Updated Thursday, June 26, 2008

Minister pleads guilty on molestation charge

From wire reports

ASHEVILLE - A Baptist minister with ties to churches in Asheville and Mars Hill was sentenced June 25 to six years in prison.

Roy Mace Honeycutt II, 64, pleaded guilty in Buncombe County Superior Court to molesting a 11-year-old boy multiple times in the 1980s.

The conviction comes within days of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee declining to initiate a sex offender registry for Baptist ministers. Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, urged messengers to utilize the national sex offender registry and be diligent in performing background checks.

Officials with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina say Honeycutt is an ordained minister and was affiliated with at least two churches in the area, including Bethel Baptist Church in Asheville and Trinity Baptist Church in Mars Hill.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported Honeycutt had been arrested in March 2007 on two counts of first-degree sex offense against a child and six counts of taking indecent liberties with two other boys in 1968 and 1974.

A plea agreement consolidated four charges - two counts of attempted first-degree sex offense and two counts of indecent liberties - into one judgment of attempted first-degree sex offense against a child.

The Citizen-Times article indicated that Honeycutt's family members wept. The adult victim also cried quietly while Honeycutt was being handcuffed.

Calling Honeycutt a "wolf in sheep's clothing," the victim said he had come forward for the sake of the community.

Prosecutor Kate Dreher said Honeycutt "masqueraded as a man of God," befriending the boy, who lived in the area, in 1986 and inviting him to his home where he played pornographic videos and had sexual contact with the child.

Honeycutt molested the boy numerous times after that, sometimes taking him on trips, Dreher said.

The victim did not come forward until he was 21, when he told a family member about the incidents.

The victim told Honeycutt in the courtroom that he betrayed his trust.

"I trusted you, I loved you, and you stripped a lot of things away from me that I cannot get back," the victim said, also stating that he hoped Honeycutt would get help.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Honeycutt in March 2007, charging him with two counts of first-degree sex offense against a child and six counts of taking indecent liberties with two other boys younger than 16 in 1968 and 1974, according to warrants.

Honeycutt pleaded guilty June 25 to two counts of attempted first-degree sex offense and two counts of indecent liberties.

Dreher said the victims in the other two cases are now in their 40s and 50s, but the district attorney's office dismissed those charges because indecent liberties was classified as a misdemeanor crime at the time.

Honeycutt's six-year sentence was based on fair sentencing guidelines in place at the time of the crimes, according to Dreher.

Honeycutt declined to make a statement during the sentencing.

"You are being given a prison sentence of some duration, but those who were abused by you, sir, will be suffering for all their life," said Judge James L. Baker Jr.

Jean Bridges, church organist for Bethel confirmed Honeycutt had been a member, but said she believes he was wrongly accused.

"I'm very distraught. I feel that this would not have been headlines had he not been a minister," Bridges said. She described Honeycutt and his wife as "very, very dedicated, fine people and as far as I'm concerned, they still are."

Officials at Trinity Baptist Church could not immediately be reached.