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  62-Year-Old Lampasas Man Fined $5,000, Will Serve Time in Criminal Justice Institution

Killeen Daily Herald
January 19, 2008

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=22230

Jim Carlton Wooldridge, 62, of Lampasas, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division and fined $5,000 in the 27th District Court on felony charges of sexual misconduct.

According to Lampasas District Clerk Terri Cox, Wooldridge was charged with two counts of sexual assault and indecency with a child, who was 15 years old at the time of the alleged event. He was indicted on March 14 and pleaded guilty to both charges.

Wooldridge had been rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Lampasas.

John Christian "J.C." Wood, 21, who was also arrested in connection with the allegations, was charged with sexual assault, indecency with a child and unlawful possession of a firearm. The state dropped the sexual assault and possession charges, but Wood was convicted on Sept. 21 of indecency with a child by sexual contact and sentenced to four years in prison.

The male victim, now 16 years old, and his lawyer, filed the charges with the Lampasas Police Department on Dec. 1, 2006, according to the arrest affidavit that detailed how Wooldridge and Wood, who investigators learned was staying at the pastor's residence, allegedly sexually exploited the boy.

The Lampasas Police Department assisted in the investigation by the Texas Rangers.

The victim's testimony in the arrest affidavit indicates the boy slept over at his pastor's house several times because his mother worked late in Copperas Cove and his family lived in Kempner. Both Wood and Wooldridge allegedly participated in multiple sexual acts with him, the victim said.

The victim said he gave in to Wooldridge's wishes because "he was kind of a baby about it and would pout and get mad when he (the victim) would say no."

Wooldridge was placed on administrative leave from the church after turning himself in to the Lampasas County Sheriff's Department.

According to Diocese of Texas spokeswoman Carol Barnwell, Wooldridge renounced his orders as a priest in April 2007 after learning the bishop was preparing to depose him. He had pastored the 131-year-old Lampasas church since 1994.

 
 

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