Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 25, 1993 TAG: 9302250196
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PASTOR ADMITS SEX WITH TEEN; GETS JAIL TERM
A former Roanoke minister admitted Wednesday to having sex with a 14-year-old member of his congregation after counseling sessions with her led to an affair.Gary Nathaniel Curtis was sentenced to 120 days in jail under a plea agreement reached in Roanoke Circuit Court.
Curtis, 33, was minister of the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church when he had sex with the girl on two occasions at his home, where he was supposed to be helping with her schoolwork and counseling her about personal problems.
"He professed to be a minister, and clearly he crossed the line," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Alice Ekirch said. "He took advantage of a young girl who was vulnerable at the time."
Defense attorney Richard Lawrence described the case differently.
"In his relationship with the so-called victim, the evidence would have shown that she was a very promiscuous and sexually active young lady before he became involved with her," Lawrence said.
Curtis is no longer minister of the church. He had been living in Maryland, Lawrence said.
The relationship was discovered last year by the child's father.
The father was listening to a radio scanner when it picked up a telephone conversation between Curtis and the 14-year-old, who was using a cordless telephone in another room of their house.
After hearing Curtis profess his love for the girl and mention other details of their relationship, the father confronted his daughter.
Police were notified when she admitted having a consensual relationship.
Authorities later learned that Curtis also had sex with the girl at Blacksburg and Christiansburg motels after making arrangements for her to skip school. He began serving a 90-day term on those charges Feb. 1.
Curtis and the girl had known each other for years, but became romantically involved in the summer of 1991, Ekirch said in summarizing the evidence against him Wednesday.
When the girl began to have problems with schoolwork and boyfriends, her parents went to Curtis with their concerns.
He volunteered to tutor and counsel her at his house after school.
"We trusted him," the girl's father testified earlier. "At the time, we were supposed to have been friends."
It was at Curtis' house - where the girl's parents drove her each day - that the sexual offenses occured in late 1991 and early 1992, Ekirch said.
Curtis was not accused of using force, but was charged under a law that makes having sex with a 13- to 15-year-old a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
As part of the plea agreement, Judge Clifford Weckstein gave Curtis a 10-year suspended sentence on both charges and ordered him to receive sexual-offender counseling during a five-year probation period.