Former youth pastor pleads guilty to statutory rape

The Eagle
March 15, 2016

http://www.theeagle.com/news/nation/former-youth-pastor-pleads-guilty-to-statutory-rape/article_3c85cdb5-0524-5e66-97ca-70488cc510cd.html

LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) — A former Lebanon youth pastor has been sentenced to spend six years behind bars after pleading guilty to two counts of statutory rape by an authority figure.

The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/1RLHV0j ) reports that 44-year-old Christopher Douglas Ross of Mt. Juliet was sentenced to three years on each of the two counts Monday in a Wilson County courtroom.

Ross, who oversaw a youth group while a pastor at Fairview Church, had been initially charged with 10 counts of statutory rape by an authority figure in January 2015.

The victim says Ross began having sexual contact with her when she was 15 in 2012. The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual assault.