Sex Abuse Case against Muncie Pastor Dismissed

By Douglas Walker
Star Press
October 17, 2016

http://www.thestarpress.com/story/news/crime/2016/10/17/sex-abuse-case-against-muncie-pastor-dismissed/92226382/

A legal saga that began nearly eight years ago – on the day Barack Obama was sworn in as president – ended Monday when a count of sexual misconduct with a minor pending against a Muncie pastor was dismissed.

Matthew A. Kidd, now 60, had been scheduled to stand trial Monday in Delaware Circuit Court 3 on the misconduct charge, filed on Jan. 20, 2009.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Judi Calhoun filed a motion to drop the charge – a Class C felony carrying a standard four-year sentence – and said the alleged victim in the case no longer wished to testify.

Kidd, pastor of Freedom Point Apostolic Church, was at first charged with child molesting, sexual misconduct with a minor and vicarious sexual gratification. He was accused of sexually abusing three brothers who were teenagers – and had attended his church – when the alleged assaults took place between 2002 and 2005.

In January 2012, Kidd stood trial. He was found not guilty of the vicarious sexual gratification charge, but the jury was unable to reach verdicts on the other two counts.

Last May, with a second trial seemingly imminent, Calhoun dismissed the molesting charge, citing that alleged victim’s testimony in the 2012 trial.

In Monday’s motion, Calhoun said the alleged victim tied to the remaining misconduct count had told her for his “own mental and spiritual well-being as well of that of this family and the ones (he) loves, (he) cannot go through with (a trial) again.”

“After careful discussion with the victim and the family, it was decided that the state would not force the victim to testify... (and) would respect his wishes.”

The chief deputy prosecutor noted in the motion the many delays in the Kidd case. Six continuances – five requested by the pastor’s attorney – were granted before the January 2012 trial.

Since then, there were seven more continuances requested by the defense, Calhoun noted, as four different attorneys – two of whom “encountered significant health problems” – represented Kidd over those years. Conflicts in the court’s calendar resulted in four more postponements, she said.

The case went to trial for a second time last May, but those proceedings ended abruptly after it was learned a key witness would not be available to testify due to health problems.

Calhoun wrote that through the years, the alleged victim repeatedly had to “relive” the alleged incidents “in preparation for his testimony, which brought him much distress.”

She said she “personally witnessed the toll that this case was taking on the victim and his family.”

Supporters of the pastor who called The Star Press on Sunday said they believed he had been vindicated by the case’s conclusion.

In late 2012, a lawsuit the alleged victims’ family filed against Kidd, his church and other defendants was settled out of court.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.

Contact: dwalker@muncie.gannett.com