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.
Nicholas Jackson, an elder at an unnamed church, was recently sentenced to 120 days in jail for a Level 5 felony charge of child solicitation and a Level 6 felony charge of dissemination of matter harmful to minors.
Jackson was arrested in 2024. Fox-59 reported at the time:
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Bargersville man and “church elder” for child sex crimes after he allegedly spoke to a detective pretending to be a 14-year-old girl.
Nicholas P. Jackson, 39, was arrested on Dec. 15, 2023, at his place of employment, a church in New Whiteland near 560 E. Tracy Rd., on the following charges:
Child Solicitation, a Level 4 Felony;
Possession of Child Pornography, a Level 5 Felony;
Dissemination of Harmful Matter to Minor (Attempt), a Level 6 Felony.
According to court documents, on multiple occasions from Nov. 28, 2023, through Dec. 15, 2023, Jackson contacted an undercover agent that he believed was a 14-year-old white female. The agent identified their age as 14 multiple times.
Jackson was arrested in January 2024 following a Nov. 29, 2023, child solicitation roundup conducted by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Franklin Police, Edinburgh Police, and other agencies. He was not arrested on the day of the roundup because he did not fully go through with meeting the person he thought was a 14-year-old girl that day. He was arrested after deputies learned he had returned from a mission trip to Guatemala, they said in court Friday.
He met the undercover agent on an app, in a local chatroom called Bargersville Friends. The chatroom is known for multiple crimes, police said, including fraud, drugs, prostitution, porn and automatic firearm conversion kits.
Jackson introduced himself to the agent as “Nick from Bargersville, happily married, two children. Work at a local church, and a Seminary student!” At this time, Jackson inquired about her age, and the officer spoke about how she was “almost 15.” Jackson said, “You can be the little sister I never had… lol.”
He said, “…For some reason, I’m attracted to younger girls.” He later requested to see a photograph of the minor nude. Jackson also sent videos to the girl in the chatroom of himself performing sexual acts in church.
He also asked the girl, “How old is ur mom, I bet we are the same age! LOL. Age. That would be wild if her and I went to high school together! Lol.”
During the investigation, officers also learned Jackson was a substitute teacher.
The court documents also reference how Jackson went by the girl’s home. Surveillance corroborated what he said in the chatroom, as a video of a 2013 Toyota Prius registered to Jackson showed his parked car at the complex.
“I literally just drove by your apartment. There were first-floor apartments in second-story apartments with balconies and I parked by the pool. I got nervous and left I was there about 10 minutes ago.” Jackson said he was depositing money at a bank for the church mission when he stopped at the minor’s home.
Jackson turned himself into the Johnson County Jail on Tuesday. He was bonded out of jail with $10,000 surety/ $1,100 cash. His arrest was a continuation of child solicitation stings conducted by multiple local law enforcement agencies.
Earlier this month. Jackson was sentenced to 120 days in the county jail for his crimes. 120 days! Are you kidding me? Does anyone seriously think this was Jackson’s first offense? This guy was a missionary in Guatemala. Did anyone go to where he ministered and check to see if there were allegations there? The judge said he considered Jackson’s missionary work justification for giving him a light sentence. I call this the “preacher’s discount.”
A Bargersville man who is a former local church elder and substitute teacher was sentenced Friday for two child sex crimes.
Johnson Superior Court 3 Judge Douglas Cummins sentenced Nicholas P. Jackson, 40, to 120 days in the Johnson County jail to be followed by five years of probation. The sentence is for a Level 5 felony charge of child solicitation and a Level 6 felony charge of dissemination of matter harmful to minors.
Jackson was arrested in January 2024 following a Nov. 29, 2023, child solicitation roundup conducted by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Franklin Police, Edinburgh Police and other agencies. He was not arrested the day of the roundup because he did not fully go through with meeting the person he thought was a 14-year-old girl that day. He was arrested after deputies learned he had returned from a mission trip to Guatemala, they said in court Friday.
Detectives corresponded with Jackson via a local group within Telegram, an encrypted chatroom app. Detectives spoke with him over a series of three days, with the third day being when Jackson allegedly drove to Greenwood to meet the girl.
Jackson reportedly drove to the apartment complex where deputies were waiting for him the day of the sting, but did not go inside. Detectives say they witnessed him park at the complex, and they also have evidence he was in the area via license plate cameras and a bank deposit he made nearby.
Because Jackson did not fully go through with meeting the girl, the child solicitation charge was reduced to a Level 5 from the initial Level 4 felony in the open plea agreement. Russell Johnson, one of Jackson’s attorneys, said in court this is because the crime becomes a Level 4 if someone meets a child with an intention of sexual contact.
