Youth pastor Steven Lennard Johnson pleaded guilty to working with children and being in a place where children were present. Johnson had a conviction for molesting a 14-year-old girl in another state. The real crime here is that St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church did not do a background check on Johnson before hiring him. I think Johnson marrying the pastor’s daughter may have figured into that decision.
The Rev. Dr. James Fulwood, the pastor at St. Mark Baptist Church, should have performed a simple background check, he could have avoided the culpability in exposing children to risk and could have protected his church from litigation. I hope they have good insurance. If history is a good indication, this will prove costly.
Of course, simply typing his name in Google would have resulted in a listing on Florida’s sex offenders registry. It would also have shown a conviction for failure to register in Florida. He was also convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in North Dakota.
The pastor’s daughter claimed she did not know Johnson was a sex offender. Wake up people. Open your eyes. You should at least learn how to do a criminal background check.
