Maitland pastor resigns after investigation into sexual harassment allegations

MAITLAND, Fla. — The senior pastor of a Presbyterian church in Maitland has resigned after an independent investigation found problems with the way the church handled sexual harassment allegations.

Pastor Jeff Jakes of the Orangewood Church and School had been lead pastor since 2002.

Harassment allegations against Jakes from the late 1990s spurred the investigation. He was the youth pastor at the time.

An 18-year-old intern claimed he made inappropriate comments and those allegations surfaced again recently, so the church hired an outside company to investigate the claims.

Jakes has since resigned from the church. His resignation follows an independent investigation by a group his church hired called "Grace" that looks into allegations of abuse or misconduct in religious organizations.

The allegations that spurred the investigation came from Katherine Snyder, who was an 18-year-old intern with the youth group during the summer of 1998 when Jakes was the youth pastor.

Other church pastors were informed that year and recently, Snyder has been speaking out about it on social media.

According to the report, she claims Jakes "made repeated sexual advances toward her" -- especially during a mission trip to Mexico -- saying things, such as he wanted "to hold (her) in bed with no clothes on" and "total intimacy."

She reported the language was never graphic and he never physically abused her, but after her father complained at the time, an associate pastor told investigators doing the report that Jakes admitted in 1998 he told the teen, "I think I like you too much. You are special, but I love my wife."

In an interview for the new report, Jakes said he recently sent an apology to the former intern, but it was because he felt he confused her and he "denied having any romantic, sexual, or physical thoughts or intentions" toward her.

The investigation found that there was credibility to her statements over the years about what happened while she was an intern at the church and the totality of the information "underscores the weaknesses in Pastor Jakes' present day denials."

The report found church leaders failed by not reaching out to Snyder in 1998 to learn what she had to say.

In a letter to the church, Jakes wrote in part, "Though I strongly disagree with many of the accusations made against me and the conclusions the Grace report made, my heart breaks for those who have been hurt."

Investigators also learned students made allegations of abuse against a former coach in the mid 1990s that were never reported to authorities.

Church leaders are evaluating the report and recommendations and said that they grieve for anyone who reported that they were hurt under their care.

Cox Media Group