A Bryan preacher faces felony burglary charges based on allegations that he posed as a 16-year-old boy looking for sex online, arranged to meet adult men and then coerced them into letting him perform oral sex on them.
George Randall Scott, 51, works at Bethel Temple, an Assembly of God church on Villa Maria Road. He was arrested in Houston on Saturday as he returned from vacationing with his wife in Sweden. He told investigators that he had sexual encounters with 10 men he met over the Internet, authorities said.
Court documents indicate that an unidentified man told police in November that he exchanged e-mails with Scott and arranged for him to come to his apartment. Scott threatened to report the informant, identified as John Doe, for trying to have sex with a 16-year-old.
College Station Detective Patrick McCarthy wrote in his affidavit that Scott told the informant that he could either go inside and perform oral sex on the informant or he would call the police. "Doe said that he chose to go inside," he wrote.
Scott was charged with burglary of a habitation with intent to commit an assault, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He was released from custody soon after his arrest after posting $5,000 bail.
A woman who answered the phone at Bethel Temple on Tuesday said Scott still worked there as a pastor. She said she was unaware of his arrest.
Scott declined to comment, and his lawyer, Earl Gray, said he couldn't discuss details of the case.
"At this point, a grand jury hasn't even reviewed the evidence in the case," Gray said Tuesday afternoon. "I would emphasize that everyone is innocent until proven guilty."
College Station police declined to comment. Details of the allegations against him were revealed in court documents made available after his arrest.
Those documents say that the informant told police that he contacted Scott after seeing an ad on Craigslist offering to "hook up." They exchanged about 12 e-mails over two days, including one in which Scott told him that he was 16 and in high school, documents state.
The informant said that was OK, and gave him his address to meet, documents say. The preacher drove to the informant's home and met him outside around 1 a.m. on Nov. 22, documents state.
"When Doe got to the truck, he saw that it was an older man, not who he was thinking it was going to be," McCarthy wrote in his report. "Doe started to go back to the house but the male stopped him and told him that they needed to talk."
Scott threatened to call police and then followed the informant inside and performed oral sex on him, documents said.
The informant provided investigators access to the e-mails. McCarthy said in his report that he determined that some of the messages had been written at Bethel Temple. He visited the church and said he noticed that Scott matched the description of the man the informant gave. His vehicle also matched the informant's description, McCarthy said.
McCarthy wrote that Scott told him that he monitored "men seeking men" ads on Craigslist because he "wanted to get into the mindset of someone who was into that sexually." He said he began posting ads saying he was a 20-year-old man and then would tell people who responded to them that he was only 16.
"He said that when he showed up at their apartment, they would be shocked," McCarthy wrote in his report. "He said that he then would sit down and talk with them about why they were wanting to meet with another male for sex."
Scott said he wanted to help the people he met and that their meetings would often end in prayer, McCarthy wrote.
McCarthy then described for Scott the informant's version of what happened on the night they met. Scott told the investigator that the account was correct, except that they never touched each other.
Police said Tuesday that no other charges had been filed in the case. Assistant District Attorney Brian Price said charges could also be brought against the informant if it was determined that he attempted to solicit sex from a minor.
"It would depend on the evidence," Price said.
Online solicitation of a minor is a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
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