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 2022, Danny Pitts, pastor of the now-closed GracePoint Church in Decatur, Alabama, was accused of sexual intercourse by “forcible compulsion” with an individual over 12 but under 16. Pitts pleaded not guilty and had a March 2023 trial date.
A former Alabama pastor pled not guilty to sexually abusing an underage person.
The former pastor of GracePoint Church in Decatur, 59-year-old Danny Duane Pitts, was arrested in November 2021 and charged with two counts of sodomy.
According to the indictment, Pitts is accused of sexual intercourse by “forcible compulsion” with an individual over 12 but under 16.
Pitts was released on bond in September of 2021, with stipulations requiring him to surrender his passport, wear an ankle monitor and not leave the state.
According to a court form signed by Pitts in November 2021, he listed his employer as GracePoint Church.
GracePoint Church deleted its Facebook page and website after the arrest and is listed as permanently closed on the internet.
The trial for a Morgan County pastor arrested and charged on two counts of sodomy has been delayed once again to March 6.
Danny Duane Pitts of Hartselle was arrested in November 2021 on charges of first-degree and second-degree sodomy.
Pitts pleaded not guilty to both charges and later posted a $500,000 bond. As part of the bond, he was ordered to wear an ankle bracelet, hand over his passport and not travel out of state.
The trial was originally set to begin in November 2022, but a judge delayed the case until Monday.
The judge presiding over the case cited a heavy caseload for why the decision was made to continue the case again.
Pitts also faces sodomy charges in Tennessee.
In March 2022, The Chatanooga Times Free Press reported:
A former Alabama pastor now free on $50,000 bond is facing several counts of statutory rape and sexual battery in Grundy County, Tennessee, while he awaits trial in Alabama on other child sex allegations.
Charges in Tennessee against Danny Duane Pitts, 59, of Hartselle, Alabama, stem from an investigation launched Jan. 5 with Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents working jointly with Hartselle police probing allegations related to incidents that happened between August and November 2019, according to TBI spokesperson Susan Niland.
Pitts is charged with aggravated statutory rape, two counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and statutory rape by an authority figure, Niland said in a news release issued Monday. Pitts surrendered Monday at the Grundy County Jail and was freed the same day, according to Grundy County Sheriff Clint Shrum.
Shrum said Tuesday in a telephone interview he knew little of the case since it arose from a TBI investigation with links to Alabama.
Mike Taylor, 12th Judicial District attorney general, said Alabama’s State Bureau of Investigation contacted the TBI on the case since that state’s investigation crossed the state line.
In the Tennessee case, Pitts and a 17-year-old boy traveled from Alabama to Grundy County where the alleged abuse took place in 2019, Taylor said Tuesday. Taylor said the teen is believed to have been a member of the church where Pitts worked as pastor in Morgan County, Alabama.
Pitts faces a November trial in Alabama on two counts of sodomy involving another minor in Morgan County, according to court records in Decatur, Alabama.
“It is a case that occurred several years ago and it involved a member of his church, a young man that he had befriended,” Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
“We allege an inappropriate relationship took place that was criminal in nature,” Anderson said. He said he couldn’t share any further details on the Alabama case as it continues to develop.
“I’m sure the Grundy County DA and I will be exchanging notes,” Anderson said.
The investigation in Morgan County was a joint probe involving the Hartselle Police Department, Anderson’s office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and members of the North Alabama Violent Crimes Task Force, according to a Nov. 5 news release from the police department. Pitts was later released on a $500,000 bond.
After a two-year delay, Pitts had his day in court and was found guilty of second-degree sodomy.
A former pastor has been found guilty of sodomy after days of testimony.
According to court officials, Danny Duane Pitts was found guilty of second-degree sodomy Thursday after a trial in Morgan County.
Pitts was originally indicted on two counts of sodomy in 2021, and his trial began on Monday.
Testimony in the trial began on Tuesday with former Hartselle Police Investigator Amy Crouch.
Crouch testified the then-teenage accuser disclosed details about several illegal sexual encounters between him and his pastor, Danny Pitts.
At that time, Crouch testified cases that were sexual in nature were to be drafted into a report and submitted to the DA’s office to decide whether it would move forward to a grand jury. She testified her investigation took nearly a year, but then she sent it over to prosecutors.
The victim in the case also tearfully testified that Pitts took advantage of him early on in counseling sessions. The victim said he initially kept it to himself but later confided in his family, who offered support if he wanted to press charges.
Last Monday, Pitts was sentenced to twenty years in prison for his crimes.
The Hartselle Inquirer reports:
The former pastor of GracePoint Church in Decatur, convicted of sodomizing an underage boy, was ordered at an emotional sentencing hearing Wednesday morning to serve 20 years in prison.
“In my humble opinion, 20 years is not enough, but it’s the maximum I can give you,” Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott told Danny Duane Pitts, who appeared for the first time in stripes and shackles. Pitts, 61, of Hartselle, was arrested in 2021 and charged with first and second-degree sodomy after the case against him – first reported to police in 2007 – sat cold for years.
At trial in late October, the prosecution argued that Pitts “groomed” a member of his church – a boy around 12-13 years old at the time – and began a years-long criminal sexual relationship with him.
A jury found Pitts guilty of second-degree sodomy on Oct. 24. Pitts was found not guilty of first-degree sodomy, which entails forcible compulsion, and not guilty of lesser included offenses of first- and second-degree sexual abuse.
Pitts’ sentencing was the first order of business Wednesday morning in a packed courtroom. Several supporters of the now-adult victim sat in the gallery. The victim stood next to Chief Assistant District Attorney Garrick Vickery before Elliott’s bench. Next to them, Pitts stood alongside his defense attorneys, John Berry and Brandon Little. Each side was offered the opportunity to speak.
Vickery said he only just started working for the DA’s Office when the case against Pitts began. “Now, here I stand feeling old,” he said. “This case lasted for years.” He asked Elliott to give Pitts the maximum sentence and alluded to other potential victims. Pitts faces charges for a similar offense in Tennessee, according to Vickery.
The victim spoke next and said the case’s verdict showed him that his voice matters. “Justice has brought me a sense of peace I never thought possible,” he said. “I’m here to reclaim the narrative and tell my own story. Enough is enough. Just because you are made a victim doesn’t mean you need to stay one.” He, too, asked for the maximum sentence for Pitts.
Pitts and his attorneys declined to speak.
“I have wrestled with the facts of this case since trial,” Elliott said. “Having been on the bench for almost six years now, I have seen some pretty gruesome stuff when it comes to physical abuse and sexual abuse.” Pitts showed little emotion as Elliott spoke of the “ripple effects” of such abuse, deeming Pitts’ crime a form of “spiritual abuse.” Attorneys on both sides stood with their hands folded behind their backs. Berry and Little looked at the floor or, occasionally, the ceiling. “That has caused me to wrestle more with my own faith than anything else,” Elliott continued. “I have struggled with trying to find the right words to say to you today. I have spent a lot of time studying my Bible.” Elliott then spoke directly to the victim and said he was sorry for what had happened to him. Court officials brought boxes of tissues to supporters of the victim, some of whom lightly sobbed as Elliott spoke.
“It is my prayer that you know in your soul what he did was evil,” he said. “It was not God’s will what happened to you. It is my sincere hope that your relationship with God is made whole again.” Elliott said the case reminded him of a bible verse: “Beware of false prophets.” He then sentenced Pitts to 20 years imprisonment with the Alabama Department of Corrections, with a $30,000 fine and a $10,000 victim compensation fee.
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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