Former Midlands youth pastor pleads to lesser charge after sexual assault allegations
A former youth pastor at a Midlands church pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after being accused of sexually assaulting a teenager in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Richard Allen Taylor, a former Dutch Fork Baptist Church youth pastor, pleaded guilty to first degree assault and battery Friday in the Richland County Courthouse on Main Street. Judge Robert Hood accepted Taylor’s guilty plea and suspended a 10-year sentence, giving the 71-year-old five years probation and required sex offender counseling.
As part of a plea agreement, Taylor does not have to register as a sex offender, but he will be prohibited from working or volunteering with children. A violation of his probation could send Taylor to a felony prison sentence.
In 2017, Richland County Sheriff’s Department charged Taylor with third degree criminal sexual conduct and the highest degree of assault after investigating allegations of sexual assault against a teenager starting when he was 16. The assaults were said to have occurred on multiple occasions between 1989 and 1991, according to the sheriff’s department.
The victim reported the assaults almost three decades later. In court, Assistant Solicitor Bethany Miles detailed multiple instances of sexual assault both inside and outside the church, including an incident when the two were alone in a changing room following the victim’s baptism.
In a statement read in court by a victim’s advocate, the victim said the abuse he suffered at Taylor’s hands had traumatized him, causing him twice to be hospitalized for suicidal thoughts and at times drinking to the point where he became a “functioning alcoholic.”
He also said the abuse had harmed his ability to form deep, trusting relationships with others and likely contributed to his divorce.
“I regret the fact that I have had very few friendships with men where I did not mistrust almost every action or thing they said until I had mountains of evidence that they were a good person,” he said in his statement.
The victim said he only shared what happened to him years later when he became seriously ill and realized the effects the assaults had on his family relationships.
“My daughter has told me any children she may have in the future, she has zero interest in them attending church activities outside of the formal service, where she would be right beside them the entire time,” he said. “I now know that for most of her childhood she believed my turmoil and pain was her fault.”
The victim also thanked current Dutch Fork Baptist Pastor Chuck McAlister and the church’s deacons “for their unwavering support and love.”
McAlister told The State there was “no excuse for this reprehensible behavior,” and that “these actions may have occurred in the past, but they will not occur at our church in the future.”
“Richard Taylor does not define Dutch Fork Church,” McAlister said. “We are a community committed to healing and to helping others encounter Jesus and the strength that comes from having a personal relationship with him.”
Taylor’s attorney Leigh Leventis emphasized in court that Taylor had no prior criminal history, was a married father of 42 years and through his years of church ministry “had a tremendous positive impact on many lives.”
Taylor did not make any statement during Friday’s court proceeding.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 10:27 AM.
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