Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Town of Summit, Douglas County, Wisconsin, USA · 2026

United States: former Minnesota pastor sentenced to life for repeated sexual assault of a child at his Wisconsin cabin

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pastor of Neighbors to Nations church, Princeton, Minnesota

Organization

Neighbors to Nations, Princeton, Minnesota

Spiritual nexus

A pastor's congregation-based relationship with a family gave him the sustained private access — at his own cabin, over five years — that made the abuse of their young child possible.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2026-05-12 · jury conviction and sentence

    Douglas County Circuit Court, Wisconsin. Jeffrey Anthony Charles, 65, pastor of Neighbors to Nations church in Princeton, Minnesota, was convicted after a three-day trial (verdict 8 Jan 2026) and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of release for the repeated sexual assault of a child at his cabin in the Town of Summit, Wisconsin, from 2005 to 2010, when the victim was aged 3 to 8. He had a prior 1997 Iowa conviction for third-degree sexual abuse. Prosecuted by the Douglas County District Attorney with the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • a pastor's standing with a congregant family used to secure repeated private access to their child at his own cabin, sustained over five years

Primary record

Sources

press press report Northern News Now, 12 May 2026.

Sentence, trial date, prior conviction, prosecuting agencies.

press press report FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Cabin location and abuse timeline.

Related record

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