A man who was a youth pastor in Franklin for eight years until last summer is facing a felony charge of indecent liberties with a child from an alleged 2016 incident.
According to the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, on Feb. 2, its Special Victims Unit was investigating a sexual misconduct violation, which led to the arrest of Evan Jordan Jensen, age 30.
“During the course of the investigation, it was brought to the attention of detectives that Jensen was a former youth pastor in Macon County and a current employee of a school in Haywood County,” MCSO stated on Feb. 3. “This investigation is still ongoing, so no further information can be released at this time.”
The magistrate’s order lists the date of the offense as Jan. 1, 2016. The offenses section says that on or about that date, the defendant “unlawfully, willfully and feloniously did take and attempt to take immoral, improper and indecent liberties with [child’s name redacted], who was under the age of 16 years at the time, for the purposes of arousing and gratifying sexual desire. At the time, the defendant was over 16 years of age and at least five years older than that child.”
Jensen posted a $20,000 secured bond two hours after booking, according to the Macon County Sheriff’s Office’s web app. Jensen’s first court date is Thursday, Feb. 9, at 9:30 a.m.
According to North Carolina General Statute, felony indecent liberties with a child is a Class F felony, and punishable by a sentence between 10-41 months in prison if convicted. With no prior felony record, Jensen would be faced with a sentence of between 10-20 months, if convicted, according to the N.C. felony punishment chart.
According to the web archives of First Alliance Church’s website, Jensen became the youth pastor of First Alliance in October 2014. Jensen announced during the Sunday morning service on July 17, 2022, that he was resigning from the church, effective after the Aug. 7 services, to take a teaching job at Haywood Christian Academy, a K-12 private school based in Waynesville, and that his family were moving there.
According to Haywood Christian Academy Head of School Kelli Herbert, Jensen was employed at the school from Aug. 1, 2022, to Feb. 2, 2023. When asked if Jensen resigned or was terminated from employment, Herbert declined to further elaborate.
The magistrate’s order lists Jensen with an address in Waynesville in Haywood County.