Three Ohio pastors were recently indicted on a charge of conspiracy for child sex trafficking after being accused of exploiting and abusing teenage girls, The New York Times reports. Pleading not guilty to the 11-count indictment on Tuesday, 37-year-old Kenneth Butler, 38-year-old Anthony Haynes and 47-year-old Cordell Jenkins were accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl from 2014 to 2017.
The pastors' abuse of the girl reportedly started when she was only 14 years, mostly occurring at hotels and Haynes' church at Toledo's Greater Life Christian Center. Haynes paid the girl not to say anything, saying that her doing so would ruin his family and his church. He apparently "facilitated" her abusive encounters with other men. Jenkins sexually harmed the girl in various locations, including his home and office, and recorded their meetings with his phone. He allegedly sexually exploited another teen girl, while Butler was also indicted on charges involving his abuse of a third girl from 2015 to earlier this year.
While Jenkins and Haynes were originally served sex trafficking charges in April, Butler was added to the case when authorities realized the three were connected. Michael Tobin, a spokesman for the United States attorney's office, said of the men, "All three have religious affiliations and knew each other in that capacity. All three claim to be ministers in one form or another."
Assistant U.S. attorney Michael Freeman is quoted in The Toledo Blade as saying that the men "conspired and agreed with each other to knowingly recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, maintain, patronize and solicit" female minors. The men will stay in custody until their January hearing.