GALLIMORE INDICTED ON CHARGES PREACHER COULD GET 30 YEARS IN PRISON

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993                   TAG: 9303020284
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
GALLIMORE INDICTED ON CHARGES PREACHER COULD GET 30 YEARS IN PRISON
Henry County preacher Elwood Gallimore was indicted Monday on three felony charges after his admission in court last week that he had sex with a 16-year-old girl.
The charges stem from the 44-year-old preacher's informal marriage last November to Sabrina Simpkins, a Floyd County High School junior and a parishioner at his church.
Gallimore, 44, was indicted on a seduction charge and on two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor.
If found guilty of all three charges, Gallimore could receive 30 years in prison.
"I don't think they have anything to stand on as yet," Gallimore said of the indictments in a phone interview. "They're just trying to push something to charge me with something."
At a pretrial hearing last week in Floyd, Gallimore and Simpkins testified they agreed to marry as Gallimore gave Simpkins a ride home from church last November.
Gallimore, the unordained pastor of the Evangelistic Tabernacle in Bassett Forks, preaches that if a woman accepts a man's marriage proposal, the two are married.
Gallimore also preaches that men can have more than one wife. Gallimore had been married 26 years when he decided to propose to Simpkins.
"The way I look at it, you're legally married when you ask," Gallimore said, "and if it's your wife, I think a man's entitled to have sex with them, or sleep with them."
Gallimore has not hired an attorney, and said he will again decline his right to be represented when he appears in court next week.
Next week's hearing will last only long enough for Gallimore to be advised of his rights. The trial may not take place until early June, said Floyd County prosecutor Gino Williams.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB