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.
Samuel McKinney, an Evangelical pastor at an unnamed church in Kentucky, was recently convicted of first-degree rape against a child under 12 years of age.
A former Kentucky pastor has been found guilty in a decades-old rape case.
According to Attorney General Russell Coleman, 60-year-old Samuel McKinney was found guilty Wednesday by an Estill County jury on the charge of first-degree rape against a child under 12 years of age.
The victim alleged the abuse occurred about once a month from May 1982 to December 1985 and stopped when she was about 11 years old.
The woman, now 50, reported the abuse in 2023 after learning her abuser was a pastor at an Irvine church.
“In our Commonwealth, there is no statute of limitations for felony charges, which allowed this courageous woman to come forward and report her abuse after all these years,” said Attorney General Coleman. “Her bravery was critical to putting this criminal behind bars, and we hope her example will encourage others in similar situations to come forward.”
The jury recommended a sentence of 20 years. Under Kentucky’s law, McKinney will be required to serve 85% of the sentence before he is eligible for parole. McKinney will also be required to register as a Sex Offender for the rest of his life.
He will be sentenced on June 3.
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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