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.
Romello Leach, pastor of several unidentified churches, was accused on Wednesday of sexually assaulting a teen girl and impregnating her.
An El Paso County minister arrested on suspicion of multiple counts of sexual assault on a child is accused of impregnating a 14-year-old girl, arrest records show.
According to an arrest affidavit, Romello Leach, 22, and an unidentified girl whose parents Leach knows from church had sexual intercourse at least twice since late 2016.
Leach was arrested and booked into the El Paso County jail Wednesday. He faces four counts of felony sexual assault by one in a position of trust with someone under the age of 15 and four counts of felony sexual assault by one in a position of trust with someone between the ages of 15 and 18.
Arrest records show the girl did not tell anyone about her pregnancy until her mother noticed in May that she had “a larger belly.” On May 17, the affidavit said, her mother took her to the Colorado Springs Pregnancy Center, where they told an employee that the daughter had been impregnated by Leach. The daughter said she and Leach had sexual intercourse twice – once in November 2016 and again in February or April 2017.
….
The affidavit details a recorded telephone conversation obtained by deputies in which Leach’s ex-wife asked him, “So you didn’t sleep with that girl and get her pregnant?” Leach replied, “It happened.”
She then asks why he would sleep with a 14-year-old girl and get her pregnant when he knows her parents. Leach said “he knows he has made the worst mistake” and that “it is not like he will go around and sleep with everybody’s 13 or 14-year-old daughter,” the affidavit says.
During another recorded phone call between Leach and an unidentified person from Nov. 21, arrest records say Leach admitted to having sexual intercourse with the girl on at least four occasions and being the father of her child. He “admitted the behavior was wrong,” and said he was “full of lust” at the time.
The affidavit says the girl gave birth to the child, which Leach admitted was his, on Sept. 15, about two months after her 15th birthday.
….
