A trial date has been set for a Florida pastor accused of molesting two teen girls in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
The investigation into Pastor David Rowan started in 2017 when the Murfreesboro Police Department “Special Victims Unit” received a referral from the Department of Children Services. In February of 2018, Pastor Rowan was arrested.
Police say that Rowan was in Tennessee visiting when the alleged crime took place 7-years ago in 2014. At the time of his arrest in 2018, he was a pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Milton, Florida.
At the start of the investigation, Murfreesboro Police Detective Michael Yates and lead detective Tommy Roberts drove to Milton, Florida to meet with the accused pastor at his home and spoke with the man for about an hour. A police report filed around the same time of that visit stated, "Both girls made compelling and credible disclosures that Pastor David Rowan had molested them at a local hotel in Murfreesboro in 2014."
Looking back, now retired MPD Detective Tommy Roberts filed a police report in 2018 that showed Pastor Rowan was hired to speak at a church in Rutherford County in 2014. During his visit, Rowan allegedly took two teenage girls out for a hamburger and milkshake, which is when he was said to be alone with the victims. At that point, Rowan would have been 59-years-old and the two sisters who are the reported victims would have been only 14 and 15-years-old.
Apparently, the children and their mother knew the pastor before his visit to Murfreesboro. Detective Roberts reported, "The victims looked up to Pastor Rowan and counted on him for spiritual guidance."
Evidence from the investigation was presented to a February 2018 Grand Jury which ended with an indictment. On February 16, 2018, Pastor David Rowan was taken into custody by U.S. Marshal's and transported to the Santa Rosa County Jail in Florida.
Pastor Rowan was charged with three counts of Rape, two counts of Unlawful Sexual Contact and one count of Sexual Battery by an Authority Figure.
Three years after the arrest of Pastor Rowan, he is still listed on the Faith Baptist Church website as their pastor – and three years after his arrest, WGNS has confirmed a trial date has been set in Rutherford County. The trial is scheduled to take place later this year (2021) on November 19th through December 2nd.
DISCLAIMER: All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The arrest records or information about an arrest that are published or reported on NewsRadio WGNS and www.WGNSradio.com are not an indication of guilt or evidence that an actual crime has been committed.
Original Source:
MPD INCIDENT 17-23216
Rutherford County Courts, Tennessee
Information on the Faith Baptist Church website
