Youth pastor Dustin Werneberg (28) was arrested for allegedly raping a girl under the age of 16. Werneberg was the youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Coalgate.
Coalgate police investigator Richard Costantino says former youth minister Dustin Ray Werneburg was arrested on eight sex crime charges after a parent came forward saying Werneburg had inappropriate contact with their daughter.
"Information was passed to us. We had it checked out. Found that it was factual and we are still proceeding with the investigation," Costantino said.
An affidavit states the victim's parent found inappropriate messages and pictures between Werneburg and his daughter. It also shows the two began texting in November of 2011 and exchanged at least 1,000 messages.
Note to parents – A youth pastor should never be allowed to communicate with your child via unsupervised or unsanctioned text messages or emails. As a parent, you should be monitoring your child’s cell phone activity.
Watch this video. It shows First Baptist pastor Jeff Self saying something odd:
"We had some allegations of sexual misconduct him basically inappropriately approaching a teenage girl. And with that we met with leadership of the church and asked for his resignation," Self said.
Wereneburg resigned in August, but Self says this was not the first allegation made against Werneburg.
"We had three allegations over the course of three years. Two of them he had come to me and said you are going to hear this personally, and it was a he said she said and we believed him and there was no anything else about it, but once we had that third allegation that was really significant in August," Self said.
Their youth pastor had three allegation of misconduct over three years. They kept him working with kids even though there were allegations because it was a “he said, she said” kind of thing and they believed him. Jesus friggen Christ people. Have you learned nothing? Hello! Where there is smoke, there is fire.
Note to parents: Your kids are not safe at First Baptist Church in Coalgate. Perhaps you should move on to Second Baptist, or even Third.
Logging you in...
mikespeir 65p · 649 weeks ago
Well, but nothing, I guess. ;-)
thesexyatheist 69p · 649 weeks ago
Kriss
Mojoey 107p · 649 weeks ago
young&grumpy · 624 weeks ago
I will skip lunch today. I'm nauseous.
Anonymous · 600 weeks ago
Anon-Too · 596 weeks ago
The recent developments and additional charges in the Steubenville Ohio case will hopefully send a message to "pastors" like Mr. Self. Adults in authority that try to cover up and hush up these types of horrible crimes should be charged along with the perpetrators.
Also, blaming the girl and/or her parents is absolutely disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Anon-Too · 596 weeks ago
Not only does Mr. Self deflect any sort of blame or responsibility, he seems ready to even blame the next guy. If I were a parent in that community, I would find it impossible to trust Mr. Self. He doesn't seem to understand the responsibilities associated with leadership. It is time for him to find another job.