A former pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, the place former President Jimmy Carter had lengthy been a member earlier than his loss of life on Dec. 29, has been arrested in Volusia County, Florida, on baby sexting costs.
Jeffery Summers, 52, was taken into custody as a part of “Operation Full Throttle,” an undercover sting aimed toward concentrating on suspected baby predators.
Authorities from the Port Orange Police Division reported that Summers was amongst 17 people arrested through the operation, WALB reported.
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Summers, believing he was speaking with a 14-year-old boy, had been utilizing the web and a mobile phone to solicit illegal sexual exercise. As a substitute, he was conversing with undercover officers posing as minors.
Based on the incident report, Summers knowingly engaged in obscene communication and traveled intending to fulfill the person he believed to be a minor.
Summers now faces two felony costs, together with touring to fulfill after utilizing a pc to lure a baby and obscene communication with a minor.
Extra costs embrace using a pc to solicit or lure a baby.
Police paperwork additionally recognized Summers as an worker of Horizon Elementary Faculty in Volusia County. The college, together with the Volusia County Faculty Board, has been knowledgeable of the costs and is reportedly taking acceptable motion in response.
Summers beforehand served as a pastor at Maranatha Baptist Church, the identical congregation the place Carter had been a long-standing member and taught Sunday college for many years.
Carter died final December on the age of 100.
After leaving workplace, Carter turned identified for a lot of charitable efforts, together with many years of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity alongside his spouse, Rosalynn. Starting within the Nineteen Eighties, Carter was an everyday Sunday college instructor at Maranatha Baptist, overseeing lessons even in 2015 whereas he was battling most cancers.
Summers led the church from 2005 to 2013, a interval throughout which Carter was actively concerned within the church’s non secular actions.
Maranatha Baptist gained nationwide recognition as a result of Carters’ involvement. The church has undergone important modifications in management in recent times.
In Could 2024, the church employed its first feminine pastor, the Rev. Ashley Guthas, marking a historic shift in its custom. Guthas succeeded the Rev. Tony Lowden, who in 2019 turned the church’s first black lead pastor. Guthas, a graduate of the McAfee Faculty of Theology, was beforehand an affiliate minister specializing in youth and household ministries earlier than taking over her position at Maranatha Baptist.
