A suburban New Orleans religious pastor has been sentenced to 80 years in prison after being convicted of sexually molesting two boys. This marks the third time Terry Reed has been found guilty of abusing minors.
During the state court hearing on Thursday, the mother of one of the victims read a victim-impact statement on behalf of her son, describing Reed as "an utter failure and a sorry excuse for a man."
Jurors found Reed guilty on May 6 of two counts of third-degree rape and two counts of molestation of a juvenile, according to Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick's office.
Reed molested both survivors after gaining the trust of their guardians, taking them into his home in the Jefferson community of Terrytown. Prosecutors established that Reed, under the guise of acting as their pastor, cited biblical scripture to manipulate the youths into believing his sexually abusive behavior was normal.
The verdict in May came after two prior convictions for similar crimes. Reed pleaded guilty in 1997 to indecent behavior with a juvenile and in 2017 to indecent behavior with a juvenile and molestation of a juvenile.
Reed faced up to 40 years in prison on each of the juvenile molestation convictions when he appeared before Judge Ray Steib for sentencing. Steib imposed the maximum after hearing from the mother of one of the survivors, who detailed how she trusted Reed because she had known him since childhood.
She said Reed knew she had been sexually molested as a child herself. She recounted being a single mother living outside Louisiana when she asked Reed for help for her troubled son before he took the minor in. "I gave Terry the opportunity to be the grandfather figure that he long wanted to be," she said during the hearing. Reed's subsequent abuse "triggered the deepest wound of my childhood. I felt profoundly betrayed," she added.
The statement read on behalf of her son said: "It is done. It is over. And I couldn't be more glad." It added, "You disgust me," referring to Reed.
Another dark chapter in Reed's past involved the deaths of two boys, ages 12 and 13, in a hot tub at his home in 2002. Investigators determined the children had been electrocuted but could not classify the deaths as homicide, suicide, accidental, or natural, according to a contemporary news report.
Like much of the rest of the U.S., the New Orleans area has grappled for decades with sexually abusive religious leaders in various denominations. At least five men who served as Catholic priests within the Archdiocese of New Orleans have been convicted of sexually violent crimes, including against children, after the institution filed for federal bankruptcy protection in 2020 amid the financial fallout of a clergy abuse scandal.
In February, in the New Orleans suburb of Chalmette, Pentecostal pastor Milton Otto Martin III was sentenced to seven years in prison after a jury convicted him of molesting a teenage girl.
