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James Crawford, pastor of Westside Church in Redding,California, inexplicably escaped 22 felony counts alleging lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, accepting a plea deal that had Crawford pleading no contest to three misdemeanors. Crawford will spend no time in jail.
Jim Schultz, a reporter for the Record Searchlight, writes:
A former Redding pastor arrested in February and charged with 31 criminal counts, including 22 felonies, for allegedly molesting three girls over a seven-year span pleaded no contest Monday in Shasta County Superior Court to three misdemeanors.
James Gladwell Crawford, the ex-pastor of the Westside Church of Redding off Swasey Drive, pleaded no contest to child endangerment not likely to produce great bodily injury.
He was placed on probation for four years and credited for eight days he served in Shasta County Jail. He is not required to serve any additional jail time and was ordered to pay the standard court fees and fines.
A prosecutor for the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office could not be reached late Monday afternoon for comment about his plea deal.
Crawford was arrested Feb. 3 and later released from jail after his $1 million bail was posted. He was charged with 22 felony counts alleging lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, as well as a series of sex crime-related enhancements and nine misdemeanors.
Those charges were dismissed and he pleaded no contest to the three child endangerment-related misdemeanors.
Although there was no sexual intercourse involved, Crawford was accused of inappropriately touching the three girls, who were 17, 16 and 11 at the time of his arrest.
Additionally, he was accused of engaging in other inappropriate behavior, according to a Shasta County Sheriff’s Office report filed in court at the time of his arraignment.
That report says the girls told detectives that Crawford, among other things, playfully tickled — and touched them all over their bodies — as he removed their clothing.
One of the girls also told detectives he became upset at her and one of the other girls about five years earlier because they wanted to ride their bikes to school, according to the police report.
“In an effort to explain what could happen to them, James Crawford threw Victim 3 against a wall and held the backside of a knife blade against her throat,” the sheriff’s report said.
The other girl also involved in that episode confirmed that knife account, as well as the tickling, the sheriff’s report said.
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