A Florida pastor accused of sexually battering a teenage member of his church was caught in Texas on Friday after weeks on the run.
Monte LaVelle Chitty, 62, a pastor at First Baptist Church, was arrested around 5 p.m. Friday in Woodville, Texas after he approached a church group that was working with homeless people. A member of that group reportedly called police.
Chitty was initially arrested on March 4 on charges of sexual battery, lewd and lascivious behavior, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was released on March 25 after members of his congregation posted a $75,000 bond.
He is accused of getting a 15-year-old girl drunk and sexually assaulting her while she was passed out on a couch inside his church on March 3.
The girl told officers that Chitty gave her alcohol which might have been spiked because she started to feel weak and passed out after drinking it. She woke up to Chitty molesting her, according to NBC Miami.
The case was first brought to officers when an anonymous caller reported overhearing a girl telling another adult that she had been raped.
While searching for the victim, officers received a call from Chitty saying “he believed he was about to be accused of something and he wanted to get ahead of it,” authorities say.
He told officers that 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.
But, police later found text messages on both the girl’s and Chitty’s phones in which the pastor allegedly referenced having sexual relations with her while she was impaired.
Chitty was scheduled to make his first court appeared on Monday but didn’t show. Prosecutors said he fled the state in a white van with out-of-state plates.
He is currently being held in Texas on a $1.3 million bond.
