TX- Prestonwood minister resigns after arrest in online sex sting

5-21-2008 Texas:

DALLAS — An associate minister at a Dallas megachurch was arrested in Bryan, Texas, while trying to meet face to face with a “teen” he met online.

A minister to adults at Prestonwood Baptist Church, Joe Barron, 52, of Plano, a Dallas suburb, was arrested around noon May 15 and charged with solicitation of a minor, according to the City of Bryan Police Department. He has been released on $7,000 bond, the Dallas Morning News reported.

According to a police press release, Barron was caught as part of a police sting operation against online sexual predators. Barron had communicated with Bryan police officers for about two weeks, thinking he was chatting with a 13-year-old female. According to the report, the online chats were “sexually explicit in nature.”

On May 6, Barron arranged to meet the “girl” the following week in Bryan, about 200 miles south. Undercover police staked out the agreed upon location and arrested Barron when he arrived.

At the time of his arrest, “he said he was feeling guilt and shame and grief,” Sgt. Shane Bush, an officer with the department’s directed-deployment team, told news reporters.

Barron gave no indication in his online chats that he was a minister, Bryan police spokeswoman Lesley Malinak said.

Officers confiscated a web-cam and headset and condoms from Barron’s car. Bryan and Plano law enforcement took a desktop computer, two laptops and several computer disks and memory cards from the minister’s home.

According to the police report, Prestonwood Baptist cooperated by allowing officers access to Barron’s office computer.

Prestonwood pastor Jack Graham informed his congregation at a Saturday evening videotaped service that Barron had immediately resigned his position as minister to middle-aged married adults. One of 40 ministers, Barron had been on the church’s staff about 18 months.

“We are appalled and disgraced by this terrible action,” Graham said. “We have worked very, very hard to earn the trust of our congregation and our community…. We will continue to make it our highest priority … that our staff … will be of the highest character and calling.”

If convicted of the second-degree felony, Barron faces a possible 20-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

Acting as a vice squad, the Bryan team has been in place since September 2006. They have made 12 arrests for online solicitation.

Accounts of sex abuse of minors and adults by Southern Baptist clergy have made national headlines in recent years, sparking widespread calls for reform -- so far unanswered.

The Journal of Pastoral Care reported in a 1993 survey that 14 percent of Southern Baptist senior pastors have engaged in “sexual behavior inappropriate for a minister.” Those statistics include sexual misconduct between adults.

But 70 percent of reported sexual assaults involve minors, according to the victim-advocate group Darkness to Light, and an estimated 30 percent of child victims never report their abuse. Most abusers will have multiple victims, and serial abusers can have 40 to 400 in a lifetime. ..News Source.. by Church Executive