Ex-pastor Gets 12 Years for Sex with Girl

WANE
March 22, 2013

http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/crime/ex-pastor-gets-12-years-for-sex-with-girl

A federal judge has sentenced the former pastor of a northwestern Indiana megachurch to 12 years in prison who pleaded guilty to having a sexual relationship with a teenage member of the parish.

Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano also sentenced 55-year-old Jack Schaap of Crete, Ill., to five years of supervised release Wednesday. Schaap pleaded guilty in September to transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Schaap was pastor of the 15,000-member First Baptist Church of Hammond for 11 years when he was fired in July.

Schaap admitted having three sexual encounters with a member of the parish over a four-week period last summer, starting the week before she turned 17. He said the encounters occurred in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.