Former pastor pleads guilty to child molestation

<p>A former pastor admitted to videotaping under the skirt of a teenage girl at a mall last summer and vowed never to do it again.</p><p>Michael Jay Brown, former assistant pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Martinez, pleaded guilty to child molestation and was sentenced Thursday to 10 years on probation, a $5,000 fine and 200 hours of community service.</p><p>Before Brown's arrest in July 2004, he was also a volunteer for abused and neglected children. He lost both positions after his arrest.</p><p>At his sentencing, Brown said he was thankful he was arrested. He has been to a residential treatment program and now attends counseling for sex addiction</p><p>"That's the only thing I'm not sorry for: getting caught," he said.</p><p>Assistant District Attorney Ashley Wright, who outlined the case against Brown, said the pastor confessed to filming under a girl's dress. He also confided to officers that two weeks earlier he was questioned about following girls and was asked to leave the mall, Wright said.</p><p>In July 1986, Brown was arrested for peeping into a woman's bedroom window. He said in his police statement then: "Believe me, I'll never do it again."</p><p>In that case, Brown was given a two-year probationary sentence under the First Offender Act. Because he successfully completed that sentence, no conviction appeared on his record.</p><p>Thursday's child molestation conviction means Brown will have to register as a sex offender and abide by strict rules while on probation.</p><p>Brown said he got the idea of taping under skirts from Web sites. He said he didn't think it was illegal or that it would harm anyone at the time, but that he now understands that his acts were an invasion of privacy.</p><p>As a condition of probation, Brown is not to have any contact with children other than family members.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdbc00)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/8/140934