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.
Jarod Mills, pastor of Clifton Flats Alliance Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and a part-time instructor at Butler County Community College was convicted of unlawful attempted sexual contact with a minor and sentenced to six months in jail.
In 2020, the Cranberry Eagle reported:
Ohio prosecutors recently filed a bill of particulars in the case, showing more detailed accusations against Jarod Mills, including the age and sex of the minor the undercover law enforcement officer portrayed in the sting.
Mills, a New Castle resident, faces charges of fourth-degree felony attempted unlawful conduct with a minor as well as fifth-degree felonies importuning, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and possessing criminal tools.
The prosecutors accuse Mills of soliciting a law enforcement officer posing as a 15-year-old boy, and specifically accused him of soliciting the officer for oral sex.
He was arrested Oct. 22 and a Mahoning County grand jury indicted him Dec. 17.
Other documents filed in the case indicate Mills may have come in contact with the undercover officer on Grindr, which describes itself as a “social networking and online dating application for gay, bi, trans and queer people.”
That other filing, a response to Mills’ request for discovery, indicates prosecutors have as evidence screenshots of chats on Grindr, which include pornography. Another charge, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, may relate to those screenshots, as prosecutors allege Mills sent a sexually explicit photograph to the officer posing as a 15-year-old.
In addition, on the charge of attempted unlawful sexual contact with a minor, prosecutors accuse Mills of attempting to engage in oral sex with the officer. For the final charge, of possessing criminal tools, the bill of particulars states Mills possessed a cell phone, condoms and lubrication, which prosecutors allege he intended to use in the commission of importuning and attempted unlawful sexual contact.
New Castle News later reported:
A New Castle man accused of child sex trafficking and corrupting children in Ohio has been found guilty by a jury in Mahoning County Court.
The Ohio jury’s verdict was delivered Wednesday against 35-year-old Jarod Mills of West Terrace Avenue of unlawful attempted sexual contact with a minor.
Mill was arrested in Mahoning County in May 2021 in a sex sting operation by the Operation for Child Trafficking and Sex With Children. His bond has been revoked and he’s remains in the Mahoning County jail, awaiting sentencing.
He was a pastor at the Clifton Flats Church at the time.
Mills was one of 14 people arrested in 2020 in what Ohio’s attorney general called the “largest anti-human trafficking operation in state history.”
Mills is charged with attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, importuning or soliciting of an adolescent, possessing criminal tools and displaying matter harmful to juveniles.
….
Mills also had been a part-time instructor at Butler County Community College, which at the time of his arrest placed him on a leave of absence. He no longer is affiliated with the church or BC3.
A New Castle man caught in a statewide human trafficking sting will be spending some time in prison.
According to court employees, 36-year-old Jarod Mills was sentenced to six months in prison on one count of importuning.
The charge stems from a statewide sex sting, which led to Mills’ arrest in Mahoning County in October of 2020. Mills was one of 14 men arrested in Mahoning County during this sting.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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