Councilman Turns Down Child Molestation Plea Deal: ICYMI

A Kennesaw city councilman and former mayor on trial for child molestation turned down a plea deal which would have seen him spend the next 15 years in prison, according to a report.

Leonard Church would have been sentenced to 30 years, with half to spend in prison and the rest to spend on probation, a Cobb County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson told the Marietta Daily Journal. A guilty plea would have also meantaccepting responsibility for the crimes he is charged with.

Church stands accused of fondling a 7-year-old boy while showing him pornographic images during May of 2014, according to an indictment filed against him in January. Leonard Church is facing one count of child molestation, one count of aggravated child molestation, and four counts of sexual exploitation of children.

The indictment claims Church possessed child pornography as early as 2006, including five images of young girls’ genitals and one image of a young boy’s genitals.

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 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.