Key Highlights
- His sentencing hearing is tentatively set for 15 January in the latest high-profile instance of religious abuse in the New Orleans area. Authorities who investigated Martin, the pastor of Chalmette’s First Pentecostal Church, spoke with several alleged molestation victims of his.
- But the jury in his case heard from just two of them, and the charges on which he was tried pertained to only one. That victim’s attorneys – John Denenea, Richard Trahant and Soren Gisleson – lauded their client for testifying against Martin even as members of the institution’s congregation showed up in large numbers to support him throughout the trial.“That was the most courageous thing I’ve ever seen a young woman do,” the lawyers remarked in a statement, with Denenea saying it was the first time in his career he and a client of his needed deputies to escort them out the courthouse.
- “She not only made sure he was accountable for his crimes – she has also protected many other young women from this convicted predator.”Neither Martin’s attorney, Jeff Hufft, nor his church immediately responded to requests for comment. The documents containing Martin’s criminal charges alleged that he committed felony carnal knowledge, Louisiana’s formal name for statutory rape, by engaging in oral sex with Denenea’s client when she was 16 in about 2011.
- The indecent behavior was inflicted on her when she was between the ages of 15 and 17, the charging documents maintained. A civil lawsuit filed against Martin in parallel detailed how he would allegedly bring the victim – one of his congregants – out on four-wheeler rides and sexually abuse her during breaks that they took during the excursions. The accuser, now about 30, reported Martin to Louisiana state police before he was arrested in March 2023.
- Other accusers subsequently came forward with similar allegations dating back further.
