Youth pastor impregnated 14-year-old, recorded sexual abuse of other kids, TX cops say

A former youth pastor accused of “regularly” sexually assaulting children in his home will now spend decades in prison, Texas authorities said.

Marvin Scales, 53, was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Sept 23 after being found guilty of multiple counts of sexual abuse and sexual assault of children, Ellis County District Attorney Ann Montgomery said in a Sept. 25 news release.

The investigation began in August 2023 when Waxahachie police were alerted that a 14-year-old girl was in labor and Scales was “overly involved” in her delivery, according to the district attorney. A DNA sample obtained from the baby confirmed Scales was the father of the child, authorities said.

Police soon learned there were additional victims, who they said were children in his congregation. Authorities did not disclose the name of the church where Scales served as a pastor.

“Scales regularly took the congregation’s children on overnight trips, and he would have the children sleep over at this house,” prosecutors said. “Victims disclosed that Scales would regularly have sex with them on these trips and overnight stays. Scales is already a registered sex offender.”

Scales, of Waxahachie, had a security system installed in his home and the alleged sexual assaults were recorded, according to the district attorney. He kept the recordings, which led police to find more victims.

Montgomery said Scales will not be eligible for parole. She referred to the case as “unusually heinous.”

Scales was already listed on the Texas Public Sex Offender’s website. According to the website, he had sexual encounters in 1998 with an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl.

“We commend the bravery of the children who came forward to ensure that no other child suffered due to Scales’s abuse, and our hearts are with those children who could not speak out,” Montgomery said in a statement. “With this sentence, justice is done for all of Scales’s victims. We hope now they, and this entire community, can begin to heal.”

Waxahachie is about a 30-mile drive south from Dallas.

This story was originally published September 26, 2024 at 10:12 AM with the headline "Youth pastor impregnated 14-year-old, recorded sexual abuse of other kids, TX cops say."