WEST PLAINS, Mo. — A West Plains pastor faces several sex-related charges including child molestation and incest.
Online court records indicate 46-year-old Randy Brooks faces felony charges of sodomy, incest, and endangering the welfare of a child, as well as two felony counts of statutory rape and child molestation.
A probable cause statement filed by West Plains Detective Joe Neuschwander that was used as the basis for the charges states that the juvenile girl reported to the department on November 9 that Brooks had been attempting to have sex with her.
Cpl. Brandon Stephens with the police department spoke with Brooks at the home a short time later. During the conversation, he reportedly admitted to inappropriately touching the girl over a period of roughly two years, including earlier that evening, but stated nothing else had happened.
Brooks reportedly told Stephens that the girl had been “enticing” him by running around the house in her underwear.
The girl told investigators with the Missouri Children’s Division that Brooks had been molesting her for the past two years and she contacted police after the most recent incident. The girl was examined at the South Central Child Advocacy Center about 2.5 hours after reporting the alleged assaults and evidence collected by the investigators is being sent to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab in Jefferson City for analysis.
Brooks was taken into custody and questioned, and reportedly refused to speak with police without an attorney present. He reportedly told officers that he did not have an attorney and refused to contact one.
Brooks had been a pastor in West Plains, including a recent stint as pastor at the Sixth Street Church of God in West Plains. His position as a pastor was one of the reasons he was to be arrested due to being “a danger to the community” and a “safety risk to children”, according to Neuschwander.
He was released on $100,000 bond and is slated to appear in court for the first time on Monday, November 18.
