Editor’s note: Mark Williams, the prosecuting attorney in this case, dropped the following charges in March 2004.
KIRKSVILLE (MO)
KTVO
(Kirksville)–A Northeast Missouri minister accused of sexual misconduct is now facing additional charges. Wednesday, Adair County Prosecutor Mark Williams added two more felony charges to the single charge against Pastor Benjamin Teague of the First Baptist Church in Kirksville. Williams said, “One of the charges I charged is called the alternative. Where I filed the main complaint as an attempted forcible rape, but on the alternative, an attempted sexual assault. And the third count is a sexual assault by itself. So there are two more counts, but again one is kind of a different way of putting it because it is an alternative.”
Teague’s preliminary hearing is set for for 2 p.m. September 29th at the Adair County Courthouse. The 51-year-old Teague is currently out on $5,000 bond. Authorities allege that the pastor sexually mistreated a 24-year-old Truman State University student. The victim alleges that other incidents of sexual abuse began in November of last year and continued until February of this year. She says she was seeing the pastor for counseling.
