ChristianShame.com

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Over and over again Thursday, Sandy Martin Cook denied any sexual impropriety with three teenage boys in the 1990s while he served as pastor for the Shrewsbury Church of God.

Each time defense attorney James Cagle asked him about the allegations made by the alleged victims, Cook, 49, shook his head and denied them in no uncertain terms: No, never, absolutely not, not once.

“I preached against that,” Cook said when asked about a particular homosexual act.

Cook is charged with multiple counts of third-degree sexual assault and sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian.

During the trial in Kanawha Circuit Court, three men – Michael “Andy” Lewis, Jose Strickland and Michael Bradley – have testified that Cook molested them when they attended Shrewsbury Church of God as teenagers in the 1990s.

Cook said he first led services at the struggling church in 1988, when the congregation consisted of seven elderly members. Saddened by the thought of the tiny church closing, Cook spent more and more time in Shrewsbury, eventually becoming the church’s full-time pastor, he said.

Cook left the doors of the church’s so-called “Old Parsonage” unlocked – “I’m from Wyoming County,” he offered as an explanation – and church members, including teenagers, came and went freely, he said.

That ended, though, when his mother and ailing father came to live with him in March 1991, he said.

Cook and his mother moved to a doublewide trailer next to the church referred to as the “New Parsonage” in 1994. Cook acknowledged that Bradley had spent the night there, although he denied that Strickland had ever been an overnight guest.

At Cook’s mother’s suggestion, Lewis moved into the trailer at the age of 15 in 1995, Cook said. At the time, Lewis was scared of his attic bedroom, which was painted black with ghosts, in his parents’ new house, Cook said.

Lewis, now pastor at the New Life Center in Cedar Grove, lived in the New Parsonage until he and Cook were married to women in a double-wedding ceremony on Dec. 11, 1999, Cook said.

“Andy asked for us to be married together,” Cook said.

“In those years, it was great,” he said of his relationship with Lewis. “He was like a son to me.”

Eventually, the relationship soured, which Cook attributed to Lewis’ desire to take over as pastor at the Shrewsbury Church of God after Lewis moved back from Pennsylvania in 2004.

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CITED FROM:

http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200902261272