Ex-pastor sentenced to 4 1/2 years for sexually abusing teenage girl
Aformeryouth pastor who told a judge he began sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl after he mistook her for his wife, then continued abusing her for more than two years, was sentenced Thursday to spend more than four years in prison.
David Walker, 47, gasped as Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Ashley Kilbane announced the sentence. Walker also must register as a sex offender, though the judge will have a hearing to determine the specific requirements.
“You took away her youth, her faith probably at some point, and manipulated her belief in God for your own sexual desires,” Kilabane said.
Walker, who preached at Church Alive International in Cleveland and then at The Dwelling Place Family Worship Center in suburban North Olmsted, pleaded guilty in March to six counts of attempted sexual battery and one count of endangering children in connection with multiple incidents of sexual abuse that investigators said took place from 2003 to 2007.
Walker’s wife, Anna, pleaded guilty the same day to one count of assault and one count of endangering children after admitting that she participated in one incident of sexual abuse when the girl was 17. Kilbane sentenced her to one year of probation, saying she acted at the behest of her husband.
The couple were indicted in December 2020 following a yearlong investigation.
The victim, now in her 30s, came forward to police in 2019 to accuse David Walker of sexually abusing her while she was a member of the youth parish at Church Alive, according to court records.
She said she followed him when he left for the North Olmsted church, where the abuse continued until she was 17.
Walker was also a math teacher and baseball and basketball coach at Cleveland Christian Academy at the time, according to court records.
The woman said Walker used his position of authority to groom her into having sex. She said he told her that his plans for her to give up her life, to become his second wife or to continue having sex with him after she got married to someone else were really God’s plans.
She said she gave up seeing her family during the summer to go to church camps with him and began to question whether her own desires and goals for her life were impure.
“You used your flexible schedule from the pulpit to get your hands in my pants,” the woman said. “Are you sorry, or are you sorry that you got caught?”
The woman said she forgave the Walkers. And that her faith was stronger than ever.
“I won’t lose my faith over your moral failure,” she said.
Investigators spoke to several women who were teenagers in the church around the same time as the abuse, and four of them said David Walker also committed sexually inappropriate behavior with them. One woman told police Walker texted her nude photographs of himself and asked for her to send him nude photographs back.
Another said the former pastor asked her to have a threesome with him and his wife. One of the women said she confronted Walker about his behavior, and he responded by saying he was “loopy on pain medication” and that it would be “our little secret,” court records said.
Walker was not charged with any crimes related to those accusations. Prosecutors filed a motion seeking permission to include the other women’s testimony as evidence if the case went to trial to show Walker’s pattern of conduct and corroborate the victim’s claims.
Kilbane asked the victim whether she was aware of the text messages when Walker was sexually abusing her. She said no. Walker rapped his attorney’s hand when Kilbane mentioned the text messages.
His attorney, Aaron Schwartz, told Kilbane those allegations were “un-investigated” and that they would not likely have been allowed to be presented as evidence had the case gone to trial. He also told Kilbane that Walker does not agree to any of the allegations from the other women.
Schwartz asked Kilbane to sentence Walker to probation, citing health problems that include sleep apnea and diabetes. He said the crimes Walker admitted occurred nearly 20 years ago and he has not been accused of any other crimes since.
“All that means is that for 20 years he’s enjoyed life and escaped justice and detection,” Kilbane said.
Walker began his statement to Kilbane by saying that he always wanted to help people. Kilbane interrupted and asked how sexually abusing a teenage girl was helping people. He said he would get to the point.
“I made the biggest mistake of my life,” he said. “It started out as just a random, innocent accident.”
He said he and the youth group were in a lock-in, where members sleep over inside the church, when somehow the girl ended up sleeping next to him. He said he thought the girl sleeping next to him was his wife and he “started rubbing her,” and he didn’t realize until the next morning that it was the girl.
“From that moment, I made a terrible decision,” he said. “It’s the biggest mistake I ever made. It’s awful. I’m so sorry.
“I never on purpose set out to groom her. I just made a mistake,” he said.
Walker spoke for several minutes, telling Kilbane that he was a virgin when he met his wife and was “sexually inexperienced” at the time, that he attempted to take his life and that he believed his prayers during the birth of his now-4-year-old daughter saved her life.
Kilbane interrupted Walker again and told him it was not a sermon.
He finished by saying that he is not the same person he was two decades ago, as he wanted to be “an example” to his daughter.
Anna Walker read a prepared statement from her phone in which she said she regretted past actions. She asked the judge to sentence her and her husband to probation to “allow us to continue as a loving family of three.”
“I can’t change the past,” Anna Walker said. “I can apologize and pray that healing can happen for all of us.”