A minister at one of
Texas’ largest megachurches was arrested this week after driving his wife’s car
200 miles for a planned liaison with a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet.
Greeting Rev. Joe
Barron, minister to married adults at the 26,000-member Prestonwood Baptist Church, near Dallas,
when he arrived Thursday, with a package of condoms on the car seat, were members
of the Bryan, Texas, police force.
Bryan police said
Barron had been chatting online for about two weeks with an officer who he
thought was a 13-year-old girl, participating in sexually explicit
conversations.
On Tuesday, Barron
asked the girl to skip school and meet him, police told the Dallas Morning
News.
“Of course, our
officers replied that they would,” Officer Lesley Malinak, spokeswoman for the
Bryan Police Department, said. “He had been on a business trip and was coming
to see her after he was done with this business trip.”
On Thursday, he drove
three hours to meet the girl at a parking lot and chatted with “her” by
telephone along the way. He was arrested without incident.
Police found a box of
10 condoms inside the car, a Web camera and a headset police believe he was
planning to give the girl.
“It is common for
people that are engaged in this type of activity” to give gifts to the minors
that “they are grooming,” said Malinak.
Police are
investigating evidence Barron may have had similar online conversations with
more than a dozen minor girls. A desktop computer, two laptops, numerous
computer disks and memory cards have been seized.
“Going through the
computer equipment will be very telling,” Malinak said.
Police also were given
access to Barron’s church computer but it was not seized because church
officials said software installed on it prevented users from entering a
chatroom. They said they would be checking its contents to be certain “there’s
no inappropriate material” on it.
Police discovered
Barron was a minister during questioning.
“He said he was feeling
guilt and shame and grief,” said Malinik.
Barron is the 12th man
arrested since November 2006 in Byran’s sting operation. “This is the first
person that is this prominent that we’ve arrested,” Malinik said.
Barron is one of about
40 ministers at the megachurch. He has served as senior pastor and minister of
education in other Texas Baptist churches.
“We are disturbed and
saddened by the reports we have heard and we are praying for the Barron
family,” said Mike Buster, executive pastor at Prestonwood. “We are fully
cooperating with the police in their investigation.”
Associated Press
reported the Rev. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, announced
during services today that the church has accepted Barron’s resignation,
effective immediately.
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