Lindsey Whiteside, 26, is the former youth minister at Getwell Church in Hernando, Mississippi. In 2024, she was arrested and charged with “sexual battery of a minor child by a person of trust or authority” after she groomed and had sex with a 14-year-old girl over a period of several months.
While prosecutors demanded 30 years, she only received three years of house arrest and seven years of probation, causing an uproar in the community over the light sentence. This also prompted district attorney Matthew Marton to rebuke the judge in the case while declaring:
“She used the gospel of Jesus Christ as a weapon. She used the vulnerabilities of a child who was going through personal struggles to gain access and manipulate an entire congregation. But even worse and more specifically she manipulated a family through an undeniable pattern of abuse that started with several months of grooming and then several months of prolonged and repeated sexual abuse in the worst type of manner.
… I sincerely believe that if this was perpetrated by a man against a young woman that we would have seen something akin to 20 years in prison. I think that she is a benefactor of a very wrong double standard in society.”
The victim and her family may get justice after all, however, as Whiteside was rearrested by federal authorities for transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sexual activity.
If found guilty, she could face a minimum of 10 years in prison and up to life.
2 responses to “Former Female Youth Minister Arrested AGAIN For Child Sex Abuse Charges”
She got off easy the first time because she was female. I wonder if she was also cut a break because she was LGBT. Allowing her to continue in her crimes has obviously been costly.
They didn’t even bother to enforce the house arrest.