Pastor accused of child sex crimes in AR two years after TN church asked him to leave

TENNESSEE/ARKANSAS
The Raw Story

By Travis Gettys
Wednesday, May 7, 2014

A pastor was arrested on sex crime charges Monday while officiating a graveside service in Tennessee.

Larry Michael Berkley was taken into custody at Covington Memorial Gardens on charges out of Arkansas, where he had previously served as a pastor.

Berkley was indicted in Boone County, Ark., on first- and second-degree sexual assault charges and multiple counts of supplying alcohol to minors, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sexual solicitation, and loaning pornography to a minor.

The investigation began in late March, when Berkley was pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Harrison, Ark., and police interviewed more than a dozen alleged victims by mid-April.

All the victims were teenage boys between 14 and 18 years old, police said.

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