Florida youth pastor arrested for attempted sex with a minor. Did an ‘angel’ maid stop it?
What started as a discussion about sexual fantasies has led to the arrest of a youth pastor in Florida on charges of attempted unlawful sex with a minor and interference with child custody.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and court records, Andrew Pierce Weaver, 29, the now former youth pastor at Highlands Church of Christ in Lakeland was arrested Monday, June 7, on those charges.
The arrest came four days after the church reached out to detectives to tell them they believed Weaver “may have been engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl” that had been in his youth group for about three years starting when she was about 13.
The alleged contact traces a five month period from September 2020 to January 2021.
What court documents say
According to deputies, the girl, who turned 18 in January 2021, told them Weaver had been giving her informal guidance and that she had once told him that she was having sexual fantasies. She said Weaver had asked her if any of the fantasies had involved him and she said that they had.
According to the arrest affidavit, the girl, 17 at the time, told deputies she showed Weaver naked pictures of herself on her cell phone and that Weaver would ask often to see these pictures — but “insisted she never transmit them to him electronically.” The girl told detectives she figured he requested that she not send him the pictures so as “to avoid getting in trouble.” She said he also asked that she keep their relationship secret.
She told detectives that in late December 2020 or early January, when she was still 17, she and Weaver had gone to a Best Western Hotel in Mulberry after she had driven to the Highlands Church of Christ to first meet Weaver there. The girl said she got into Weaver’s car “and he asked her how she felt about getting a hotel room for the two of them.”
According to Polk County deputies, Weaver drove them to the Best Western and the two took a room. On Monday, when he was arrested, detectives say Weaver confirmed he took the girl to the hotel on Dec. 29 after they had discussed the sexual fantasies. The arrest report says Best Western records confirms a Dec. 29 check-in but the arrest report incorrectly gives the date as “12/29/21” at about 1:30 p.m.
According to the arrest report, Weaver and the girl were at the hotel for about 30 minutes, naked from the waist up, in their room and “making out” and that Weaver “touched and kissed the bare area of her breasts.”
A maid knocks on the door
Then they were interrupted by a maid knocking on the door. The maid did not enter the room. But the girl told deputies the maid’s coming to the door startled Weaver and that they both put their clothes back on and returned to the church.
Deputies say Weaver told them he thought he had “crossed a line” with the girl and that he was closer to her emotionally than he should have been.
In a release put out by Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Grady Judd said, “Youth ministers are entrusted with mentoring our children. This minister betrayed that trust and he must be held accountable. Thankfully, the church leadership did the right thing by reporting his inappropriate behavior.”
At a press conference, the oft-colorful Judd told reporters, “That maid [who] went to the door, she was an angel that day because it freaked him out and the rest of that ‘inappropriate counseling session’ didn’t take place,” Fox 13 News reported.
As of Thursday, Weaver remains in custody, according to court records.
This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 12:20 PM.
