Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Marysville, Ohio, USA · 2025

Ohio: accredited minister and pastoral trainer convicted of abusing a Bible Baptist Church congregant's daughter

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

accredited minister and men's pastoral trainer, Bible Baptist Church of Marysville

Organization

Bible Baptist Church of Marysville

Spiritual nexus

Burkard was accredited clergy at Bible Baptist Church whose role was training men to become pastors and full-time ministers; the church's own senior pastor testified Burkard held a position of authority in the church. The victim was the daughter of a congregant family, and the abuse occurred on church grounds during and immediately after church-sponsored Vacation Bible School.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. Date in cited record · jury verdict and sentence

    Court of Common Pleas, Union County, Ohio. A jury found Burkard guilty on charges arising from abuse of O.H., the teenage daughter of a family that regularly attended Bible Baptist Church, where Burkard was accredited clergy training men to become pastors and ministers.

  2. 2025-12-29 · direct appeal, Case No. 14-24-36

    Court of Appeals of Ohio, Third Appellate District. Judgment affirmed. The court found Burkard, though not formally ordained, was an accredited minister and pastoral trainer holding a recognized position of authority in the church, confirmed by testimony from the church's senior pastor.

Appellate history

  1. Ohio Third Appellate District affirmed the judgment on December 29, 2025.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • abuse committed in a church-owned vehicle during and after Vacation Bible School
  • instructed the victim not to tell his wife
  • access via a Vacation Bible School volunteer role

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment appellate judgment State v. Burkard, Ohio Third Appellate District, Case No. 14-24-36 (Dec. 29, 2025).

Appellate opinion affirming the conviction, detailing Burkard's accredited-minister and pastoral-trainer role at Bible Baptist Church of Marysville and the abuse of a congregant's daughter in a church vehicle.

Related record

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