Stephen Kilpatrick, Liberty University, Bible Study Teacher, Alleged Child Sex Criminal
A former Liberty University professor has been charged with soliciting sex from a minor.
Stephen James Kilpatrick, 63, “was arrested and charged with three counts each of taking indecent liberties with a child younger than 15 years old and soliciting sex from a child younger than 15 years old.”
Richmond-Times Dispatch has reported that Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) posted a Craigslist ad as a 13-yr old girl and conversed via text and e-mail for seven months.
Gardner said the conversations were often sexually explicit and Kilpatrick was told the person he was communicating with was a 13-year-old girl in the eighth grade named “Jenny.” Kilpatrick promised sexual acts to “Jenny,” drove to where he thought she lived and told her he’d thought about her sexually while in his office, according to Gardner.
Kilpatrick was a professor of physics at LU during the time of the incident but has since been fired, his family said from the witness stand Tuesday.
Kilpatrick was actively trying to set up a meeting with the girl, Gardner said, and law enforcement officers staged such a meeting in June. When they intercepted Kilpatrick, she said he had cookies and lubrication in his car.
“He had cookies and lubrication in his car.”
Ok, that is so messed up, I can hardly stand it: cookies and lubrication????
The article stated that Sandra, Kilpatrick’s wife, said that her husband has “no criminal history or allegations of sexual misconduct and is a well-written man who used to work as a research scientist for the U.S. government.”
It is very common for criminals to lead double lives; they are able to manipulate and convince people they are fine, upstanding citizens, but in reality, they are deviants. Someone doesn’t turn into a pedophile overnight. But Sandra and other family members throw common sense out the window and hold on to the image they want to have of Stephen, regardless of the evidence to prove otherwise.
Here is the part that raised additional red flags for me:
The couple has been active in different churches they’ve attended and Sandra Kilpatrick said her husband would host small group meetings of church members at their home and help teach small children Bible study.
They’ve been active in different churches? How many churches? They help teach small children Bible studies? Do these churches and parents of these children know about his recent arrest?
And then there’s this:
Kilpatrick’s friends and fellow churchgoers said Tuesday they’d be his support system if he was granted bond. When asked by Pack if his charges surprised them, they all said they were shocked.
Support him how – by trying to get him a lighter sentence? By trying to convince the judge/jury that they’ve known him for years and he’s never exhibited this behavior before?
Ugh!!!
Spiritual Sounding Board 
40 years ago my dad had a friend who was a deacon in a Baptist church. He also “liked” little girls. My dad was a character witness in the first trial. When the second trial (different child) came up a few years later, he realized his friend was a monster, despite all the nice things people said about him. He did not testify.
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Churches need more cynics but the religious hierarchy doesn’t tend to be very accepting of the cynic type.
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Here’s the wayback machine on the department.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180630053238/http://www.liberty.edu/academics/arts-sciences/math/index.cfm?PID=1185
63 and didn’t have tenure means he was something of a journeyman going from place to place, and that, along with multiple churches mentioned, means that the police have a lot of places to look. Hopefully he was caught on his first attempt, and this doesn’t involve a whole lot more victims, but it could get a lot uglier.
A side note; multiple churches in a short period of time can be a sign that someone is “testing the waters” for vulnerability. It’s why smart churches put membership clauses requiring children’s workers to be members for a significant periods of time before working with children. Isn’t at issue yet in this case, but for the record.
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Bike Bubba, Liberty University only grants tenure for law professors.
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Rememer Boz T? Billy Graham’s grandson? He has stated that in all his years as a prosecutor specializing in child sexual abuse, he has NEVER seen a church take the side of the victim. ALWAYS “Rally Round the Perp, Boyz! GAWD SAITH!”
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@Linn:
JMJ/Christian Monist can top that. He related on his blog several years ago that when he was growing up in rural Tennessee, it was an open secret that one of the high-ups (Assistant Pastor? Worship Leader? Organist?) in his Baptist church was a closet pedophile and active molester. When a new family with children joined the church, the Respectable Pillars of the Church would steer them to Pastor Pedo to protect their own children. Protect(TM) as in “Better he rape THEIR kids than mine.”
