A Marathon pastor is facing serious charges after being accused of giving a teenager alcohol and molesting her while she was unconscious.
Monte Chitty, 62, a pastor at First Baptist Church, faces charges of sexual battery, lewd and lascivious behavior, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to jail records from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
An anonymous caller reported overhearing a girl telling another adult that she had been raped, deputies said Monday in a news release.
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The victim, a 15-year-old girl, told detectives Chitty gave her alcohol that she believed might have been spiked because she immediately began to feel weak and passed out after drinking it, deputies said. When she woke up, she found Chitty was sexually molesting her.
Chitty had called authorities beforehand because "he believed he was about to be accused of something and he wanted to get ahead of it," deputies said. He said a young girl at his church had been drinking, so he helped her lie down on a couch in the church's library and claimed he did not touch her after that.
Detectives later found text messages between the victim and Chitty where Chitty allegedly talked about having sexual relations with the girl while she was impaired.
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Chitty, who had also been a registered volunteer with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office as a pastor, was booked Monday into the Monroe County Detention Center.
