CALIFORNIA/ARIZONA
Modesto Bee
BY GARTH STAPLEY
gstapley@modbee.com
May 16, 2018
Police in Modesto and Scottsdale are in touch for an investigation of clergy sexual abuse, authorities in Arizona said at a town hall meeting Tuesday.
Heather Graves, spokeswoman for Modesto police, on Wednesday confirmed contact between the two agencies, although the Modesto department has taken no reports of abuse at the hands of former pastor Les Hughey.
Hughey, 65, resigned last month from the megachurch he founded in Scottsdale. He stepped down four days after The Modesto Bee published a report about sexual encounters with young women in his charge four decades earlier when he was a youth pastor at a prominent Modesto evangelical church.
Shortly after The Bee’s report, four women came forward with stories that Hughey fondled them when he was their youth pastor in the 1980s at Scottsdale Bible Church. That church launched an independent investigation, and hosted Tuesday’s meeting featuring authorities with Scottsdale police and Maricopa County prosecutors, attended by about 60 people.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.