse Langworthy of sexually abusing boys between the ages of 10 and 12, also between 1980-1984, said spokeswoman Officer Colendula Green.
“We’re not going to go into details” on where the alleged abuses occurred, she said.
Jeff Rimes, Langworthy’s attorney, could not be reached.
But Rimes told other local media that Langworthy is cooperating with authorities.
Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Jamie McBride said an investigation shows Langworthy was “involved heavily with the youth choirs from 1980-84 at First Baptist Church of Jackson and Daniel Memorial Baptist Church in Jackson
“He befriended the families of these boys. That’s how he had access to them,” McBride said.
“They were active churchgoers.”
The alleged abuse in Clinton happened at Langworthy’s dormitory room at Mississippi College while he was baby-sitting two of the boys, McBride said.
The alleged victims in the Clinton case also are among five alleged victims in the Jackson case, McBride said.
An investigation moved swiftly after Langworthy, who resigned in May as music minister at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, publicly told congregants during Aug. 7 services that he moved to Mississippi because of what he termed “sexual indiscretions” with young boys in Texas.
Langworthy told them the Texas “indiscretions” happened more than two decades ago when he was a music minister at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.
Langworthy, a married father of two girls, did not return this fall as the Arrow Singers choir director.
District Superintendent Phil Burchfield issued a statement last month acknowledging he’d known of the accusations against Langworthy since August 2010, but that the district “had no evidence, other than allegations, that the conduct had actually taken place, and the employee never admitted to the district that the conduct happened.”
Before Langworthy’s arrest Wednesday, investigators with Jackson and Clinton police met with investigators in the Hinds County district attorney’s office.
Both of the alleged Clinton victims now live out of state, Frazier said.
The other alleged victims still live in the metro area, McBride said.
The charge will be forwarded to the district attorney’s office for presentation to a grand jury. The maximum penalty on each count is 10 years in jail and a $1,000 fine, which was the penalty at the time the alleged crimes occurred, Frazier said.
Houston, Texas, resident Amy Smith, a ministry intern at Prestonwood during Langworthy’s time there, contacted Clinton school and Morrison Heights leaders when she learned Langworthy was a Clinton High teacher and had daily contact with children. Smith now heads the Houston, Texas, chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
Smith approached Morrison Heights Pastor Greg Belser in January.
Morrison Heights investigated Langworthy “and took immediate action to protect the church family,” said church attorney Philip Gunn, who also is a Morrison Heights elder and a state representative.
“We hope that any church officials who knew of or suspected Langworthy’s crimes, but kept silent, face criminal charges as well,” David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director, said in a news release.
Frazier said his department’s investigation “all started with one victim coming forward.
“It’s a 20-year-old crime because of silence,” Frazier said. “That victim decided not to be silent anymore, and others followed him.
“They are courageous to come forward, but they’re also scared to death,” he said of the alleged victims.
“They are grown men, but they still carry that victim mentality.”
Said McBride: “You don’t want people to know another male did this kind of stuff to you. It’s really been tough on them.”
To comment on this story email Ruth Ingram at ringram@clarionledger.com
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