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.
James Houston III, formerly the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Dauphin Way United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama, along with other Methodist churches and ministries, was charged with electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a minor for a sex act.
Additional details have emerged after a Tuscaloosa pastor and retired business school instructor at the University of Alabama was charged with electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a minor for a sex act.
As Patch previously reported, the West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force announced Tuesday that James Gorman Houston III, 66, was arrested after an undercover operation conducted earlier in the day.
A deposition obtained by Patch says that Houston made contact with a profile or account on an online dating app on Monday that was operated by an undercover officer with the West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force.
The undercover officer then took on the persona of a minor under the age of sixteen, before informing Houston of the minor’s age.
Houston’s immediate response to this information, according to the deposition, was sexually explicit in its graphic language, as Houston believed he was talking to a minor.
As the conversation continued, Houston explained that he wanted to “teach” and “help you become confident in knowing what you want,” before going on to explain the various sex acts they would try.
The following day, Houston and the undercover officer made arrangements to meet at an undisclosed address in Tuscaloosa County.
The deposition says that Houston traveled to the location, exited the vehicle, and began walking toward an undercover law enforcement officer whom he believed to be the minor he had been communicating with.
Houston was then taken into custody by Task Force agents without incident.
Once in custody, Houston was read his Miranda rights and acknowledged communicating with and traveling to meet the undercover officer whom he believed to be a minor.
His occupation on the deposition is listed as “self-employed.”
An examination of Houston’s professional background also shows at least one other instance of controversy in the church, going back to 2010.
Originally from Eufaula, Houston is a former pastor at First United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa, where he worked from 2012 to 2019, and a retired senior instructor of management who taught for 12 years in the Department of Management at UA’s Culverhouse College of Business.
He is the son of former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Gorman Houston Jr., who died in September of this year.
Houston was awarded the Capstone Heroes Award from the University of Alabama for 2015-2016 but his name has since been scrubbed from the list of recipients on the UA website.
At one time, he also worked for eight and a half years as the coordinator of UA Interfaith in the UA Dean of Students Office and is a founding pastor of Pure and Simple Lifestyle Christianity.
Houston retired from the University of Alabama in 2022 and his LinkedIn account says he has been working as a private LSAT instructor since 2019.
Nevertheless, various media reports show that Houston once served as pastor of Dauphin Way United Methodist Church in the Mobile area but resigned in 2010 amid allegations that he violated ethical standards.
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Electronic solicitation of a child is a Class B felony in Alabama and those found guilty of the offense can face up to 20 years in prison.
If convicted, Houston would also have to register as a sex offender.
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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