Church youth leader charged with soliciting child

[ccharles000]

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A Kansas City, Kan., church youth leader who has served prison time for molesting children was charged Tuesday with soliciting a child who attends his church.

Michael Joy, 40, faces one count of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child. He was being held Tuesday on $150,000 bond. It was unclear if he had a lawyer.

Joy, one of five youth leaders for Stony Point Baptist Church, was convicted of eight counts of indecent liberties with a child in the late 1980s, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections Web site. He spent more than eight years in prison and was released on parole in 2000. Joy was discharged from parole in 2003, according to the Web site.

Stony Point Baptist Church pastor Thomas R. Hamilton said Tuesday that Joy was arrested Friday after a mother called Hamilton the day before alleging that Joy had inappropriate contact with her child. The family attends the church, but the alleged contact was not on church grounds.

Hamilton notified police, who then took Joy into custody at the church. Hamilton said other allegations against Joy could surface. He said Joy has been a youth leader for the independent congregation of 70 to 120 members since 2001.

http://www.kansas.com/197/story/1029497.html?storylink=omni_popular

[MattBaggins]

1. No big deal really

He should flee the country, make some movies that stuck up people love, pay off the parents; and then just wait a few decades.

[dalaigh lllama]

2. So he was arrested for this at the same church in the 80's

and they thought hiring him back as a youth leader in 2001 was a good plan? And the congregation went along with this? Geez Louise!

[dalaigh lllama]

3. I misread the article -- he didn't work at this church in the 80's

But if the sex offender list doesn't go back that far, maybe they should make it clear on the site so people searching the list, as this pastor did, don't assume there's nothing to find.