Detectives say Jackson masturbated via Telegram voice call, asked for nude pictures of the girl and sent a picture of his penis to her. When they arrested him at the New Whiteland church where he previously worked, detectives saw the same flooring and office chair that appears in the picture, meaning he sent it at the church, they said in court.
Jackson allegedly used his real name in the chatroom and presented himself as a “happily married” church employee and seminary student. Although he was not actively working as a substitute teacher at the time of the conversations, he had previously been at several local high schools, including Center Grove and Perry Meridian, Johnson County Sheriff Duane Burgess previously said.
Jackson was also initially charged with a Level 5 felony charge of possession of child pornography with an aggravating factor, but the charge was dropped because there was not definitive evidence Jackson had viewed the child sexual abuse images. Although a deputy testified three images were found in a forensic download of Jackson’s data from the Telegram app.
However, Jackson’s other attorney Kyle Johnson, poked holes in that evidence in court.
Kyle Johnson said the images within the download are all of the images in a pornography channel that Jackson accessed, and Jackson said he does not recall looking at those particular images. When asked in court, the deputy in charge of the download confirmed there is not specific proof he looked at the images in the Telegram metadata.
Since his release on bond, Jackson told the court he has been to weekly faith-based therapy to counter his self-professed porn addiction. He said he has his wife’s support in the matter and is committed to staying away from temptation for her and their children.
What he did was “a sin against God” that was “rooted in idolatry.” He took responsibility for falling victim to “temptation” and said he “grievously” failed God, his family and his brothers and sisters in Christ, he said in court.
Jackson got emotional on the stand when talking about his mission work in Guatemala, where he says he has been volunteering to help rebuild infrastructure in a remote Mayan village on and off since 2006. He was so devoted to this cause that he lived there for a time. He also met his wife, a native of the village, while working there. He said his greatest wish after the case is fully resolved is to return “home” to Guatemala to live with his family.
He said that he never intended to meet the girl, despite evidence from Telegram showing he asked multiple times to meet her.
“Meeting someone physically was never a reality to me,” he said in court.
Jackson’s support from family and friends was clear in court, as the court was packed with dozens of supporters. His attorneys say about 50 letters of support were written to Cummins on Jackson’s behalf. The letters spoke of Jackson’s character and faith, but some also questioned the prosecutor’s office for charging him and the sheriff’s office for conducting these types of sting operations, they said in court.
Deputy Prosecutor Bridget Foust urged Cummins not to be “fooled” by Jackson. She argued for a six-year sentence with two years to be executed in the Indiana Department of Corrections. The proof of his “double life” should be taken into account. Not only did he prey on this would-be victim, there are suggestions this is a pattern of behavior, she said.
Detectives found multiple images of his penis that were taken in his office. Detectives came across Jackson because he was cold-calling area young women on Telegram, including the detectives’ account. He reportedly had a “thing for younger women” and told investigators he had looked at nude images of children before this incident, they said in court.
There was no specific evidence presented in court that he did have sexual conversations with other teens, after detectives combed through digital evidence and spoke to people at the church. However, the sting operation is proof that he is capable of seducing a child, Foust said.
“The purpose of these sting operations is to expose them and put the community on notice,” she said. “If not for this, we would not have known what he was doing in that church office.”
Russell Johnson advocated for no jail time and said the mitigating circumstances outweigh the aggravators. Referring to Jackson’s mission work in Guatemala and other volunteer efforts with homeless communities and people in addiction recovery, he said Jackson is not like others who have appeared in the court.
He pointed to Jackson’s marked progress in recovery and commitment to put this in his past, and said going to jail would “serve no purpose.”
Cummins announced his verdict after a short recess for deliberation. He began by saying he supports the sting operations. Catching would-be predators this way prevents them from harming real children, he said.
He found that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances, but opted to weigh the sentence more toward probation than jail time. He gave a few reasons, including that Jackson may not “survive DOC,” his stated remorse, progress toward recovery, and history of giving back in the community and in Guatemala.
“I appreciate all of that and that’s why you’re staying out of the DOC,” Cummins said.
However, Cummins warned Jackson that he would likely be sentenced to DOC if he violates his probation.
“Have firmly planted in your mind what that would look like,” Cummins said, asking Jackson to picture being without his family in DOC.
Though the sentence is less than the prosecution requested, a sentence involving some jail time sends a message, said Lance Hamner, Johnson County prosecutor.
“I’m pleased that the judge ruled that the aggravating circumstances in this case were more significant than the mitigating circumstances,” Hamner said in a statement. “A person who prefers underage girls for his sexual gratification is a clear danger to children and he belongs in jail.”
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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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