Ex-pastor accused of molesting teen is back in K.C.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A former Kansas City, Mo., pastor and convicted sex offender returned to the area from New Orleans on Thursday to face charges that he molested a 13-year-old at a church.

George Spencer, 48, of Kansas City, Kan., was arrested this month in Louisiana by FBI agents and held until he could be extradited. He faces seven charges in Jackson County, including forcible sodomy, child molestation and sexual misconduct related to a Feb. 22, 2012, incident at Greater Works CME Church in Kansas City, Mo., where he was an assistant pastor.

Prosecutors said Spencer took a 13-year-old girl into the basement of his church after Bible study under the guise of talking to her about pictures she posted on Facebook. The girl told police that he molested her while her mother, grandmother and two brothers were upstairs, according to a probable cause statement.

The pastor at Greater Works CME, identified in court documents as E.J., told investigators he had known Spencer for 10 or 11 years through ministry work at Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas. Spencer was convicted in 1993 in Kansas of aggravated sexual battery, and in 1999 of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Lansing Correctional Center was among the institutions where he stayed.

The pastor said he called Spencer the morning of Feb. 23, 2012, and told him to turn in his keys and not come back to the church.

That same day, Spencer was involved in a single-vehicle crash on Kansas Highway 5 and had called his brother to say he did not want to live anymore. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper said there were no signs Spencer had tried to brake.

He is currently listed as noncompliant on the Kansas sex offender registry, where he will be listed for life. He did not yet have an attorney.