Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Other Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Longview, Gregg County, Texas, USA · 2025

United States: Texas church deacon convicted of indecency with a child left in his care during Bible study, affirmed

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

deacon, small church in Longview, Texas

Organization

unnamed small church, Longview, Texas

Spiritual nexus

Allen held the church office of deacon and was specifically charged by the congregation with watching the children, including the 13-year-old victim, in the church kitchen while their families attended Bible studies and prayer meetings — a direct ritual-office custodial authority that placed the victim in his unsupervised care and which he used to commit the offense.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2025-06-30 · direct appeal

    Court of Appeals, Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana. The trial court found Clifton Allen, Jr. guilty of indecency with a child by sexual contact and sentenced him to twenty years' imprisonment. The Sixth Court of Appeals held the evidence legally sufficient — including Allen's own admission to a DPS special agent that he intentionally touched the child in a way that aroused him — and AFFIRMED the trial court's judgment of conviction (Allen v. State, No. 06-24-00152-CR).

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • ritual-office custodial authority: entrusted by the congregation to watch children in the church kitchen while their families attended Bible study and prayer meetings

Primary record

Sources

court reporting appellate opinion Allen v. State, No. 06-24-00152-CR (Tex. App.—Texarkana June 30, 2025, mem. op.). CourtListener opinion id 11087819.

Full memorandum opinion: 'Allen was charged with engaging in sexual contact with A.A., a thirteen-year-old child, at a small church in Longview in July 2018. Allen was a deacon at the church, and the contact between Allen and A.A. occurred when Allen was charged with watching A.A. and other children in the church's kitchen area while the children's families attended Bible studies and prayer meetings... Allen admitted touching several child victims, including A.A., during an interview with Officer Rusty Hughes... We affirm the trial court's judgment of conviction.'

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