Councilman Pleads Guilty to Child Molestation (Update)

Kennesaw City Councilman Leonard Church has pleaded guilty to child molestation charges, according to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.

The former mayor pleaded guilty to two counts of child molestation and four of sexual exploitation of children, DA’s Office spokeswoman Kim Isaza told Patch. A charge of aggravated child molestation was reduced to molestation as part of the deal.

Church fondled a 9-year-old boy while showing him pornographic images during May of 2014.

Prosecutors said in an October hearing that Church possessed more than 300 images of child pornography and around 100 pieces of sexually suggestive but legal images of children.

Church had earlier turned down a plea deal that would have seen spend less time in prison than he currently faces.

“In these cases, in addition to an appropriate sentence, one of our primary concerns is protecting the child victim from having to testify,” Assistant District Attorney Hannah Palmquist said. “In this case, the child has been given the justice of having the perpetrator admit to the acts in a court of law and has also been spared from having to relive the events on the witness stand.”

Church was sentenced to 40 years, with 18 to serve behind bars, Isaza said.

Church served as the Mayor of Kennesaw between 2000 and 2008, and was on the Kennesaw City Council at the time of his arrest on charges of child molestation in late June of last year.