Charged Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands · 2026

Lawrence Turnbull: federal and territorial charges involving a child congregant

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Record class

Context only

Evidence status

Charged

Authority role

pastor, church youth leader

Organization

unnamed church on St. Thomas

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

This record is retained as context. The cited evidence documents pastoral authority, youth-leader access, transportation of a child, and congregational trust, but does not establish that spiritual doctrine, practice, or authority materially enabled the harm. The relevant recorded role is pastor and church youth leader.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2026-04-01 · arrest and charges

U.S. District Court for the District of the Virgin Islands and Virgin Islands territorial court. Turnbull was arrested on federal transportation and coercion or enticement charges and territorial unlawful-sexual-contact and child-abuse charges. These were allegations, not findings of guilt.

Documented coercion mechanisms

pastoral authority
youth-leader access
transportation of a child
congregational trust

Cited record

Sources

prosecuting authority charging report U.S. Attorney's Office, District of the Virgin Islands, 'St. Thomas pastor arrested for federal and local sex offenses involving minor' (Apr. 3, 2026).: The prosecuting authority records the federal and territorial charges, states that Turnbull was the child's pastor and youth leader and describes alleged repeated transportation. The release expressly states that the charges are allegations and that the defendant is presumed innocent.

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.justice.gov/usao-vi/pr/st-thomas-pastor-arrested-federal-and-local-sex-offenses-involving-minor Corpus classification: prosecuting-authority; evidentiary role: charging-report. SHA-256 291f8a27337704461e19005e71b975864f46f442247fe07e432c54eb9faddc55
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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