Judge to decide if statute bars sex crime prosecution

MISSISSIPPI
Clarion-Ledger

Written by
Ruth Ingram

A Hinds County judge will decide whether a Clinton man who has admitted to “sexual indiscretions” with male children in Mississippi and Texas will go free or face trial.

Circuit Judge Bill McGowan will hear arguments Tuesday on John Langworthy’s defense motion that says 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 sexual abuse occurring at the boys’ Jackson homes, Langworthy’s sister’s home in Jackson, or in Langworthy’s dorm room at Mississippi College.

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