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Caleb Steven Roberts, 26 (Photo courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n
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Nearly three months after being confronted at a Palatka drug store, a former Putnam County youth pastor was arrested Wednesday in Central Florida amid accusations of communicating with someone he thought was a child and trying to meet the supposed minor in person.<\/p>\n
Caleb Steven Roberts, who resides in Marion County but pastored the youth at Victory Church in East Palatka, is charged with traveling to meet a minor, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, transmission of harmful materials to minors by an electronic device, and soliciting a child or a person who is believed to be a child for unlawful sexual conduct using a computer or electronic device, according to the Putnam County arrest warrant.<\/p>\n
The warrant states Roberts, 26, must have no unsupervised contact with minors.<\/p>\n
On March 30, the vigilante investigative group Operation 17:2 confronted Roberts in CVS, 201 State Road 19 in Palatka, accusing the suspect of traveling to meet someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl, according to the group\u2019s Facebook page.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matt Newcomb, Palatka\u2019s assistant police chief, said that until Operation 17:2 officials met Roberts, the suspect wasn\u2019t on the Palatka Police Department\u2019s radar, given that he lives in Marion County. However, Newcomb said, that changed after the vigilante group\u2019s encounter with Roberts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was not an ongoing investigation by our agency,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took us some time to be able to get all the information (after our investigation began).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Detectives needed to verify all the evidence Operation 17:2 gathered and get enough probable cause to obtain an arrest warrant for Roberts, Newcomb said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Circuit Judge Alicia Washington, who is based in Putnam County, signed the arrest warrant June 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roberts was arrested at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the AMC Highwoods 20 movie theater, 18002 Highwoods Preserve Parkway in Tampa, and booked into the Hillsborough County Jail at 11:54 a.m., according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was released on $55,000 bond at 12:16 a.m. Thursday, according to Hillsborough County records.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Operation 17:2\u2019s confrontation in March led to the suspect\u2019s parents \u2013 Victory Church Pastor Steve Roberts and his wife, Angie Roberts \u2013 stepping down from their leadership roles at the church, according to a Facebook post from the church on April 27.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to state plainly that there is no place in the Body of Christ for sexual misconduct or the abuse of trust in any form,\u201d the church\u2019s Facebook post stated. \u201cSuch actions are contrary to the character of Christ and inconsistent with the values we are called to uphold as His church.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur commitment remains to be a safe, Christ-centered community marked by truth, accountability, compassion, and care. We are prayerfully reviewing our practices and leadership processes to strengthen safeguards and ensure those who serve are equipped to care for and protect others well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The church\u2019s leadership team said their hearts are with anyone who has been affected by the accusations against Caleb Roberts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo our community, we humbly acknowledge the pain this has caused and ask for the opportunity, with the Lord\u2019s help, to rebuild trust,\u201d church officials wrote on Facebook. \u201cIt remains our desire to reflect Christ faithfully and to walk in truth, humility, and love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caleb Steven Roberts, 26 (Photo courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office) \u00a0 Nearly three months after being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-319935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}