A Houston preacher who was caught on television arranging to meet a 13 year-old girl for sex has claimed it was all an innocent mistake.
Ira Baltor, pastor of the Pentecostal Evangelical Reformed Victory (PERV) church, was caught by Dateline MS-NBC in May after he arrived at the West Houston home of what he believed was a young nude girl. After being confronted, Baltor claimed he was there to counsel the girl, and to "introduce her to Jesus".
Police arrested Baltor, and he was later released on bond of $25,000. He has maintained his innocence, and continues to minister as senior pastor of the "megachurch" he founded in the early 1980s, after a failed career selling burial spaces and a losing battle with alcohol.
In a statement posted on the church website, Baltor adamantly says he will continue to counsel promiscuous young girls, saying he feels that his "duty is to help them, regardless of the legal consequences."