A Howard Circuit Court judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the case of a Baltimore County pastor charged with sexually abusing an underage parishioner in three Columbia hotels.
“I reluctantly do so, but I do not believe this can be cured,” Judge Diane Leasure said.
Gerald Fitroy Griffith, 40, of the Redemption Christian Fellowship Church, still faces a series of other criminal cases in Baltimore County involving three other youths who allege the pastor abused them in the past five years, according to court records.
Neither Assistant State?s Attorney Lisa Broten or Griffith?s attorney Joseph Murtha would comment on the mistrial. The case is set for motion hearings in Howard County on April 13.
The trial collapsed after the man, now 18, whom Griffith allegedly abused between May and September 2004, responded to a defense attorney?s question by saying, “But that happened in Baltimore County!”
The state alleges Griffith, of Bowie, sexually abused a 15-year-old boy in three different Columbia hotels on separate occasions between May and September 2004.
Griffith told the youth?s mother he was taking him to his house for the weekend, according to court documents.
The youth, who helped out at the church and was a parishioner from the time he was 5 years old until he was 16, began counseling sessions with Griffith in 2003, with his mother?s knowledge.
He told police Griffith had been counseling him for behavior problems, such as “messing with too many females” and “just acting up.”
Griffith at one point approached the boy and told him that he was “struggling with a homosexual spirit and that the Lord had shown Griffith how to confront it,” according to court documents.
Baltimore County Police charged Griffith ? whom many in his congregation have dubbed “The Apostle” ? with multiple counts of sex abuse of a minor, fourth-degree sex offense and assault in November 2005. That case is ongoing.
