KANSAS
Wichita Eagle
BY TIM POTTER
tpotter@wichitaeagle.com
Updated April 17, 2018
A Wichita youth pastor began having sex with a church member right after she turned 15 and asked her to say she was older when it started and “that she had come on to him,” says an affidavit filed by a sheriff’s detective.
The criminal case against 48-year-old Chauncey Walker began this past August with a tip to the Wichita Police Department’s Facebook page. Detective Daniel Ribble, with the Exploited and Missing Child Unit, learned that the tipster obtained a taped admission from Walker, says the affidavit, received by The Eagle late Tuesday through a court record request.
The Eagle has previously reported on the taped admission after receiving a copy from an attorney for the alleged victim. Now 20, she is suing Word of Life Ministries and Schools Inc., senior minister Robert Rotola Sr. and his son, church school administrator Robert Rotola Jr. The lawsuit alleges that the church and the Rotolas neglected to supervise Walker, failed to fully investigate concerns about him and tried to cover up the allegations. In a court document, the church and the Rotolas have denied the allegations.
Walker has been charged with aggravated indecent liberties and two counts of criminal sodomy against the woman when she was 15. He remains in jail on a $100,000 bond and faces a June 4 trial. Walker’s defense attorney has declined to comment other than to say that they are working with authorities.
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