WILTON – Alton Walston, charged with attempted unlawful sexual contact with a minor, resigned his position as co-pastor of a local church in 2004, a church official said Thursday.
“The man has not preached, or taught, or stood on the platform for two years,” said the Rev. Rick Stoops.
Stoops is district superintendent for the Maine branch of the United Pentecostal Church, of which Wilton’s First Apostolic Church is a member. Walston’s wife, Sharon Walston, is the church’s pastor; the two were co-pastors before Walston resigned in 2004.
Walston “graciously and willingly laid down his credentials he has held for many years,” when he was accused of a different sex crime in 2004, Stoops said.
Last week, Walston, 79, was arrested a second time, this time after allegedly trying to touch a child inappropriately while at a church function. The victim told police that Walston used his position in the church, or “something to do with the religion of the church,” to lure him into a room, where he allegedly tried to touch the minor sexually.
The boy fled and told others about the incident weeks later. The case is under investigation. It is expected to go before a grand jury in August, according to Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Robinson.
Robinson declined comment on the case, saying he did not want to bias any potential jury members if the case goes to trial.
Alton Walston was unavailable for comment Thursday. Sharon Walston said neither she nor her husband is ready to make a comment. She said the media has dealt unfairly with her husband, and that she would make a statement when she was ready.
Walston was accused of unlawful sexual contact with a minor in 2004, by a foster child then in his care.
Lucky Hollander of the state Department of Health and Human Services said Walston was a foster parent for about five years. Walston hasn’t held a foster parent license since 2004, following the accusation. Hollander said he left the state after the foster child made the allegation, but returned sometime in early 2005.
According to court records and Detective David St. Laurent of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, Walston entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors in early 2005.
Under the agreement terms, the felony charge of unlawful sexual contact was reduced to a misdemeanor of unlawful sexual touching, which does not require jail time and allowed Walston to avoid listing on the Maine Sex Offender Registry. He was put on a year’s probation and barred from being in contact with children during that time.
“For any person in a position of trust – especially someone supposed to have some spiritual guidance – to use that trust for deviant behavior is certainly disturbing and unacceptable,” Police Chief Wayne Gallant said Thursday.
Though Walston pleaded to a lessor charge, he “made an admission in court that he did what was said,” Gallant said. Gallant arrested Walston on the original sex charge in 2005.
But Kevin Joyce, who was Walston’s defense attorney in 2005, refuted Gallant’s statement, saying that while Walston pleaded guilty, he never actually admitted he did what he was charged with doing.
“He did deny that had happened,” Joyce said. “There was a misperception between what (the victim) felt happened and what he felt happened.”
Sex crime charges are often reduced through plea-agreements with prosecutors, Joyce said.
Hollander, the DHHS spokesman, agreed, explaining that there are rarely witnesses or physical evidence to back up the prosecutions’ claim. Defendants sometimes plead guilty to charges they claim they didn’t commit to avoid the risk of a he-said, she-said jury trial.
According to court documents, Sharon Walston also claimed in 2005 that her husband was innocent.
Stoops said that his church has a zero-tolerance policy for child molestation.
“If he were in fact a pedophile, he’d get no shielding from us,” Stoops said. “But we need to find out did this guy do this?'”
Stoops added that just because Walston was once a pastor at the child’s church, it “really shouldn’t be anything laid at the door of any church.”
But the victim, a minor under 12, told police that, whether or not Walston was technically the church’s pastor, Walston used talk of religion to lure the victim into a back room, where he allegedly attempted to molest the child.
St. Laurent said he’s had calls from concerned parents since news of Walston’s arrest got out. He said he’s telling them to “talk to their kids.”
No new allegations have surfaced, he said.
The victim is doing better now than he was initially, according to police. St. Laurent said “there was mental trauma going on” for the child after the alleged incident occurred.
Stoops said Thursday he hopes people will reserve judgment until Walston is either convicted or acquitted of the crime. “If somebody’s made an accusation against you, you would hope that I would reserve judgment,” Stoops said.
He added Pentecostals are hurt by the way Walston’s arrest has been treated in the media, feeling their faith to be under fire.
David Jackson, an executive administrative assistant with the Pentecostal Church International, explained his church emphatically condemns pedophilia and other “sins of perversion,” but said most Pentecostal pastors are good, faithful people.
“It’s only a news story if it’s something that’s dramatic or bad,” he said. “The faithful people don’t make news.”
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