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Controversial pastor Ken Adkins has been charged with two counts of child molestation in Georgia and is in the Glynn County jail, officials said.
One of the two charges against the 56-year-old is aggravated child molestation, said Stacy Carson, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Kingsland office.
District Attorney Jackie Johnson asked the GBI on Aug. 12 to assist the Brunswick Police Department in an investigation of an accusation of child molestation against Adkins, Carson said. The investigation focused on suspected molestation in several locations in the Brunswick area including at Adkins’ church, a vehicle and a victim’s home, Carson said. The investigation is ongoing.
Lawyer Kevin Gough told the Times-Union he is representing Adkins and that he or a member of Adkins’ family would issue a statement later Friday.
Glynn County Sheriff Neal Jump said Gough “walked him in to the front desk for me this morning.”
Gough said he believes the accusations against Adkins are said to have occurred in 2010. He said Adkins had willingly turned himself in.
Adkins told the Times-Union recently that he has three congregations including one in the Atlanta area. He’s also done public relations work, campaign consulting and started the Greater Dimensions Christian Fellowship in Brunswick, according to Times-Union archives.
Adkins is a controversial figure in Jacksonville politics, particularly because of comments and crude caricatures he posted on his Twitter account while he helped lead the fight against expanding Jacksonville’s anti-discrimination law to cover lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Among the criticisms that Adkins lodged was his assertion that expanding the law would make it easier for sexual predators to find victims in bathrooms.
Adkins served as a panelist last December on one of the community forums that debated whether Jacksonville should broaden the law. Mayor Lenny Curry ultimately decided against doing so.
After the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando in June, Adkins tweeted, “been through so much with these Jacksonville homosexuals that I don’t see none of them as victims. I see them as getting what they deserve.”
Adkins later said he wasn’t referring to the shooting victims, but instead his tweet was “strictly meant for the Jacksonville group that has made my life a living hell” since he served on the community discussion panel.
He also said he would withdraw completely from the debate about the city’s human rights ordinance. He said his public relations firm would not work for any clients opposed to changing the law and he would not make any comments himself.