The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Mitchell Conte, pastor of Oceanlake Christian Church in Lincoln City, Oregon, was charged last week with two counts of third-degree sodomy, two counts of contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor, second-degree sex abuse, first-degree online sexual corruption of a child and luring a minor.
The brother of the victim found Instagram messages between the victim and Conte that were sexually explicit, and wasn’t sure what to do. Later, the brother noticed the victim’s window open and no one inside, so he went in to her room through the window and found more exchanges over Instagram between the victim and Conte. The brother confronted the victim in the morning, and the victim said she was with Conte at the beach.
The victim told police she snuck out five times to see Conte, and that they were alone other times when Conte would pick her up from work or she would babysit Conte’s daughters, who were 4 and 6 years old.
When police arrested Conte, he said he knew the victim was around 15 years old.
Conte’s bail was set at $295,000
Two teen boys were instrumental in exposing Conte’s alleged criminal behavior. You can read their interview here.
Your article on Mitch Conte is not accurate. Mr. Conte is not currently the Pastor of Oceanlake Christian. Hasn’t been their Pastor there for at least 7 months.
At the time of his alleged crime, he was. That’s how these articles are written. This keeps churches from saying, “hey, he’s not our pastor.” Technically correct, but he WAS when the alleged crimes were committed.
Thank you for commenting.
Bruce
Actually, he left Oceanlake Christian Church in November 2018, long before these crimes were committed.