{"id":2413368,"date":"2025-03-15T18:15:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T22:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/small-town-pastor-lured-to-city-hall-and-arrested\/"},"modified":"2025-03-15T18:15:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T22:15:02","slug":"small-town-pastor-lured-to-city-hall-and-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/small-town-pastor-lured-to-city-hall-and-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Town Pastor Lured to City Hall and Arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsmall-town-pastor-lured-to-city-hall-and-arrested%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2413368&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>A pastor was arrested and charged Tuesday for numerous sex crimes, said police in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.<\/p>\n<p>Presbyterian church leader Christopher Willett was charged with statutory rape, sexual battery, unnatural intercourse, computer luring of a person, and child pornography, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wlbt.com\/2025\/03\/13\/crystal-springs-pastor-arrested-statutory-rape-other-charges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WLBT-TV<\/a> in Mississippi.<\/p>\n<p>Police lured Willett to City Hall under a different pretext to avoid a confrontation at his house, where Willett was known to have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/ap-hunter-bidens-sentencing-federal-firearms-charges-delayed-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">firearms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There was no fight, no refusal, no struggle. We put the handcuffs on him, brought him to the police department and put him in the interrogation room where he refused to talk,&rdquo; said Crystal Springs Police Chief Robert Thomas, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarionledger.com\/story\/news\/2025\/03\/14\/crystal-springs-ms-pastor-arrested-statutory-rape-other-sex-crimes\/82404863007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Clarion Ledger<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas said a 19-year-old woman and her psychologist visited the police station on March 7, claiming the pastor had molested her since she was 15.<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"stnvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\tdocument.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function() { \t\t\t\t\tfunction loadScript(src) { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst script=document.createElement(\"script\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.src=src; \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.async=true; \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.body.appendChild(script); \t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\tfunction findPreviousParagraph(selector, x) { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst targetElement=document.querySelector(selector); \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!targetElement) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Target element not found.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Get all <\/p>\n<p> elements in order as they appear in the document \t\t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphs=Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(\"p\"));  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the index of the last <\/p>\n<p> before the target element \t\t\t\t\t\tlet targetIndex=paragraphs.findIndex(p=> p.compareDocumentPosition(targetElement) & Node.DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING);  \t\t\t\t\t\tif (targetIndex===-1 || targetIndex <x) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Not enough paragraphs before the target element.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\treturn paragraphs[targetIndex - x]; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Set up IntersectionObserver \t\t\t\t\tfunction observeElement(element) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!element) return;  \t\t\t\t\t\tconst observer=new IntersectionObserver( \t\t\t\t\t\t\t(entries)=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tentries.forEach(entry=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tif (entry.isIntersecting) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(\"Paragraph is now visible:\", entry.target.textContent.trim()); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tloadScript(\"https:\/\/embed.sendtonews.com\/player3\/embedcode.js?fk=s28Az7AY\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.disconnect(); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t}, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t{ threshold: 0.5 } \/\/ Adjust threshold as needed \t\t\t\t\t\t);  \t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.observe(element); \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the 1st paragraph before #stnvideo and observe it \t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphToObserve=findPreviousParagraph(\"#stnvideo\", 2); \t\t\t\t\tobserveElement(paragraphToObserve); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p>Police executed multiple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/florida-attorney-general-issues-search-warrants-subpoenas-andrew-tristan-tate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">search warrants<\/a>, searching Willett&rsquo;s home, vehicles, laptops and cellphones before eventually filing charges.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is only accusations. He is not proven guilty of any of this, but the evidence we have against him is pretty substantial,&rdquo; Thomas said.<\/p>\n<p>Willett was later taken to Copiah County Jail, where he was held without bond.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Mississippi pastor, Christopher Willett, has been arrested for the rape &amp; sexual battery of a child. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2juuR4nJQT\">https:\/\/t.co\/2juuR4nJQT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; SOSCSA.org (@SOSCSAorg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SOSCSAorg\/status\/1900590807977255075?\">March 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Willett was a pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Crystal Springs, a town of fewer than 5,000 people, according to the Clarion Ledger.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/crystalspringspca.org\/about-us\/leadership\/pastor-teaching-elder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">church&rsquo;s website<\/a> currently lists him as its only pastor.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Chris is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA),&rdquo; Willett&rsquo;s bio read. &ldquo;Before moving to Crystal Springs to become the Senior Pastor in October of 2020, he held the offices of Pastoral Intern and Assistant Pastor at Pinewood Presbyterian Church in Middleburg, Florida for 5 years. He then served as the Senior\/Solo Pastor of Columbia Presbyterian Church in Columbia, Mississippi for 3 years.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Chris served in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/trump-begins-weekend-nuking-dei-pentagon-fires-leaders-joint-chiefs-navy-air-force\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Air Force<\/a> as a Weather Forecaster and earned a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Humanities, Communication, and Business Management) from New York Institute of Technology and obtained his Master&rsquo;s of Divinity at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando. In 2000 he married his wife Jennifer and they have one daughter, Lindsay.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When he is not studying for and writing sermons, planning ministries, or working around the church and home, he enjoys watching shows with his wife, playing board games and video games with his daughter, reading (fiction, comics, and non-fiction), all things Star Wars, and being a Stormtrooper,&rdquo; his bio read.<\/p>\n<p>In an unrelated but recent case, another Mississippi <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/anti-trump-pastor-calls-black-people-voted-trump-vicious-slurs-racist-rant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">church pastor<\/a> and a deacon were recently arrested for embezzlement.<\/p>\n<p>The pastor and deacon worked at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Mt. Olive, Mississippi.<\/p>\n<p>The two allegedly stole a total of nearly $90,000 in church funds, <a href=\"https:\/\/fox59.com\/news\/national-world\/mississippi-pastor-deacon-charged-with-embezzling-church-funds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WXIN<\/a> reported on March 9.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A pastor was arrested and charged Tuesday for numerous sex crimes, said police in Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Presbyterian church leader Christopher Willett was charged with statutory rape, sexual battery, unnatural intercourse, computer luring of a person, and child pornography, according to WLBT-TV in Mississippi. Police lured Willett to City Hall under a different pretext to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2413369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Picture-92.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2413368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Picture-92.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2413368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2413369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2413368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2413368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2413368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}