A notice filed last week by the Bowie County District Attorney’s Office accuses a local pastor of sexually abusing girls as young as 9.
Logan Wesley III, 56, is currently being held in the Bowie County jail awaiting trial on 18 felony counts involving the alleged sexual abuse of three different girls. One of the alleged victims is a close relative.
Wesley allegedly began abusing that girl in 1994 and the abuse allegedly continued into the girl’s adulthood. The alleged victim provided law enforcement with a recording of a phone call with Wesley during which he allegedly admitted to the abuse.
According to the notice, Wesley became acquainted with another alleged victim through his work as pastor of Trinity Temple Church of God and Christ in Texarkana, Ark. Wesley allegedly met the girl when she was 13 and would sexually abuse her in church vans in Texarkana, Texas, and other locations including Lake Wright Patman.
Wesley’s wife allegedly was aware of the abuse and allegedly asked one victim via social media messaging to show “grace and mercy” and not tell authorities about Wesley’s misconduct. Wesley’s wife allegedly told the victim she was concerned about what the publicity surrounding the accusations would do to her child daycare business and her son’s musical career.
One of Wesley’s alleged victims claims she was sexually abused by Wesley beginning at age 9 and ending when she was approximately 12. Wesley allegedly told the girl “he was their pastor so it was alright with God” and that if she didn’t participate in the sexual abuse she would “burn in hell.”
The state’s notice alleges that people were offered money and positions in the church to keep Wesley’s sexual misconduct secret.
The notice alleges that Wesley took a 17-year-old girl he impregnanted to Shreveport, Louisiana, for an abortion while she was a senior in high school.
The notice alleges that Wesley “repeatedly and continually sexually abused children for years. The defendant would threaten or coerce the children into being compliant with this sexually deviant behavior and then he would threaten them if they told on him.”
Some of the 18 charges facing Wesley are punishable by up to life in prison.
