United States: licensed United Methodist youth minister Russell Woodman Davis pleads guilty to raping three boys over nearly two decades
Request a correction or replyRecord class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
Licensed youth minister, United Methodist Church
Organization
United Methodist Church
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
Davis was given his role and title by the United Methodist Church specifically to work with youth; he used that church-conferred pastoral standing to befriend and gain access to vulnerable boys over nearly two decades.
- Pastoral or clerical authority
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2023-02-23 · guilty plea and sentence
Essex County, Massachusetts. Davis, a church-licensed youth minister (not ordained) at a rural United Methodist church, pleaded guilty to raping and attempting to rape three boys he met through the church between 1988 and 2006, victims aged 12 to 16. He was sentenced to three to four years in state prison followed by three years' probation, ordered to register as a sex offender, and barred from contact with minors and the victims.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- pastoral authority over vulnerable youth met through church youth ministry
Cited record
Sources
- institutional reporting news report 'Former Methodist youth minister pleads guilty to child rape, Essex DA says', The Boston Globe, 23 February 2023.
Report on Davis's guilty plea, sentence, and the church youth-ministry context of his access to victims.
- official report prosecutor statement 'Former youth minister pleads guilty to child rape', Massachusetts Attorney General / Essex DA press release.
Official prosecutorial press release confirming charges, plea and sentence.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/23/metro/former-methodist-youth-minister-pleads-guilty-child-rape-essex-da-says/ Corpus classification: institutional-reporting; evidentiary role: news-report. SHA-256 fab67bedb35ffc39caf6d9e2969a6b7f3fe03f0a974683ee51587e8cbf89aaf7
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
- Source and tier basis
- https://www.mass.gov/news/former-youth-minister-pleads-guilty-to-child-rape Corpus classification: official-report; evidentiary role: prosecutor-statement.
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-27 · Retrieval failed
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
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