A pastor was acquitted of sexual assault charges – then he got nabbed by an underage prostitution sting

A Virginia Beach pastor was charged in an underage sex trafficking sting after he was previously acquitted of sexual assault charges.

Pastor John Blanchard was arrested late last month after allegedly trying to arrange a sexual encounter with someone he thought was underage, in a two-day sting that also busted 16 other individuals, reported WVEC-TV. A woman who previously accused Blanchard of assaulting her when she volunteered to work on his Rock Church website is now speaking out.

"He ended up being found not guilty, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen," said his accuser, Jenna Sellers. "It did happen to me. Church leadership knew and decided not to remove him from his position."

Sellers served in a number of roles at the church, and she recalls Blanchard showing up to her home unannounced with gifts for her and her family, and she said he then insisted on rubbing her shoulder over her objection in one 2018 incident and then allegedly assaulted her.

"I'm thinking, 'This is bizarre, what is going on with Pastor John? Does he not think this is wrong?'" Sellers said. "Then he made a move on me and he totally disregarded my 'no' and did really inappropriate things to me."

Sellers was shunned after accusing the pastor of abuse, and Blanchard even sued her for defamation after his acquittal, as he did to another member of the church.

"[Church members] were forbidden from speaking with me," she said. "I lost an entire support system. Every single one of my friends that I spent the last eight years with... I had to walk away from."

The church said Bishop Anne Gimenez and Blanchard's wife Robin would lead the church after the 51-year-old pastor's arrest, but that Facebook post was later removed and then the account was deactivated.

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