By Brian Lazenby
Staff Writer
General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon today bound charges of statutory rape and sexual battery by an authority figure against a local pastor to a Hamilton County grand jury.
According to testimony at a preliminary hearing, Gregory Stanley Dempsey, 42, was a senior pastor at Middle Valley Methodist Church in Hixson and the mentor of a 16-year-old boy wishing to join the ministry when he was accused of having sex with the boy.
The boy, who now is 18 and is not identified here in accordance with Chattanooga Times Free Press policy, testified that Mr. Dempsey began talking to him about sex, but the conversations eventually turned into sexual acts that occurred at the church, at Mr. Dempsey’s house and at Mr. Dempsey’s mother-in-law’s house.
Mr. Dempsey, who no longer is affiliated with the church, is free on $75,000 bond.
E-mail Brian Lazenby at blazenby@timesfreepress.com
See tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for full coverage.
