Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Rankin County, Mississippi, USA · 2022

Mississippi: longtime family pastor given temporary custody of a boy convicted of sexually battering him

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

longtime pastor to the victim's mother; music teacher

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

Hazel entrusted her son to Taylor specifically because he was her longtime pastor whom she trusted 'wholeheartedly'; Taylor was not a relative of Hazel or Brian, and the custodial arrangement arose directly from the pastoral relationship.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. Date in cited record · jury verdict and sentence

    Rankin County Circuit Court, Mississippi. A jury convicted Samuel Taylor of sexual battery of Brian, a boy whose mother, Hazel, had known Taylor as her pastor since childhood and had given him temporary custody of her son while she found housing.

  2. 2026-03-31 · direct appeal

    Mississippi Court of Appeals. Convictions and sentences affirmed.

Appellate history

  1. Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions and sentences on March 31, 2026.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • victim's mother entrusted temporary custody of her son to her longtime pastor, whom she said she 'could trust wholeheartedly'
  • housed the child in his own home under a pastoral-custodial arrangement

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment appellate judgment Taylor v. State, No. 2023-KA-00331-COA (Miss. Ct. App. Mar. 31, 2026).

Appellate opinion affirming Samuel Taylor's convictions for sexual battery of a child placed in his temporary custody by the child's mother, who had known Taylor as her pastor since her own childhood.

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