“We never got trained on it in seminary,” Nelson said in his explanation as to why the church never acted to remove or report Shiflet.
“We’re so sorry it took so long to deal with this with the seriousness it deserves,” Nelson went on to say, admitting that while church leadership “saw smoke” with regard to Shiflet’s “inappropriate behavior,” they “did not look for the fire, and we should have.”
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While Shiflet’s prison sentence came as part of a plea agreement, according to some reports, it did not even meet minimum sentencing requirements, the result of a miscalculation on the part of prosecutors.
Shiflet’s victims told FOX4 that they were not informed by the U.S. Department of Justice of his early release for more than six weeks. The victims were reportedly told in an email that advance notice of Shiflet’s release was not possible because it was “immediate, and/or unexpected.”
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Shiflet is now listed as a registered sex offender in Texas, after originally being cataloged on the registry under a misspelling of his name.
