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  Mahwah Assistant Pastor Charged in Sex Assault

By Willam Lamb
The Record
December 2, 2009

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Mahwah_assistant_pastor_charged_in_sex_assault.html

MAHWAH (NJ)--An assistant pastor at a Mahwah church has been arrested, accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl on at least three occasions about six years ago, authorities said.

Curtis Franklin, 44, of Mahwah was taken into custody on Tuesday, a day after the victim reported the alleged abuse to police.

Curtis Franklin, 44, of Mahwah was taken into custody on Tuesday, a day after the victim reported the alleged abuse to police, said John L. Molinelli, the Bergen County Prosecutor. Molinelli declined to give a detailed account of the alleged abuse, saying only that it occurred at a residence in Mahwah.

Franklin is the assistant pastor at the Mahwah Full Gospel Church on Grove Street. Molinelli said Franklin met the girl about six years ago when he was a volunteer at a youth ministry sponsored by the church. The girl was under age 16 at the time, the prosecutor said.

The church's pastor, the Rev. Jack Walker, said in a brief telephone interview on Tuesday that Franklin is his son-in-law, and that he has been the assistant pastor at the church since June.

"I don't know anything else to say, and I can't comment," Walker said.

Franklin was charged with sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child. He was being held at the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack on Tuesday with bail set at $75,000. He was ordered to surrender his passport and to have no contact with the alleged victim.

E-mail: lamb@northjersey.com

 
 

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