Pastor arrested on statutory rape charges in Gallatin
Gallatin police have arrested a Kentucky church pastor on statutory rape charges involving a 14-year-old male member of his congregation.
Roy Neal Yoakem, 46, of Scottsville, Ky., was arrested Monday and is charged with aggravated statutory rape, sexual battery by an authority figure, statutory rape by an authority figure and fugitive from justice, according to a news release from the Gallatin Police Department.
According to police, Yoakem sexually assaulted the teenager on two occasions last month, once at New Gospel Outreach Church in Scottsville where he was the pastor and once at his Gallatin residence on Edgewood Drive.
Yoakem is also a convicted sex offender, according to the release. In 2005 he was convicted in Kentucky of second degree sexual abuse of an 8-year-old boy and is currently registered in Tennessee as a violent sex offender.
"If (a convicted sex offender) has a secondary address or if they spend a certain amount of time a month in the state, they have to register here," Gallatin Police Department spokesman Bill Storment said Tuesday. "So, his primary residence is in Kentucky, but the Gallatin residence is considered his secondary address."
Gallatin police were first notified about the incident on June 18 by the Allen County Sheriff's Office in Kentucky after the teenager told detectives about the sexual contact, according to an affidavit of complaint.
Before he was extradited to Sumner County on Monday, Yoakem had been incarcerated in Kentucky were he also faces charges, Storment said. It is currently unknown if there are additional victims.
"We are not aware of any additional victims at this time, but because of his position of authority in a church certainly if someone becomes aware or suspicious that their child might be a victim, then we need to talk to them," Storment said, adding that additional charges could be forthcoming.
As of Tuesday, Yoakem remains in the Sumner County Jail on $250,000 bond.
Reach Josh Cross at 615-575-7115.