A former pastor of a Baltimore megachurch indicted earlier this year on child sex abuse charges was captured this week in Florida.
Eric Anderson, 80, is being held without bail in Manatee County and is fighting extradition to Massachusetts, where the Greater Grace World Outreach church was headquartered when the abuse took place, according to the Baltimore Banner.
Anderson was reportedly living in Virginia with his son, Jesse Anderson, who was previously convicted of molesting a boy in the church but did not serve any prison time, before he was arrested in Florida. Massachusetts State Police detectives tracked him down using license plate readers, the Banner said.
He faces two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.
The indictment four months ago followed a expose in the Banner of decades of sexual abuse and cover ups at the church, which was previously known as The Bible Speaks. The Banner’s article included information from accuser Erika Slater, who accused him of multiple incidents in the spring of 1980 when she was in first grade and he was the school principal.
Slater traveled to Massachusetts last summer after the Banner’s series was published to file a police report. She told the Banner she was grateful he was being held without bond.
The Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office did not confirm that the charges against Anderson came from Slater’s police report, but they did say that the incidents took place in 1980, WJZ said.
Anderson did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment, but his wife had previously said he called the allegations “total garbage.”
The church, which opened an “independent investigation” of the allegations after the Banner’s series was published, said in a statement that it encouraged anyone with information about Anderson to reach out to the church or to the Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.
According to MinistryWatch, the church previously revoked the credentials of two of its pastors in April as a result of the investigations.
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[Featured image: Eric Anderson/Manatee County Sheriff’s Office]
