Because John Blanchard’s case never went to trial, Anderson says, it is misleading to label the pastor as exonerated. “Maybe he would or would not be found guilty in a court with reasonable doubt,” adds Anderson. “But innocent, as in nothing happened, he was never there? No way.”
After obtaining the incident report, Anderson, an attorney, said last week: “In my legal opinion, from what I have seen, there’s no excuse not to prosecute this case. If [Blanchard is] found not guilty or if he’s acquitted, that’s one thing. But to use prosecutorial discretion and say nothing happened here, that’s, in my opinion, an abuse of discretion, especially when they went after 15 other people [following the sting operation].”
In an effort to resolve the case, Blanchard had attended counseling for sex offenders. “In police records, it says that Blanchard brought evidence of completion of sex offender therapy to one of the court hearings,” says Anderson. The Commonwealth’s Attorney “rejected it because it was done at another megachurch, rather than an approved provider,” he adds. “Some kind of a deal was made…between the prosecutor and the defense attorney, to let this case go.”
Col. Jeffrey Katz, the local police chief, says he stands by and supports his detectives’ work. “The decision to prosecute—or not prosecute—a case rests with the County’s elected Commonwealth Attorney,” he says. “The only person who can bring clarity to this decision is the person who made it. It would be irresponsible for anyone to speculate on such an important decision.”
Katz adds: “We’ll own our contribution in this case; we locked up a guy we believe violated the law in spectacular fashion. We believe we protected our community…and we’re going to keep doing it, too!!! We appreciate the thoughts and concerns of those in our community who are equally passionate and committed to protecting our youth.”
