WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – A New Hanover County pastor is facing a second indictment involving child sex crime charges.
Rev. Jonathan Ballard was indicted in August in Brunswick County for seven counts of indecent liberties with a child and three counts of statutory sex offense where the defendant is 6 years older than the victim.
The date of his next court appearance has not been disclosed at this time. He is being held a $100,000 bond.
Ballard was also indicted for the following charges on July 8, which are from 1995 to 2019:
- Six statutory sex offenses
- Eleven counts of Indecent Liberties with a Child
- One count of 2nd-degree sexual exploitation of a minor
During a court appearance on July 19, prosecutors said there are four victims connected to the case, but only three are charging because one of them has passed away. Those alleged victims include two boys who were 15 and one girl who was 11 years old at the time of the alleged abuse.
He was arrested on July 18 and bonded out of the Brunswick County jail on the same day; his bond was set at $987,000.
WECT spoke with one of the alleged victims who wishes to stay anonymous.
She says Ballard would use religion to try and justify the alleged abuse.
“He would just kind of say things like, you know, you’re supposed to submit to authority, like the Bible says that you’re to be loyal and like, just would use the word of God and twist it a really horrible way,” she said.
She says her dad was friends with Ballard and for a while, she felt she couldn’t speak up.
“He would just tell the people at the church, that he was just counseling me because my mom and stepdad had just gotten married. So when I would like leave his office, I would look like I had been crying. And that’s, I guess why he would, he told them that counseling thing. It was very manipulative,” she said.
Ballad was arrested and charged in 2004 with six counts of indecent liberties with children and three counts of first-degree statutory sexual offense. The charges were dropped because prosecutors believed there was not enough evidence.
He started Straightway Ministries Wilmington in 1995. As of April 2024, Ballard was still posting on the church’s Facebook page.
Ballard’s bond was kept at $1 million. Prosecutors requested it be raised to $5 million, but the judge denied that request.
Ballard will not be allowed to have any unsupervised contact with minors and will not be allowed to travel out of state if he bonds out.
Prosecutors expect more alleged victims could come forward. They encourage people to reach out to the DA’s office.
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