Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Jackson County, West Virginia, USA · 2019

West Virginia: pastor's conviction for soliciting and grooming a 15-year-old congregant affirmed

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pastor

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

Harper was the victim's pastor; the grooming began and continued through his pastoral relationship with the 15-year-old congregant.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. Date in cited record · conditional Alford guilty plea and sentencing

    Circuit Court of Jackson County, West Virginia. Douglas Edward Harper, a 39-year-old pastor, was indicted on three counts of sexual abuse by a person in a position of trust to a child and three counts of soliciting a minor via computer after grooming a 15-year-old congregant. He entered a conditional Alford guilty plea to one count of solicitation of a minor via computer; the court sentenced him to two to ten years of incarceration, suspended in favor of probation.

  2. 2023-05-02 · direct appeal, No. 22-0238

    Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. Affirmed by memorandum decision.

Appellate history

  1. West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed on May 2, 2023.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • pastoral relationship with a teenage congregant
  • grooming via text messages, including advising the victim to hide the messages from his parents

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment appellate judgment State v. Harper, No. 22-0238 (W. Va. May 2, 2023) (memorandum decision).

Memorandum decision affirming pastor Douglas Harper's conditional guilty plea and sentence for soliciting a 15-year-old congregant via text message grooming.

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