East Texas pastor charged with groping girl
By Joshunda Sanders
Austin American-Statesman
Austin, Texas
August 5, 2008
Austin police say a pastor with the First Baptist Church of Swan in East Texas groped a 12-year-old girl in an Austin hotel on July 30.
Billie Lewis Minson, 56, was charged with indecency with a child by contact, a second-degree felony. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. He was arrested in Tyler on Friday and has since been released on a $60,000 bond.
Sgt. Pat Cochran with the Austin Police Department child abuse unit says that the girl told her father when she returned to Tyler that Minson had touched her inappropriately while she slept.
Cochran said that Minson “made some admissions that confirmed what the child said,” but he did not confess any wrongdoing. Cochran said that Minson will be indicted in Travis County because the incident happened here.