Traditional Christian Family Values

A retired Lehigh Valley pastor has been arrested and charged with propositioning a teenage girl online, police said.

His alleged screen name was “AllentownHotGuy,” and according to investigators, the 62-year-old retired pastor used that idenitity to try to get a 15-year-old girl to have sex with him

Paul Marmon, of South Whitehall Township, has been charged with unlawful contact with the Montgomery County teenager, whom police said he met in an online chat room while pretending to be more than 40 years younger than his real age.

State Attorney General Tom Corbett said Marmon posed as a 19-year-old boy and told the girl she was much more mature than other girls.

Investigators said that Marmon not only discussed sex with the girl but asked her if she would take nude photos of herself.

Authorities also said Marmon left her presents, including bags of Victoria’s Secret underwear, in a park near her home.

Kristie Frantz said she has lived across the street from the former pastor and his wife for years. She said the couple recently became grandparents.

“Never would I have thought this,” she said. “My daughter’s 10, and she’s out playing all the time. This very much shocks me.”

Police said they arrested Marmon after the girl became suspicious of his age when speaking to him on the phone. She told her parents, and they called the police.

No one at Marmon’s house answered the door on Friday. The Allentown church where he reportedly once preached did not return calls from NBC10.

Marmon was being held on $1 million bail. He faces up to 21 years in prison if convicted.

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PLAINFIELD, N.J. — A New Jersey pastor has been arrested on charges he sexually assaulted a child younger than 13 years old.

George Benbow, 56, is a bishop at the Christian Fellowship Gospel Church in Plainfield.

Benbow was arrested without incident at the church around 10:30 a.m. and is being held at the Union County Jail on $150,000 bail.

He was charged with four counts of second-degree sexual assault on a minor younger than 13 years old. He was also charged with two counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a minor younger than 16, said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow.

Prosecutors launched their investigation into Benbow’s actions in July after several concerned Plainfield residents contacted police, Romankow said.

The investigation revealed that the alleged abuse happened between 2000 and 2008 at multiple locations on the church grounds.

Benbow has been married for nearly 30 years and has two sons. He has served at the Plainfield church since 1981.

Assistant Prosecutor John Esmerado is handling the case.

Anyone who believes they might have additional information pertaining to the case is encouraged to contact Union County Prosecutor’s Office Det. Paul Han at 908-965-3881.

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New Jersey State Police have arrested a Trenton pastor on charges that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy at the pastor’s Burlington County home.
Charles Brinson, 48, who leads the Brinson Memorial Church in Trenton and is associated with several other churches in New Jersey, was arrested on Saturday in Trenton after police officers found him in the driver’s seat of his church’s van.

Authorities allege that earlier this year, Brinson picked the teenager up in Philadelphia and drove him to his home in Florence.

At some point, the sex assault was reported to the Philadelphia police. Brinson, who police said used the title of “bishop,” had eluded authorities since August, when Philadelphia police issued warrants for his arrest. Brinson was carrying his passport when he was found, state police Sgt. Stephen Jones said.

Philadelphia police charged Brinson with several felonies, including contact with a minor and solicitation. He was also charged with corruption of a minor and being a fugitive of justice, Jones said.

Brinson has been involved with churches for at least two decades, public records show. A phone number for the Brinson Memorial Church could not be located and its Web site has apparently been disabled.

Brinson is being held at the Mercer County jail pending extradition to Philadelphia.

Anyone with information about Brinson is asked to call the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-989-6415 or the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-265-5879.

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