2008:Gilyard caught molesting two teenage girls

Records list lewd texts, molestings by pastor

More than 800 pages in the Darrell Gilyard case are released.

Jim Schoettler

She was a 15-year-old Jacksonville girl with behavior problems whose parents trusted their pastor to give her private counseling.

But details the teen gave to police about what she said happened in darkened rooms and elsewhere describes anything but help meant for a troubled child.

The teen's allegations of being molested and receiving sexually explicit text messages were included in 800 pages of records released Tuesday in three criminal counts against former pastor Darrell Gilyard.

The records also include pages of lewd text messages involving a cellular phone belonging to Gilyard and another teenage church member. That 14-year-old girl's initial texting to Gilyard led to a crude string of phone sex banter that is part of the criminal case.

The records obtained by The Times-Union include police reports, texts and sworn statements from officials of Gilyard's former church, Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church. The records were released by prosecutors after being provided to Gilyard's attorney as part of the legal discovery process.

Gilyard, 46, was arrested in January and charged with lewd and lascivious conduct on the 14-year-old girl. The case began when the girl's mother contacted police after finding some of the text messages.

Charges of lewd and lascivious conduct and lewd and lascivious molestation were added in March. The new charges involved the 15-year-old, who was friends with the other teen. Both girls said they had their encounters with Gilyard last year, well before he took a leave of absence and eventually resigned from the church as the case became public.

Not guilty plea was entered

Gilyard has pleaded not guilty to all counts and has been free on $5,000 bond since his arrest. His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 3. His attorney, Hank Coxe, said: "We look forward to getting to the courtroom to see if this information can be reconciled with other information we have."

Church officials said when they confronted Gilyard with the allegations, he denied doing anything criminal, though he was periodically remorseful. Their internal investigation concluded he acted "irresponsibly" and they intended to discipline him before he left the church, records show.

The identities of the two teens are not being revealed by the Times-Union because of the allegations of sexual misconduct.

The 15-year-old girl's allegations include being with Gilyard twice in a dark room where he laid her on the ground, began touching her body and kissed her neck as he laid on top of her, a police report said. The teen, in a tearful interview with police, said Gilyard spent several minutes grinding on top of her, pulled her to her feet and gave her a hug, the report said.

Hugs turned to molestation

As a reason Gilyard gave for turning off the lights, the 15-year-old girl told police he said, "You can't see God, but you can trust Him," the report said. She said their initial meetings of handshakes quickly turned to hugs, longer hugs and then molestation.

The 15-year-old also used a journal to document what she claimed were lewd text messages she received from Gilyard.

Similar messages involving the 14-year-old were revealed in the records based on images of telephone company documents. The teen initially texted Gilyard's phone in late September and introduced herself to him. Over the next month, dozens of texts were exchanged. Some were suggestive of hard-core sex on her part, while equally crude comments were made from his phone. Both also responded positively to the others overtures periodically.

Some texts from Gilyard's phone also indicated a concern about being jailed and his desire to have the texts cease. But, at subsequent points, the exchanges continued. [1]