Pastor charged in Arkansas with multiple counts of rape

David Jerome Keener (via Texarkana Gazette)
David Jerome Keener (via Texarkana Gazette)

A California pastor who was raised in Texarkana has been charged by prosecutors in Arkansas with three counts of rape for alleged sexual abuse more than a decade ago.

David Jerome Keener, 36, is accused of abusing a girl repeatedly beginning when she was 9 and ending when she was 13, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case. The case was reported to Texarkana police in March.

The alleged victim said she was afraid to tell anyone about the abuse until years after it occurred.

"This happened for years and years and years and I would just never say anything," the affidavit quotes the alleged victim as stating.

The girl provided specific accounts of multiple incidences of alleged forcible sodomy and reported that as she grew older, she confided in family members. She provided investigators with a copy of a Facebook message string between a female relative and Keener during which the relative confronts Keener regarding the alleged sexual abuse.

"I saw where David confessed to the rapes and stated that he was sorry for what he had done but was in a dark place at the time," the detective states in the affidavit.

Archives from the Texarkana Gazette show that Keener was featured as a guest pastor locally in November 2017 and that he is affiliated with a church in Fresno, Calif.

Click here to read the full story in the Gazette.

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