Judge: Clinton man to face trial

MISSISSIPPI
Clarion-Ledger

By Ruth Ingram ringram@clarionledger.com

December 19, 2012

A Clinton man who admitted to “sexual indiscretions” with male children in Mississippi and Texas in the 1980s will face trial, and the state’s statute of limitations doesn’t prevent that, a judge ruled.

Circuit Judge Bill McGowan heard arguments Tuesday on John Langworthy’s defense motion that too much time has passed for the former Clinton High choir director and church music minister to face felony gratification of lust charges.

Langworthy was music minister at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton before his arrest in September 2011. An eight-count indictment charges him with sexually molesting five boys between April 1980 and December 1984, with the alleged abuse occurring at the boys’ Jackson homes, Langworthy’s sister’s home in Jackson, or in Langworthy’s dorm room at Mississippi College.

Clinton police charged him with two counts of gratification of lust; Jackson police charged him with six.

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