THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610050207
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 35 lines
A former pastor at Unity Gospel Baptist Church was acquitted Friday on charges that he exposed himself to a 12-year-old girl in 1991.
Circuit Judge Russell I. Townsend Jr. said there was insufficient evidence to show that then-Associate Pastor Fred W. Hill took indecent liberties with the girl on Aug. 13, 1991.
Hill, 46, could have received up to five years in prison if convicted on the felony charge.
Hill still faces trial on charges that he took sexual liberties with four children from August 1989 to October 1995. That trial began Friday. He is charged with four counts of aggravated sexual battery and faces up to 20 years on each count if convicted.
During Friday's trial, the alleged victim, who was 12 at the time, testified that Hill walked out on the front porch of his home on several occasions and exposed himself while wearing a baby-blue bathrobe.
He then stood there and stared as she and a friend played in the yard, she testified.
Hill testified that he was not living at the Chesapeake home at the time and seldom went to the house, which he owned. His wife, Gay Hill, testified that he did not own a bathrobe at the time.
In June, Hill was acquitted on an unrelated charge of taking indecent liberties in Camden, N.C. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
[Fred W. Hill]
KEYWORDS: ACQUITTAL SEX CRIME INDECENT EXPOSURE PASTOR by CNB