York pastor arrested for sex crimes denied bond

By Diana Rugg
WCNC
March 8, 2014

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Pastor-wanted-for-sex-crimes-surrendurs-to-York-PD-249135951.html

YORK, S.C. -- A York pastor accused of sex crimes against a minor was denied bond Saturday night and will stay in jail until further notice.

Cory Dean Moses, 38, turned himself in Saturday morning to face five charges against him:  two counts of third degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and three counts of first degree assault and battery.

The York Police Department said Moses surrendered at Moss Justice Center.  Despite giving himself up, detectives said he refused to talk with investigators.

Police say Moses, a convicted sex offender, is accused of assaulting a teenage girl in his two churches, starting in 2009 when she was 14 years old.  Moses was the pastor of New Zion Church in York at the time, but later moved to Redeemed Christian Ministries, where the abuse continued.

Warrants obtained by NBC Charlotte show the teenager accuses Moses of touching her private areas above her clothes before and after church for nearly five years.

The alleged abuse ended in 2013, when the accuser was 18, according to the warrants.  She is now 19 and recently came forward because Moses left the second church.

Both churches are now run by different ministries.

During a bond hearing Saturday, the Magistrate Judge Douglas Sexton outlined the charges against Moses.

“The act involves non-consensual touching of parts either under or above clothing with lewd and lascivious intent,” he said.  Two of the charges are more serious because the victim was under 16 in 2009 and 2010. 

Judge Sexton denied Moses’ bond and warned him that if he were to receive bond in the future, he would not be allowed to contact the victim directly or indirectly. 

Moses shook his head and denied the charges, but the judge asked him not to discuss the facts of the case during the hearing.

This was not Moses’ first brush with the law.  In 2003 he was convicted of indecent liberties in Gastonia for sexually abusing two young teenage girls.

He was a pastor at Greater Faith Chapel, and the victims were members of his flock.

Moses served 20 months in prison. At some point he moved to York, and got a job in the ministry, despite the fact that he is on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry.

Police aren't sure if the churches did a background check, officers say Moses failed to register in South Carolina and he could face charges for that.

Investigators are worried there might be other victims out there and urge them to come forward.