Convicted sex offender on the run for 20 years found living new life as pastor in Alabama
Police say they have found an absconding sex offender, who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for sexual misconduct, working as a pastor at a Baptist church in Alabama.
FBI agents arrested the convict, identified as 75-year-old Larry Albert Flake, in Birmingham, where he had assumed a new identity as a minister of music, under the name Larry White. He was posing as a minister at Evergreen True House of Prayer MBC, Belleville News-Democrat reported.
Flake was convicted of sexual misconduct with a minor in Indiana on Aug. 30, 2001, Richmond Police Department said in a statement.
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Federal agents had been looking for him ever since he failed to appear for the trial about 20 years ago.
Flake, who had been working as a minister of music for 10 years, was known in the community as the Rev. Lawrence White, True House of Prayer Pastor Willie Perry told WVTM, adding that he had become “part of this family.”
“When people are on the run, they only allow you to know so much about them,” Perry said. “Because if they allow you to go too deep, or they go too deep, you’re going to find out who they are.”
Perry added: “I would say to my congregation I am so sorry that you had to wake up … to this kind of thing. I pray to God, that I don’t care how long God keeps me here or replaces me with somebody else, don’t you ever, don’t ever let anybody misuse you. And I pray that you forgive me, that my congregation forgives me, that God will forgive me.
“I would say to Rev. White, I love you, I will pray for you, but I am glad that you have been caught,” Perry said. “You won’t get the chance to do this anymore.”
Flake was accused of raping a 15-year-old girl while she was on her way to meet friends, according to the Birmingham News.
He had been sentenced to 25 years in prison in Indiana — 10 years for the sexual misconduct charge and an additional 15 years as a habitual offender.
