Timothy Lee Leonard
Claims to fame: Former associate pastor of North Sharon Baptist Church (near Ann Arbor, MI); honored alumnus of (surprise!) Hyles Anderson College; accused child molester
Moral apex: Charged, in 1992, with 11 counts of first- and second-degree sexual assault on children.
The company he kept: Leonard was accused of child molestation right around the same time as North Sharon Baptist deacon (and — surprise! — fellow Hyles-Anderson grad) Mark Foeller was accused of the same thing.
So, what happened? Most of the charges against Leonard “were dropped after a judge ruled the alleged victims, ages 3 and 4, were too young to testify. Two other charges were dismissed … when a 9-year-old alleged victim told Assistant Washtenaw County Prosecutor Julie Owdziej she was unable to testify at a preliminary hearing.”
Waitasec. A nine-year-old told the prosecutor “she was unable to testify at a preliminary hearing”? Yeah, it sounds fishy to us, too (our first thought was that maybe the church strongarmed the kid’s parents into shutting up), but that’s what the papers reported.
Nevertheless: “Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Patrick Conlin … reinstated one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct… Thomas Shea ruled the 9-year-old, who could not pinpoint the exact time of the alleged assault, was not a credible witness. But Conlin overturned that decision, saying the date of the alleged assault was not as important as the claim that it had occurred.”
Ultimately… Nothing of consequence happened. Leonard was never convicted of anything. We don’t know where he is today.
Have They No Shame? moment: Just months after the original charges against Leonard and Foeller were made…
…Leonard and Foeller’s wife, Shelly, were honored by the Christian Law Association during Hammond First Baptist’s annual pastors’ school, which drew thousands of delegates, for Christian courage in defending “trumped-up” charges and “lies” against them, their families and their church.FBI asked to join child sex abuse probe
Munster (IN) Times
May 15, 1993
Are you surprised that Leonard is yet another in a seemingly endless line of Hyles-Anderson graduates busted for kiddie molestation? If so, you shouldn’t be; at this point, we’re started to think Hyles-Anderson should start issuing Bachelor of Child Molestation diplomas along with the rest of its phony-baloney “degrees.”
Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Leonard:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!— Isaiah 14:12
