Pastor still jailed on sodomy, child pornography charges

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- An East Prairie, Mo., church pastor remains in jail following charges of sodomy and for possessing child pornography.

Kenneth N. Allen, 36, pastor of Grace Apostolic Church in East Prairie, is charged with three felony counts of first-degree statutory sodomy of deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 14 years old and one felony count of possession of child pornography, according to Missouri Case.net.

According to the probable-cause affidavit provided by Mississippi County Prosecuting Attorney Darren Cann, about 5 p.m. Monday, Mississippi County deputy Marc Tragesser received a report from a woman whose teenage son was at Allen's residence on Mitchell Street and came out of Allen's house wearing boxer shorts that weren't his. The boy went into the residence and got his clothes, telling his mother he took a shower at Allen's.

The boy made a voluntary statement on video saying Allen walks around in his boxers with his genitals sometimes being visible. The boy said he slept on the couch but two other juveniles slept in a small bed with Allen and all wore boxer shorts. They also took showers there and Allen would come into the bathroom but didn't open the shower curtain.

The boy also said Allen took pictures of the juveniles while wearing their boxers and clothes, too, and that Allen had three computers.

Allen was arrested about 2 p.m. Tuesday and taken to the sheriff's department, where he said he did sleep with the children in boxer shorts while he was in boxers but didn't do anything. He also said he did hug them and put his arm around their waists, and he could've touched their private parts but if he did, it wasn't intentional.

Allen is being held without bond in the Mississippi County Jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday before Judge T. Lynn Brown.

Allen said he did go into the bathroom while the kids were bathing to give them soap or a towel or to tell them to wash their hair or body and that the boys came to his house and were in need of a shower.

Tragesser told Allen the boys mentioned they lived nearby, and Allen replied that while the boys' mother was at work, they came to his place and played and showered.

One time, Allen said he sprayed shaving cream on a child while in the shower, and the child called him a "he-she" so Allen grabbed him on the shoulder and said: "Who is the ‘he-she' now?" Allen said that was "playing and in all fun, and he didn't go lower than that."

Initially, Allen told Tragesser there was nothing on his computers but later said they contained adult porn and gay porn and that he searched "boys and pictures" but never downloaded any. He also said one child was embarrassed to undress in the locker room so he located pictures of nude, adult males in a shower to show the juveniles.

During the interview, Allen said at least four times he wanted to plead guilty because he loved the boys -- not in a loving way -- but caring way. When asked by Tragesser if he was threatened or bribed to give this statement, Allen said he was "taking a guilty plea to save the kids from going to court and going through all that."

Allen ultimately requested a lawyer. Allen later provided an additional statement to Tragesser about other incidents.

Allen gave consent for officers to search his computers and provided passwords for each.

SEMO Cyber Task Force was contacted to investigate the computers, Tragesser said.