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Youth Pastor Charged With Sexual Battery

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By MIKE WELLS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

LUTZ - A youth minister is facing allegations he molested a young girl a dozen years ago while babysitting her, authorities say.
Justin Ray Peterson, 31, of 1319 Big Sky Drive, Wesley Chapel, ministers to young adults at River of Life Church in Lutz, according to the church's Web site.

He was charged with two counts of sexual battery on a person younger than 12 and is in Orient Road Jail with no bail set, records show.

Hillsborough County deputies arrested Peterson around 2 p.m. Thursday at the church, 410 E. Chapman Road.

The girl, who now lives out of state, contacted authorities about the abuse in September.

In recorded phone conversations between Peterson and the girl, now a teenager, he told her he had been addicted to pornography and she was an 'easy target,' said sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway.

During the first incident, when the girl was 7, Peterson fondled her when he babysat her in 1995 at her parents' Tampa home, according to the arrest affidavit. Peterson was 18 at the time.

Then when she was 8, Peterson forced her to perform a sex act, the affidavit states.
Angeli Benjamin, attorney for River of Life Church, said Peterson had been ministering there about five years.

'This doesn't involve our church, and we don't have anything to say,' she said.

News Channel 8 reporter Chip Osowski contributed to this report. Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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