A Marion man, who formerly was pastor of a Fairfax County, Va., church in the 1990s has been arrested by Fairfax police for allegedly molesting two boys in the mid-1990s, Fairfax police said Thursday.
Tommy Shelton, 64, was the pastor of Community Church of God at 2500 Gallows Rd. in the Dunn Loring area, from 1995 to 2000, police said.
In 2008, two men approached Fairfax police and reported that they had been sexually assaulted by Shelton. One man said he had been molested when he was 12 to 14 years old, and the other man said he was 8 to 9 years old when he was molested, police said.
There is no statute of limitations on such crimes in Virginia, reports the Washington Post.
According to the Post, police obtained warrants in February charging Shelton with two counts of aggravated sexual battery, two counts of indecent liberties with a minor, and sodomy. Shelton now lives on Ky. 91 North in the Hebron area of Crittenden County. He has been affiliated with various churches and religious organizations in this area for many years. Local authorities had no knowledge of these allegations.
Shelton surrendered this week to Fairfax police, and was being held in the Fairfax jail Thursday in lieu of $80,000 bond.
The Seventh Day Adventist Church's magazine Adventist Today has written extensively about the suspect in a 2007 article. Read it here.
