ALBEMARLE — A pastor in Stanly County has been arrested after he allegedly failed to report child sex assault allegations inside his church, according to an Aug. 13 press release from the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office.
Albemarle resident Kenny Parker, who is listed as the pastor at Straitway Baptist Church on Carolina Avenue in Albemarle, has been charged with three counts of failing to report crimes against juveniles; arrest warrants state that the incidents occurred in 2009, 2014, and 2020.
Parker has since been released on a $5,000 unsecured bond with an upcoming court date on Sept. 25.
On May 30, 2024, the sheriff’s office began an investigation looking into a series of sexual assault allegations involving minors that spanned several years.
The office has confirmed that multiple parents informed Parker about their children being victims and that he did not report the information to law enforcement. North Carolina state law requires that everyone is considered a mandatory reporter, with no listed exceptions for confidentiality.
A few days after Parker was arrested, the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office posted — and quickly deleted — another arrest notice on its social media page indicating that a separate person had been charged as an offender in the same sexual assault investigation.
Capt. Chris Huneycutt of the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office told SCJ on Aug. 20 that the post was made in error and that Parker remains the only person charged in the ongoing case, despite the validity of the other person’s involvement in a past incident.
“The second post was briefly there before we realized it had been made in error,” Huneycutt said. “That gentleman was actually 17 years old at the time of the offense, so he would have been a juvenile. Because of his age and the time of the arrest, it slipped through the cracks.”
He mentioned that he hopes more people are willing to come forward to provide knowledge about Parker, Straitway Baptist Church, and any details related to coverups of abuse within the church’s community.
“It is a difficult case to work because it’s very difficult to get victims to come forward,” Huneycutt added.
Anyone with additional information is advised to call the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office at 704-986-3714.