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.
In 2018, Brian Dicken, associate pastor of Church of Christ at Mountain View, was arrested and charged with taking indecent liberties with an underage girl who attended the church and Mountain View Christian Academy. Dicken pleaded no contest, and was sentenced to five years in prison, with three years suspended.
A former Church of Christ at Mountain View associate pastor has pleaded no contest to taking indecent liberties with an underage girl who attended the church and Mountain View Christian Academy.
In a plea bargain Friday in Frederick County Circuit Court, the Rev. Brian Sean Dicken entered the plea. As part of the agreement, a second count of indecent liberties was dismissed.
The 38-year-old Dicken, of the 900 block of Cedar Creek Grade, worked from 2003 until March 2017 at the Frederick County church, which is affiliated with the 170-student school. He began as a youth minister before becoming an associate minister and left to become lead minister at a church in New Bern, N.C. Dicken’s duties included teaching Bible classes, coaching basketball, chaperoning students on trips and counseling them.
The incidents occurred from Dec. 1, 2014, to Feb. 17, 2017, according to Heather D. Enloe, the assistant county commonwealth’s attorney who is prosecuting the case. Enloe told Judge Alexander R. Iden that Dicken touched the girl inappropriately during counseling sessions, including fondling and kissing her. “It became the new normal,” Enloe said.
Evidence includes incriminating texts from Dicken to the girl, who contacted the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office after turning 18. Enloe said the girl and her family are satisfied with the plea bargain.
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Dicken, free on a $50,000 bond, is scheduled to be sentenced at 1 p.m. Jan. 25. Dicken wouldn’t comment after the hearing, but his lawyer Jonathan L. Sylvester said the expected state sentencing guideline recommendations for Dicken will range from no jail time to up to three months imprisonment. He noted Dicken has no prior criminal record and is not accused of abusing any other children at the school.
Sylvester said Dicken strongly considered a bench trial before a judge to prove his innocence, but Enloe insisted on a jury trial. He said Dicken wouldn’t risk a jury trial, “given today’s social atmosphere,” a reference to increased awareness of sexual assaults and sexual harassment and a willingness for victims to speak out through the #Me Too Movement.
Sylvester said Dicken, a husband and father of six, thought a plea was best for his family, and it would spare his accuser having to testify at trial. “He thought it might have meant more stress for her and her family,” Sylvester said.
The Winchester Star also reported:
Dicken, now 40, was convicted of indecent liberties for groping an underage girl between 2014-17 while an associate pastor at Church of Christ at Mountain View in Frederick County. He also taught at Mountain View Christian Academy, a private, K-12 school affiliated with the church. He was sentenced to five years with three suspended. The sentence includes five years of supervised probation during which time he can have no unsupervised contact with children other than his own, and registering as a sex offender for life.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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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