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That is straight out of To Catch a Predator (“I’m Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC, and we’re doing a series on men who try to hook up with underage teens online…”). Once when the guy got busted, the cops searched his car and found a full-honk “rape kit” including condoms, lube, duct tape, and a weapon. And a couple more carried lube and/or condoms into their surprise meeting with Chris Hansen, the cameras, and the cops.
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Scott; what I should have said, then, is that he’s an assistant professor and not a full professor. They do have a few of those in the math/physics department.
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And don’t the Mathematics department drones look special in their matching polo shirts? Liberty U. is not really known for it’s mathematics department, so can you imagine how nice the matching shirts must be at MIT or Harvey Mudd!
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It doesn’t look like he’s a good professor, either. I wouldn’t have taken his classes with this rating. http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1983059
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Okay, Bike Bubba, I get what you meant now. Thank you for clarifying it for me.
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At your service, Scott, and my apologies for the confusion. Note that JA’s link suggests he wasn’t there very long, either–a review remembered him at the start of his position there. Again, some signs that could be very “interesting”, and hopefully they will not turn out to be so for the sake of those who could have been assaulted.
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Honestly, having a math professor teach physics is generally a really dumb idea. It’s true that much of the higher levels of physics involve higher math, and many physics discoveries have been initially mathematical solutions, but my understanding is that at the higher levels of math, being abstract and detached is a benefit, where the higher levels of physics still involve the understanding that the solution has to match reality.
That said, there are these wacky areas, like quantum and relativity where someone had to turn the understanding of the world on its head, but it wasn’t until the theories could be experimentally verified that they were accepted.
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Not as dumb as having the football coach teach it.
(Which HAS happened.)
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I was a math TA in college, and I could always tell whose elementary school teacher chose elementary ed as a career because she/he hated math. Those young people couldn’t do arithmetic to save their lives. I’d assume some of them had teachers who coached football for the same reason.
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“Not as dumb as having the football coach teach it.”
Sounds like something my high school would have done. Seems they hired football coaches and then decided where to fit them. Guidance counselors, shop, PE, then English. Probably would’ve gone to math, but they decided to fill district administration next.
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What does Boz have to say about all this? Did I miss an article? He is a Liberty University Law professor and seemed to comment about abuse from different organizations, but I never seem to read him condemn anything at LU.
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I don’t know if he has or not in this specific case. Boz is a personal friend. He wouldn’t have a problem speaking out about this man. He spoke out publicly about his own brother who had multiple cases of clergy sexual misconduct. But as far as condemn “anything at LU,” you have to pick your battles when they have your paycheck. On the topic of child sex abuse, Boz does not waiver.
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Paycheck. The most important word in the entire post. Makes me doubt his credibility.
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Oh brother.
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I’m not the only one. When he brushed off my query about any commentary about Bob Gray, from Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, by saying GRACE wasn’t around at that time, I knew I couldn’t take GRACE seriously.
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Where did this angst against Boz come from?
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Regarding why Boz isn’t saying anything about this at this time, there could be two reasons, both of which could be simultaneously true. First of all, Liberty did fire the guy, so arguably they’re doing what’s right. Second, he may be involved in investigating this. I know if I were leading Liberty and had such a case, I’d see if he wanted to help, starting with basic advice.
Regarding TBC Jacksonville, what he was saying is that at the time, he was working south of Jacksonville and had nothing to do with the case, and quite frankly since he’s gone to Liberty, he’s had plenty to do there, too. There is something to say for refusing to speak to a situation you don’t understand, no?
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No angst, Julie. Just an occasional curiosity when scandal hits anyone affiliated with LU.
Jerry Falwell came down to Trinity and called the whole Bob Gray incident a ‘bump in the road’. Even if that was before GRACE, there should have been some comment that Jerry Falwell was wrong to say that. Instead, just the cop out that it was all before his time. And the caveat, “GRACE has no knowledge of Bob Gray case” Misprint included in quote which can be found at link below.
When Pastor G. was arrested for molestation, Jonathon Falwell goes to Richmond and tells them, ‘everyone makes a mistake’! Crickets from GRACE until the verdict came down. Let any other religious leader from any other denomination not affiliated with Liberty say the same thing, and he would publish diatribes against them.
