Treatment plan denied in Internet sting case

By Rob Modic
e-mail address: rob_modic@coxohio.com
Dayton Daily News

A Trotwood minister, whose lawyer said he has been a "sex addict" since age 10, sought treatment rather than face trial in a Brookville police-run Internet sting that presented a virtual 14-year-old boy in a chat room. But a Montgomery County judge denied his plea for treatment Tuesday.

Common Pleas Judge Michael T. Hall scheduled Kevin Alan Turner’s trial for April 7.

Turner’s attorney, Dwight Brannon, asked Hall to grant Turner intervention instead of possible conviction on the charges.

Brannon submitted a half-inch-thick brief with reports from physicians and psychotherapists who had treated Turner for complaints of "memory loss" as well as the more recent concerns about sex addiction.

Brannon wrote that Turner was abused as a child "sexually, emotionally and physically to a lesser extent."

He wrote that Turner started looking at pornography at age 10 "and since that time has had compulsive desires to look at it . . . Throughout high school, college and even seminary . . . sex was on his mind all the time.

"He had his first sexual experience with another male at the age of 19 while in college," Brannon wrote. "Shortly after he began surfing the Web . . . his addiction slowly began to grow."

Turner had been pastor of Anchor Community Church, 38 S. Fairgreen Drive, for seven years when he was arrested last summer.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr. said in July that the minister struck up a "conversation" in an America Online chat room with what he thought was a 14-year-old boy.

Turner remained free after posting $25,000 bond set by a county district judge last week, Heck said.

Hall said the court’s adult probation department reported that Turner had not "accepted responsibility" for the acts of which he is accused. The Ohio statute lets judges accept a guilty plea and order treatment that, if completed successfully, can result in the nullification of the case. However, the law requires the defendant to accept responsibility, Hall said.

Hall also said Brannon had described "a non-drug addiction. The court believes that is not something that should be handled by treatment in lieu of conviction."

Turner is charged with three felonies: attempt to commit unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, which carries six to 18 months in prison; importuning, and possession of criminal tools, each with a possible sentence of six to 12 months in prison.

The criminal tools charge comes from using the computer, Heck said.

Conviction on the unlawful conduct or importuning offenses would also require the judge to designate a sexual offender status that requires the convict to register with the local sheriff for at least a decade.

Contact Rob Modic at 225-2282 or rob_modic@coxohio.com

[From the Dayton Daily News: 01.29.2003]

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