TEXAS
KXAN
[with video]
By Brian Collister
Published: February 9, 2016,
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A once troubled teenager claims her church preacher and trusted family friend preyed on her weakness and molested her. But when she came forward, police said it was too late to press criminal charges.
Texas has laws to protect children from sexual abuse and seek justice for their abusers, but KXAN has discovered a gap in one of those laws, leaves some young victims unprotected.
The young woman we met recently says she fell into this gap in the law after she put her trust in a youth pastor at a Pflugerville church 10 years ago. She asked we not reveal her identity because she says the pastor molested her in 2006 when she was just 17 years old.
After troubles at home, she says the pastor invited her to live with his family so he could counsel her.
“I was going to their home to overcome my childhood abuse, and I trusted that he was going to fulfill that,” the young woman recounted to KXAN. “The physical touching started with a back adjustment and escalated very quickly to him coming into my room at night and pulling up my shirt, my bra, and touching me on the floor of my room.”
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