YMCA leader faces sex charges

Christopher Lee Allen is accused of molesting three 11-year-olds he met through the Lealman YMCA.

By AMY WIMMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 15, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- A man credited with bringing after-school programs to the small Pinellas community of Lealman was charged Sunday with sexually assaulting two 11-year-old girls and fondling a third.

Christopher Lee Allen, 26, outreach director for the St. Petersburg YMCA, is accused of molesting the girls in separate incidents while they spent the night at his St. Petersburg apartment.

Officials said Allen met the girls through his work with the fledgling Lealman YMCA, which opened in January 1999 as a place for preteens and middle school students to gather after school.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office is investigating whether there are other victims. Sheriff's spokesman Cal Dennie urged any parents "who feel that their child has spent the night with Allen or has had contact with him" to call the Sheriff's Office.

"He had gained the confidence of the parents," said Dennie, noting that Allen is married but has no children. "What's strikingly strange to me is, would you give me your kids knowing I don't have any kids?"

The Sheriff's Office began investigating Allen after one of the girls told her parents that Allen had touched her inappropriately. Detectives then located the two other girls. Allen was arrested at 9 a.m. Sunday at his home at Plantation Inn apartments, 1830 Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) St. N in St. Petersburg. He was being held without bail Sunday at the Pinellas County Jail.

Since the opening of the Lealman YMCA, Lealman community leaders say, Allen has been part of an ongoing effort to bring more youth programs to the area.

"He was very active. He was going about 100 miles an hour," Lealman fire Chief Gary Wolff said. "That's why this is such a shock."

Doug Linder, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg YMCA, said Allen has worked for the organization for more than two years. His duties include bringing YMCA programs to low-income families and children in Lealman and the French Villas complex.

"Chris is an extremely passionate young man who cares about each kid there and the families," Linder said.

"The charges are very serious," said Linder, who has suspended Allen pending the investigation. "We intend to cooperate to the full extent with the authorities. We hope all of this gets straightened out one way or another . . . but we just hope the right thing happens."

According to arrest reports, Allen is accused of molesting the three girls in three separate incidents between March 15 and April 15. The Sheriff's Office has charged him with two counts of capital sexual battery.

With the third girl, police say, he touched her bare chest, stomach and buttocks. The Sheriff's Office has charged Allen with lewd or lascivious conduct in that incident.

Allen ran the YMCA, located on the second floor of a building owned by Lealman United Methodist Church, on a shoestring budget. In an interview with the Times last year, Allen said the YMCA had given the small program its blessing, but no budget. "We operate on grants," he said at the time. "We're the poorest Y in the state."

James "Mike" Quinlivan, who works part time as the director of another new community resource organization, the Lealman Family Center, shared a building with the Lealman YMCA, but the two are separate organizations. He said the YMCA was working to keep kids out of trouble by providing computers for youths to use and giving them a place to go after school.

But Quinlivan said he also had his concerns about Allen. He hopes the arrest does not dampen Lealman's efforts to provide more help to families and young people.

"We had questioned him before about why he didn't keep regular hours there," Quinlivan said. "They were there some late nights. He would tell the boys to go home on their bikes, and he would give the girls rides in his car.

"He said he wanted to make sure they got home safe."

-- Times staff writer Ed Quioco contributed to this report.

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