A former Alabama pastor now free on $50,000 bond is facing several counts of statutory rape and sexual battery in Grundy County, Tennessee, while he awaits trial in Alabama on other child sex allegations.
Charges in Tennessee against Danny Duane Pitts, 59, of Hartselle, Alabama, stem from an investigation launched Jan. 5 with Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents working jointly with Hartselle police probing allegations related to incidents that happened between August and November 2019, according to TBI spokesperson Susan Niland.
Pitts is charged with aggravated statutory rape, two counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and statutory rape by an authority figure, Niland said in a news release issued Monday. Pitts surrendered Monday at the Grundy County Jail and was freed the same day, according to Grundy County Sheriff Clint Shrum.
Shrum said Tuesday in a telephone interview he knew little of the case since it arose from a TBI investigation with links to Alabama.
Mike Taylor, 12th Judicial District attorney general, said Alabama's State Bureau of Investigation contacted the TBI on the case since that state's investigation crossed the state line.
In the Tennessee case, Pitts and a 17-year-old boy traveled from Alabama to Grundy County where the alleged abuse took place in 2019, Taylor said Tuesday. Taylor said the teen is believed to have been a member of the church where Pitts worked as pastor in Morgan County, Alabama.
Pitts had no lawyer on record in Grundy County and the name of his lawyer in his Alabama case was not immediately available.
Pitts faces a November trial in Alabama on two counts of sodomy involving another minor in Morgan County, according to court records in Decatur, Alabama.
"It is a case that occurred several years ago and it involved a member of his church, a young man that he had befriended," Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
"We allege an inappropriate relationship took place that was criminal in nature," Anderson said. He said he couldn't share any further details on the Alabama case as it continues to develop.
"I'm sure the Grundy County DA and I will be exchanging notes," Anderson said.
The investigation in Morgan County was a joint probe involving the Hartselle Police Department, Anderson's office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and members of the North Alabama Violent Crimes Task Force, according to a Nov. 5 news release from the police department. Pitts was later released on a $500,000 bond.
According to media reports from Huntsville, Alabama, Pitts was the former pastor of GracePoint Church in Decatur.
WHNT News 19 reported in August that a pastor at the church was accused of acting inappropriately toward children at the GracePoint Church in Decatur in several posts on social media, according to the station's website. Several people claimed to have been groomed and abused by a pastor at the church, News 19 reported at the time without naming Pitts.
(READ MORE: Body found floating in Tennessee River, Alabama officials say)
When Pitts was released from Morgan County custody, conditions of his release required him to wear an ankle monitor, remain in the state and he was ordered to turn over his passport, the station reported.
Morgan County court officials said his trial date on the Alabama charges is Nov. 28.
Pitts has a hearing in Grundy County Circuit Court Friday at 9 a.m., court officials said.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton.