DA's office reveals evidence to be introduced in child sex trial

Wesley Logan
Wesley Logan

TEXARKANA, Texas - Prosecutors filed a notice Friday of evidence they intend to introduce at the trial of a local pastor charged with 18 felonies involving alleged child sexual abuse.

Logan Wesley III, 56, was arrested in November on a single felony charge involving one alleged victim. In February, a Bowie County grand jury returned three indictments involving three different girls which list a total of 18 felony counts. First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp filed a notice Friday of the state's intent to introduce other evidence of Wesley's alleged misconduct.

The notice alleges Wesley's wife was aware of his child sexual abuse and attempted to conceal it. Wesley's wife allegedly contacted one of the alleged victims on social media in July 2018 and asked her to keep silent and show "grace and mercy" because "she was worried about what the publicity would do for her son's budding music career and her child daycare business," the notice states.

The notice indicates the state intends to introduce copies of the messages at trial.

The notice alleges Wesley regularly abused young girls, one beginning at age 9, in church vans he could access as pastor of Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ in Texarkana, Ark.

"The defendant, other members of his family and the church have tried to intimidate people into not telling on the defendant and about the sexual abuse," the notice states. "They would offer people money and positions in the church not to tell that the defendant was sexually abusing multiple children."

If a girl tried to disclose the abuse, Wesley allegedly berated and intimated the girl until she recanted, the notice alleges. Wesley allegedly told one of the victims she would "burn in hell" if she did not participate in the sexual abuse and allegedly told another the sexual abuse was "fatherly" and "alright with God."

The notice alleges Wesley regularly abused a relative from childhood and into her adulthood and that if she threatened to tell, he physically assaulted her. Wesley allegedly addressed the bruises and bloodshot eyes on a victim who was living with him with his congregation.

"After that they went to church and the defendant would tell the church that the victim tried to 'jump on him' and he said, 'I'm not going to let some kid run my house.' And the congregation would say Amen," the notice states.

The notice alleges that Wesley drove a 17-year-old girl he got pregnant to Louisiana for an abortion. The notice also includes descriptions of Wesley's alleged misconduct with a former girlfriend and her daughter in 1990.

Wesley was convicted of assault with bodily injury in Lamar County, Texas, for assaulting a former girlfriend when she was pregnant. Wesley allegedly physically assaulted the former girlfriend's teen daughter in 1991 and had to be physically restrained by police during the incident in Paris, Texas.

Wesley's case is currently scheduled for jury selection in May before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell. The trial setting could change in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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