A former Alabama pastor is standing trial for sex crimes this week after a two-year delay. Danny Duane Pitts, formerly of GracePoint Church in Decatur, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sodomy.
Editor’s note: This article refers to reports of child sex abuse that some readers might find triggering and/or disturbing.
The church that Pitts previously pastored has since permanently closed.
According to Decatur Daily, the alleged abuse was originally investigated in 2007 and was revisited in 2021, leading to Pitts’ arrest. Pitts’ trial was originally set for November 2022 but was postponed four times.
The alleged abuse is said to have occurred at Pitts’ home when the victim was 12-13 years old.
At the trial this week, Pitts’ attorneys said that the victim had sought counseling from the church after suffering abuse at the hands of someone else and threatened to publicly accuse Pitts of abuse after he refused to give her money.
The prosecution emphasized that the present trial is criminal, not civil, and thus the victim has no monetary stake in the trial.
The abuse allegedly happened during a counseling session between Pitts and the victim. Investigators say that Pitts began masturbating in front of the victim before having anal sex with the victim.
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An investigator who served as a witness at the trial said that authorities had not been able to corroborate the circumstances of the victim’s claims, saying that the case is a matter of the victim’s “word versus Danny’s word.” The investigator said that this is not entirely uncommon in a case like this.
