How cops lured a pastor to city hall to arrest him on charges of unnatural intercourse, statutory rape, and child pornography

A Mississippi pastor has been arrested on accusations of several child sex crimes, according to police.

Christopher Willett, a pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Crystal Springs, was arrested Tuesday.

Following an investigation, police reportedly executed search warrants on Willett’s vehicles, laptops, cell phones, and house.

Crystal Springs Police Chief Robert Thomas revealed how and why law enforcement thought it was necessary to lure the pastor to city hall as a safety precaution.

The Clarion-Ledger reported, “Thomas said police arrested Willett on Tuesday by asking him to come to City Hall under the pretense of discussing other matters. This approach was deemed necessary for safety precautions due to Willett’s known possession of firearms in his home.”

Thomas said of the arrest of Willett, “There was no fight, no refusal … no struggle. We put the handcuffs on him, brought him to the police department, and put him in the interrogation room, where he refused to talk.”

Willett, an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in America, is being held in the Copiah County Jail with no bond.

According to WAPT-TV, Willett was charged with statutory rape, sexual battery, unnatural intercourse, computer luring of a person, and child pornography.

On March 7, the alleged female victim went to the Crystal Springs Police Station with a psychologist — a friend of the victim’s family.

Chief Thomas said the victim told investigators that Willet had molested her.

Thomas told the Clarion-Ledger that the alleged child sex abuse began when the victim was 15 years old; the victim is now 19 years old.

Following an investigation, police reportedly executed search warrants on Willett’s vehicles, laptops, cell phones, and house.

Law enforcement interviewed the alleged victim a second time for approximately 90 minutes, in which she detailed additional child sex abuse accusations against the pastor. Soon after the interview, police filed child sex crime charges against Willett.

While Thomas noted that the charges are “only accusations,” he also stressed that “the evidence we have against him is pretty substantial.”

The Clarion-Ledger said it reached out to determine if Willett still is employed at the church but that there wasn’t a timely response.

Willett is still featured on the First Presbyterian Church website as a pastor and teaching elder. His bio on the website of First Presbyterian Church in Crystal Springs reads: “Before moving to Crystal Springs to become the Senior Pastor in October of 2020, he held the offices of Pastoral Intern and Assistant Pastor at Pinewood Presbyterian Church in Middleburg, Florida, for 5 years. He then served as the Senior/Solo Pastor of Columbia Presbyterian Church in Columbia, Mississippi, for 3 years.”

The church site adds that “Chris served in the U.S. Air Force as a Weather Forecaster, and earned a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Humanities, Communication, and Business Management) from New York Institute of Technology, and obtained his Master’s of Divinity at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando.”

The bio also says Willett married his wife, Jennifer, in 2000. They have a daughter together.

“When he is not studying for and writing sermons, planning ministries, or working around the church and home, he enjoys watching shows with his wife, playing board games and video games with his daughter, reading (fiction, comics, and non-fiction), all things ‘Star Wars,’ and being a Stormtrooper,” the church page says of Willett.

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