Of course, when Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House, was arrested for molestation, nothing. I’m not even expecting Boz to criticize the abuser in chief currently occupying the White House.
Yes, there is something to say about refusing to speak up about situations: smoke and mirrors and distractions. I just see someone eager to clean up other peoples houses (if they pay the fee) but silence when corruption is at their front door.
https://biblemadness.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/graymatterson/
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I am astonished by the hypocrisy demonstrated here. To call yourself the body of Christ but yet judge one of your own without knowing the full truth is the very reason I struggle with my faith. Instead of bashing someone so desperately in need of help that he was not able to get AND ATTACKING HIS INNOCENT FAMILY WHO JUST WANT THEIR OLD DAD BACK? It brings tears to my eyes that you don’t know the love and forgiveness that can come through Jesus. You got your facts wrong and have hurt purple in the process. I pray God gives you a sense of conviction next time you want to judge a fellow believer without the whole truth.
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AND FOR CHRISTS SAKE HE HAS MULTIPLE DEGREES IN PHYSICS AND HES DAMN GOOD AT WHAT HE DOES BACK OFF MY DAD
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Erin, I’m sorry that your father has put you and your family through all of this. You didn’t ask to have a pedophile for a dad, I’m sure of that. However, trying to defend his criminal actions isn’t going to help him in any way.
OK, which facts did Julie Anne get wrong? Please be specific, because general complaints like this aren’t much help in improving accuracy.
Sorry, but that has no bearing whatsoever on the criminal case against him. It doesn’t change the fact that he had sexually explicit online conversations with someone that he thought was a 13 year old girl. How is his education relevant to that?
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I am as well. I’m sure this is terribly difficult. Sometimes when someone you love has done something terrible, we try to blame other people or ourselves, but ultimately the one responsible is the one responsible.
By all means, if you wish to correct factual details please do so. Quite frankly, people often pop by and vaguely claim that all the facts are vaguely wrong, but they rarely actually are.
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Erin, “To call yourself the body of Christ but yet judge one of your own without knowing the full truth is the very reason I struggle with my faith.”
I have struggled with my faith and it came down to questioning why God would let people who claimed to be Christians abuse me and others close to me. Part of that was being honest about my dad. While I believe he was a Christian his representation of God the Father drove me further from God than closer.
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We have been apart of 2 churches in the last 20 years and he has not been apart of a children’s ministry in about 10 years. My father is a very intelligent man but fits the sterotypical model of a nerd. He has very little common sense or knowledge of the internet. Would any experienced long term pedofile, as you make him out to be, be stupid enough to troll Craigslist? No, he just didn’t have the knowledge to look elsewhere BECAUSE HE’S NOT A PEDOFILE. The bible study y’all may be referring to was when I was 9. The adults meet upstairs with my dad and us kids were down stairs with a babysitter WHO IS NOW A COP. Would they really be sitting silently behind that badge if something hinky was going on? I am not an ignorant person and have always had an ability to see through the bullshit. My father is not a perfect person but he is not a pedofile. He is a imperfect sinner made prefect in the eyes of God. Let the one without fault be the first one to throw a stone.
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His education has everything to do for the ignorant souls who want to criticize his title and job performance without doing their research.
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Okay, I’m doing my research. https://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/ex-lu-professor-found-guilty-of-child-sex-solicitation/article_0a6b139d-8957-55c6-94fa-63dc533b3c5c.html
“At the end of the two-day trial, the jury of seven women and five men returned five guilty verdicts, according to Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Stacey Stickney.
The jury recommended he serve a total of 35 years in prison. He was taken to jail following the trial Wednesday evening, Stickney said.”
You should look up the story of Jimmy Hinton. It is pretty eye-opening how people like his father can hide their actions in plain sight, and a common theme is that they believe those around them are too stupid to see what they are doing. I think the proper term is hebephilia because pedophilia is sexual interest in pre-pubescent children.
This is truly devastating for your family and I hope that you can heal from the trauma your father’s actions have caused for those around, especially you. You bear no responsibility for what he chose to do.
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