A former Minnesota youth pastor has been allowed to enter a guilty plea to one count of sexually abusing a young girl.
Jackson Gatlin, 36, entered Alford pleas to four other counts of raping children, which is an a arrangement that allows him to maintain his innocence but still be sentenced, WDIO reported.
Police said when he was arrested in 2023 that there were five additional victims he was not charged with abusing. All of the victims were between 11 and 16 years old.
Gatlin, the former youth pastor at Duluth Vineyard Church, had been free on a $50,000 bond but was taken back into custody on Wednesday. He will likely be sentenced to at least 13 years in prison and have to register as a sex offender later this month.
“While I am relieved that justice is being served, this is not a win,” one of his victims, Hannah Howg, said. “Nobody wins here. What Jackson did to me cannot be undone. He can’t take it back. His actions have further fractured parts of me, but I’m healing.”
Another victim, Vanessa Josephson, said the pleas are “the first win in our lengthy journey to get the justice all of us here deserve.”
“While we were all prepared and ready to go through the painful process of trial, this outcome is the next best scenario,” she said. “Our main focus has always been making sure at the end of all of this, Jackson was required to register as a sex offender for life while also spending time behind bars for what he did to us. We have accomplished that today.”
Victims will be making statements at the sentencing hearing.
The allegations dated back to 2007. Several of the victims have filed a civil lawsuit against Gatlin, his parents, the church, and its parent company. Michael Gatlin, Jackson Gatlin’s father, was a senior pastor at the church, and his mother also held a position there.
None of the Gatlins now work for the church, which sent a statement noting that the statute of limitations had passed for criminal charges for Michael and Brenda Gatlin, who reportedly knew about the abuse and didn’t bother to report it. The church apologized to the victims and said it even welcomed the civil lawsuit.
“Although what we can do financially is limited by the size of our resources, insurance coverage and outstanding debt, as a church we want to follow the way of Jesus and take responsibility for the harm we are judged to have caused,” the statement said.
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[Featured image: Jackson Gatlin/St. Louis County Jail]
