George Waddles Sr., a former president of the National Baptist Congress and pastor of Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago,Illinois, pleaded guilty today to sexually abusing a fifteen-year-old church girl. Astoundingly, Waddles Sr. will serve NO jail time for his crimes. Waddles was investigated in the 1990s over similar allegations. No charges were filed.
With little of the fanfare that surrounded his charismatic preaching career, one of Chicago’s most prominent churchmen pleaded guilty on Friday to sexually abusing a 15 year-old-girl, the I-Team has learned.
The Rev. George Waddles Sr., a former president of the National Baptist Congress and ex-pastor of Zion Hill Missionary Church on W. 78th St, appeared in Cook County criminal court. Since being charged two years ago Waddles has been fighting the allegation. On Friday he pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
However, despite having abused a minor girl, he will not go to jail.
Cook County Judge James Obbish sentenced Waddles to 30 months’ probation and the 69 year old minister must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Prosecutors had asked for jail time, especially considering Waddles sexually assaulted the teenager during a counseling session at the church.
In court on Friday the young woman who was sexually abused presented an emotional victim impact statement, saying that the Rev. Waddles had tried to manipulate her family-who were longtime parishioners.
“You called my mom every Sunday to see if you could meet with me again, see if I forgave you, and not press charges” she said.
Although Waddles was charged with molesting only her, the victim told Judge Obbish that there were other girls abused by Waddles.
“I’m the only victim who has come forward since he’s been raping, molesting and assaulting minors. George thought I would give up by now, but little did he know, I can’t be suppressed” she said. “Even through my suicidal thoughts, self-loathing, dwelling, disappointments, anger, weakness, doubt and confusion, God is still so good.”
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In September of 2015, Chicago Tribune writer Steve Schmadeke reported:
A longtime South Side pastor was charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl in his office during a counseling session in 2014.
Prosecutors said the alleged victim and her mother confronted George Waddles, 67, who heads Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, and secretly recorded his admissions to inappropriately touching the teen.
Waddles turned himself in to Chicago police Tuesday and made “a positive disclosure” to a detective that was consistent with the girl’s story, said Assistant State’s Attorney Tara Pease-Harkin. He was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 felony that carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison or probation on conviction.
Judge Donald Panarese Jr. ordered Waddles released on his own recognizance but barred him from any contact with minors.
Waddles’ wife, daughter and son attended the bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building along with other pastors and supporters.
Waddles’ attorney, Lewis Myers Jr., blasted the case, saying a Department of Children and Family Services investigation did not sustain the girl’s claims and that she and her mother continued to attend church and counseling after the alleged incident.
“These charges should never have been filed,” Myers later said outside the courtroom.
Myers said in court that Waddles has been preaching for 35 years and holds a master’s degree in social work. He founded a training conference for those involved in Christian education called the Biblical Exposition Conference, according to an online biography. He is past president of several Christian education groups, including the Baptist General State Congress of Christian Education in Illinois and the National Baptist Congress.
Pease-Harkin said that Waddles had been investigated in the 1990s on allegations he had sexually abused a young girl in his office but that no criminal charges were filed against him.
Prosecutors said the alleged victim has known Waddles since she was 3 and started to be counseled by him when she turned 13 in 2011.
A year later, he told her he had dreamed about her and asked her to lift her shirt up for him, but she refused, Pease-Harkin said.
He tried to give her a hug and kiss her neck on five to 10 other occasions when she was in his church office at 1460 W 78th St., according to the prosecutor.
Once, in 2014, Waddles asked the girl to sit on his lap, and when she did, he kissed her neck and touched her underneath her underwear, Pease-Harkin said. The girl then left his office and about a month later told her mother what had happened, she said.
The two then confronted Waddles in a meeting at the church. He allegedly confessed and apologized, according to the prosecutor.
At a second meeting between July 2014 and February 2015, the girl and her mother met with Waddles and his wife and recorded his alleged admission, Pease-Harkin said.
Waddles asked them not to contact police, the prosecutor said.
Matt McCall, also a writer for the Chicago Tribune, had this to say about Waddles and his latest victim:
For more than a decade the modest Gresham neighborhood church was the center of the family’s life.
The mother was a church council member, praise leader and Sunday school teacher. Her daughter was in the youth ministry.
They said they felt the Rev. George Waddles Sr., the charismatic pastor and leader of Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, was a true man of God. Three to four days a week, the family served the church in some way.
That ended in 2014 after the then 15-year-old daughter alleged Waddles had abused her during a counseling session in his office, according to court records.
Waddles was charged in September with aggravated criminal sexual abuse after turning himself in to police, a Class 2 felony that carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison. He later pleaded not guilty. Under Waddles’ bond conditions, he is allowed to preach at the church but is barred from contact with minors when adults are not present.
The victim’s family is concerned that Waddles is still at the church and a group that advocates for sexual assault victims is asking that he step down from his leadership position while the case is pending.
The family said they have been shunned by parishioners and receive intimidating phone calls at least once a week. Waddles still preaches at the 100- to 200-member church at 1460 W. 78th St., and a little more than a month after the charges were filed, church members threw an anniversary celebration in Waddles’ honor.
“Overall, you don’t need to be a Christian to understand right from wrong,” the girl said. The Tribune is not naming her or her parents because she is the alleged victim of a sexual assault. “That’s why I feel they are doing something wrong. When you’re so wrapped up in it, it’s hard to see the truth. They see him as God. They don’t do what God says. They do what he says.”
Hunched over in a chair, she stared at the door in the corner of a closet-size room at a Chicago public library recently, an earbud nestled in her left ear. Her father, who was at work, monitored the conversation on a phone placed on the table in front of her. It crackled when he could no longer contain his frustration.
“There was no sensitivity and care for my daughter at all,” he said. “You can imagine her, a 17-year-old girl, with the weight of this on her. As a father, it adds fuel to the fire.”
Her mother, who sat beside her daughter, said the teen has been shamed by the congregation when it should have applauded her.
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Marc Pearlman, a veteran clergy sex abuse attorney providing legal counsel to the family, said the girl has been treated as a perpetrator for tarnishing the pastor’s reputation, rather than as a potential victim of abuse.
“Tell me any other responsible organization that, when authorities would have enough evidence to charge one of their employees with this crime, that would continue to allow them to work at their place of business,” Pearlman said. “Forget a parish. What about a 7-Eleven?”
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Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests want the pastor removed “for the safety of other kids.” But unlike the hierarchal Catholic church, Baptist churches typically are independent and only parishioners or a church council can remove their pastor.
An official with the National Baptist Convention said Baptist policy states that each church is autonomous and not subject to management from a national or regional organization.
When Barbara Blaine, president and founder of SNAP, attempted to hand out leaflets at the church on the day of the anniversary service, security guards blocked her from talking to parishioners entering the church.
“We shouldn’t take a risk with any children ever,” Blaine said earlier this month. “So at the bare minimum he should step down while the case is pending.”
