Youth Pastor at Crossroads Community Church
Rocklin, Calif.- Jeffery Allen Waisner, 33, of Lincoln who worked as a youth pastor at a Rocklin church has been sent to state prison for three years for engaging in a sexual relationship last year with a 14-year-old girl from his church.
Jeffery Allen Waisner, 33, of Lincoln must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and will be on parole for three years after he is released from prison, Placer County Superior Court Judge Robert P. McElhany ordered during the defendant’s sentencing Wednesday.
Waisner, who is married and has three children, was convicted of engaging in lewd and lascivious acts with a minor after he entered a plea of no contest to the charge on Feb. 24.
Prosecutor Todd Kuhnen of the Placer County District Attorney’s Office said Waisner, who served as the youth pastor at Crossroads Community Church, met the teenage girl in one of his youth programs and began a sexual relationship with her in the summer of 2009.
Kuhnen said the relationship continued until Waisner was arrested by the Lincoln Police Department in September. Kuhnen said Waisner’s activities came to light after a person with mandated reporter responsibilities alerted authorities of a possible inappropriate sexual relationship between Waisner and the teenage girl. He declined to name the reporting person or the person’s agency.
During Waisner’s involvement with the girl, the two exchanged thousands of text messages each month a number of them using sexually explicit wording, Kuhnen said.
In one six-week period, Waisner and the girl exchanged more than 8,500 text messages, the prosecutor said. In addition, the girl once accompanied Waisner after midnight to San Francisco without her parents’ knowledge, Kuhnen said.
At Wednesday’s sentencing, the mother of the teenage girl made a statement to the court in which she tearfully told of how Waisner had devastated her daughter, who is now 15, and the girl’s family.
She said Waisner convinced the girl that he loved her and said he would leave his wife and children for her.
‘This sick perpetrator not only stole my daughter’s innocence, her trust and her faith in God, he has caused her emotional damage that will scar her for a lifetime,’ the mother said.
The mother said her daughter was forced to leave school, move from Rocklin and take up residency with an aunt in Southern California. The girl has become withdrawn and continually struggles with her emotions, she said.
With her whole life ahead of her, my daughter now expresses no hope for her future and has no desire to better herself,’ the mother told the court. ‘It breaks my heart to see her like this.’
Garland Bell, an attorney representing the victim’s family, said outside the courtroom that the girl is undergoing intense therapy in Southern California.
‘This is a tragic case,’ Bell said. ‘For a (grown) man to victimize children, it’s ridiculous.’