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.
Jordan Huffman, a former youth pastor at Woodlands Church in Plover, Wisconsin, stands accused of sexually assaulting a church teenager. The sexual assaults began when the boy was twelve. Huffman also worked for Forest Lakes District Evangelical Free Church of America in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
The Stevens Point Journal reports:
Jordan Ross Huffman, 51, who is living in Satellite Beach, Florida, faces charges of first-degree sexual assault of a child, two counts of repeated sexual assault of a child, three counts of child enticement, one count of causing a child to view sexual activity and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a child.
The Portage County District Attorney’s Office filed the charges against Huffman on Aug. 5, and Portage County Circuit Judge Louis Molepske Jr. issued a warrant for him on Monday.
The Brevard County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office online records state officers arrested Huffman Tuesday. On Wednesday, Attorney Andrea Winder, of Madison, notified the court that she is Huffman’s lawyer.
According to the criminal complaint, in 2017, a couple approached Huffman, who at the time was a pastor at Woodlands Church in Plover, and asked him to mentor their 12-year-old son. The boy had started drinking and getting into trouble.
The boy told police instead of helping him, Huffman did just the opposite, according to the complaint. Huffman gave the boy alcohol, marijuana and prescription pills, according to the complaint. The boy said Huffman would drive him to a remote location at the end of a dirt road, after the boy was drunk or under the influence of marijuana, and inappropriately touch the boy with his mouth or hands, according to the complaint.
The boy said the encounters happened multiple times. He said nothing happened at Woodlands Church, other than Huffman telling the boy he had alcohol, marijuana or nicotine cartridges for him, according to the complaint. He said Huffman had sexual intercourse with him one time at Huffman’s home while his wife and children were gone.
When Huffman left Woodlands Church and took a job with Forest Lakes District Evangelical Free Church of America in Stevens Point, several encounters occurred in Huffman’s office there, according to the complaint.
The boy told police he let Huffman do these things because Huffman was his mentor and because he was drunk or high, according to the complaint. When the boy got older, he told Huffman he didn’t want to have sexual contact with him anymore, and Huffman respected the request. About six months later, Huffman told the boy he no longer wanted to hang out with him, according to the complaint.
If convicted of the charges, Huffman faces a maximum of 221 years and 9 months in prison.
Bruce Gerencser, 65, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 44 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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