KENTUCKY
Lexington Herald-Leader
BY MICHAEL MCKAY
mmckay@herald-leader.com
The church worker charged with rape of a 16-year-old met his alleged victim when she was 10 and warned her she would be banned from mission trips if she told anyone about their activities, a Lexington detective testified Tuesday.
Tony Sasnett, 39, was the home Bible study director for Greater Faith Apostolic Church on Clay’s Mill Road in Lexington. As a result of Sasnett’s church role, police and the prosecution argued he was in a position of “special trust” with the victim, but his attorney, Dan Carman, disputed that contention at Tuesday’s preliminary hearing with Fayette District Judge Kim Wilkie.
Sasnett is charged with four counts of third-degree rape, one count of sexual abuse and one count of using a phone to solicit nude photos of a minor. He was originally charged with five counts of rape, but one charge was dismissed at Tuesday’s hearing because the alleged event happened in neighboring Jessamine County.
In testimony, detective Tyler Smith with the Crimes Against Children Unit described how the father of three school-aged children escalated the relationship with the victim from a joke about a massage to sex in parked cars and in Sasnett’s home.
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