Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Ex-minister jailed, accused of sexual activity with child

By JOHN FRANK
Published December 18, 2006

BEVERLY HILLS - A former Lawtey minister and sex offender was arrested on sexual battery charges Friday night at his home in Beverly Hills.

Aaron D. West, 50, faces charges that he engaged in sexual activity with a child between the age of 12 and 18, arrest reports state. The warrant was issued in Bradford County, northeast of Gainesville, but served by Citrus County deputies at 10:32 p.m. at West's home on Hoover Street. More information about the nature of the new charges wasn't immediately available.

On Aug. 25, 2005, West, a former pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Lawtey, was arrested by the Bradford County Sheriff's Office and accused of sending two Wisconsin minors nude photos, according to local news reports.

He told the young girls the photos were of himself, but they were of a different man. The Sheriff's Office told the Gainesville Sun that West allegedly met the girls, ages 14 and 15, in a computer chat room in 2002.

West told investigators that he tried to meet the girls but never did.

West later pleaded no contest in Bradford County to charges that he used the Internet to solicit a minor for sex. Circuit Judge David Glant sentenced West in December 2005 to five years of sex offender probation, court records show.

It's unclear when he moved to Citrus County, but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement sex offender database shows he registered his Beverly Hills address on Dec. 6.

West is being held at the Citrus County jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

John Frank can be reached at jfrank@sptimes.com or 860-7312.

[Last modified December 17, 2006, 20:23:29]