Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Union, South Carolina, USA · 2011

United States: youth pastor's conviction for abusing a congregant teenager upheld on appeal

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

associate and youth pastor

Organization

New Life Baptist Church, Union

Spiritual nexus

The victim met the defendant through his church, where his youth-pastoral office was the relationship's frame.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2011-01-01 · conviction at trial; upheld on appeal

    South Carolina court; SC Court of Appeals (State v. Berry). Stephen Douglas Berry, associate and youth pastor at New Life Baptist Church in Union, was convicted at trial of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor over a months-long 2010 relationship with a fifteen-year-old he met through the church, and sentenced to fifteen years. The South Carolina Court of Appeals upheld the conviction against a challenge to expert testimony.

Appellate history

  1. 2013 · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • youth-ministry relationship with a fifteen-year-old met through the church

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment appellate judgment State v. Berry, South Carolina Court of Appeals.

The appellate opinion affirming the conviction.

national broadcaster court reporting sentencing report 'Former youth pastor gets 15 years', WBTV (2011).

Local broadcaster's court reporting.

Related record

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