Accused Youth Pastor's Case Goes to Grand Jury

By Kimberly Lenz Thursday, November 19, 2009

Sex charges against a popular York County youth pastor will go to a grand jury in January.

Jeremy "Jack" Ryan Duffer, who had served as an associate pastor at Seaford Baptist Church since January 2007, has been accused of 18 felonies - 17 counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of taking indecent liberties. The charges stem from encounters with two teen-age girls at unspecified locations in York County over the past 18 months.

Duffer appeared in York-Poquoson Juvenile and Domestic Relations court Thursday morning, wearing leg irons and a Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail-issued orange jumpsuit. During the brief appearance Duffer waived a preliminary hearing, which sent the charges to the grand jury and potentially the circuit court. The grand jury will convene January 19, 2010.

There was no evidence presented at Thursday's hearing.

Duffer, who is 40 and joined Seaford Baptist in January 2007 as its youth minister to lead a busy program, was first arrested Aug. 13 on single charges of taking indecent liberties with a child and contributing to the delinquency of a child. Those charges, Ivey said, pertained to a single "consensual sexual encounter." that occurred between July 24 and Aug. 8 at an undisclosed location in York County. Eight days later, he was arrested again on additional charges related to a second teen.

Duffer has been held without bond at the regional jail since his second arrest August 21.