A pastor was arrested and charged Tuesday for numerous sex crimes, said police in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.
Presbyterian church leader Christopher Willett was charged with statutory rape, sexual battery, unnatural intercourse, computer luring of a person, and child pornography, according to WLBT-TV in Mississippi.
Police lured Willett to City Hall under a different pretext to avoid a confrontation at his house, where Willett was known to have firearms.
“There was no fight, no refusal, no struggle. We put the handcuffs on him, brought him to the police department and put him in the interrogation room where he refused to talk,” said Crystal Springs Police Chief Robert Thomas, according to the Clarion Ledger.
Thomas said a 19-year-old woman and her psychologist visited the police station on March 7, claiming the pastor had molested her since she was 15.
Police executed multiple search warrants, searching Willett’s home, vehicles, laptops and cellphones before eventually filing charges.
“This is only accusations. He is not proven guilty of any of this, but the evidence we have against him is pretty substantial,” Thomas said.
Willett was later taken to Copiah County Jail, where he was held without bond.
Mississippi pastor, Christopher Willett, has been arrested for the rape & sexual battery of a child. https://t.co/2juuR4nJQT
— SOSCSA.org (@SOSCSAorg) March 14, 2025
Willett was a pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Crystal Springs, a town of fewer than 5,000 people, according to the Clarion Ledger.
The church’s website currently lists him as its only pastor.
“Chris is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA),” Willett’s bio read. “Before moving to Crystal Springs to become the Senior Pastor in October of 2020, he held the offices of Pastoral Intern and Assistant Pastor at Pinewood Presbyterian Church in Middleburg, Florida for 5 years. He then served as the Senior/Solo Pastor of Columbia Presbyterian Church in Columbia, Mississippi for 3 years.
“Chris served in the U.S. Air Force as a Weather Forecaster and earned a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Humanities, Communication, and Business Management) from New York Institute of Technology and obtained his Master’s of Divinity at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando. In 2000 he married his wife Jennifer and they have one daughter, Lindsay.
“When he is not studying for and writing sermons, planning ministries, or working around the church and home, he enjoys watching shows with his wife, playing board games and video games with his daughter, reading (fiction, comics, and non-fiction), all things Star Wars, and being a Stormtrooper,” his bio read.
In an unrelated but recent case, another Mississippi church pastor and a deacon were recently arrested for embezzlement.
The pastor and deacon worked at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Mt. Olive, Mississippi.
The two allegedly stole a total of nearly $90,000 in church funds, WXIN reported on March 9.
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