Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established West Dundee, Kane County, Illinois, USA · 2013

Illinois: youth ministries director pleads guilty to grooming and sexually abusing a teenage member of his church youth group

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

director of youth ministries, First Congregational Church of Dundee (United Church of Christ)

Organization

First Congregational Church of Dundee, Illinois, United Church of Christ

Spiritual nexus

Coe was employed as the church's youth ministries director and directly oversaw the youth group of which the victim was a member; the abuse occurred through that pastoral/youth-leadership relationship, not a family connection.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2018-04-02 · guilty plea and sentence

    Kane County Circuit Court, Illinois. Chad Coe, director of youth ministries at First Congregational Church of Dundee, pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of Jane, a member of the church's youth group he oversaw, whom he groomed and assaulted beginning when she was 14. He received the maximum sentence of seven years and lifetime sex-offender registration.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • position as director of youth ministries overseeing the church's youth group
  • abuse occurred over a two-year grooming period while overseeing the victim in the youth group

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment civil appellate judgment Doe v. Coe, 2018 IL App (2d) 170435 (Ill. App. Ct., 2d Dist. Mar. 30, 2018).

Civil appellate opinion describing Chad Coe's employment as director of youth ministries at First Congregational Church of Dundee and the allegations that he groomed and abused Jane Doe, a member of the church youth group he oversaw, over a two-year period.

secondary press news report Daily Herald (2018) 'Ex-youth minister gets 7 years in prison for sexually abusing teen'.

Contemporaneous report of Chad Coe's guilty plea to aggravated criminal sexual abuse and seven-year sentence, confirming the victim was a member of his church youth group whom he groomed beginning at age 14.

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