By Eliot Kleinberg
Palm Beach Post
January 8, 2010
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/pastor-of-boynton-beach-church-charged-with-sexually-169514.html
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| Dieugrand Jacques, 39, of suburban Lake Worth, the pastor of New Alliance Haitian Church. |
The pastor of a Boynton Beach church is charged with sexually molesting a 15-year-old girl who'd gone to him for counseling.
Dieugrand Jacques, 39, of suburban Lake Worth, the pastor of New Alliance Haitian Church, was booked Thursday morning.
He is charged with lewd molestation of a victim between 12 and 16 in the alleged May 2007 incident. The charge is a second-degree felony.
This morning, with about 15 supporters of Jacques standing in the benches of the courtroom, Palm Beach Circuit Judge Ted S. Booras ordered the pastor held in lieu of $7,500 bail.
He also ordered Jacques to have no contact with the alleged victim or any minors.
Assistant State Attorney Mary Ann Duggan had asked for $50,000, citing the seriousness of the allegation. She said Jacques had no previous arrests.
A Palm Beach County Sheriff's report said Jacques' position as a pastor "provided a sense of trust and comfort" for the girl.
"He certainly violated a position of authority," Booras said today about the allegation.
Jacques' attorney, Evelyn A. Ziegler of West Palm Beach, told the judge he had lived in Palm Beach County for 14 years. His church has about 65 members.
Ziegler said Jacques "has not gone anywhere" during the 2-1/2 years since the alleged incident and is not a flight threat.
According to the sheriff's report, the Boynton Beach girl was having problems with her boyfriend and had been at the Boynton Beach Mall in 2007 when she called Jacques, who came to the mall and prayed with her.
She said she telephoned both Jacques and his wife several times for counseling.
But she said Jacques' conversations with her grew more intimate; he asked if she was having sex with her boyfriend and offered details about his sex life with his wife.
In May 2007, the girl said, she went to Jacques' home.
It was then, under the guise of sexual counseling, that Jacques both fondled and kissed the girl, she alleged. She said he asked her to come with him to his bedroom, but she refused.
The report said it was not until August 2008 that the girl confided to a school officer at Boynton Beach High School about the incident. She said she had been trying to "get over it and it hasn't been getting any better."
Jacques later denied the sexual contact with the girl and a polygraph test showed no deception, a report says.
He said that, at the time of the incident, he was in Orlando and Jacksonville. But receipts from the hotels showed he was there days before the alleged encounter, the report said.
Contact: eliot_kleinberg@pbpost.com
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