Aztec man, 29, accused of having sex with 14-year-old girl in his congregation.
Wendel Nix, a 29-year-old part-time youth pastor at Aztec Bible Baptist Church, was arrested Thursday on charges that he had raped a 14-year-old girl who belonged to the church congregation, the Farmington Daily Times reported.
Since last weekend, investigators from the San Juan County Sheriff's Department had been investigating a claim by the teen that she and Nix had had a sexual relationship, and by Thursday deputies were convinced a crime had been committed and obtained a warrant for Nix's arrest, the Daily Times said.
The girl told investigators that she had been going to the church for the past year and that over time she and Nix had grown close, the paper said.
Then last month, deputies said, Nix began sending the girl text messages, telling her how good he thought she looked, how well her clothing fit, and then began calling her trying to get her apart from her friends so he could get to know the "real her," according to an arrest-warrant affidavit.
The girl told detectives that the two drove out of town together late last month, when the girl said Nix kissed her but she became frightened and demanded to be taken home, according to the Daily Times.
But after exchanging some more electronic messages, they arranged another meeting and drove toward Navajo Dam, where the first of what the girl described as several sexual encounters took place, the arrest-warrant affidavit said.
The relationship allegedly ended on July 14, when, the girl told investigators, she decided to end it after friends and family members convinced her that it was wrong, the Daily Times said.
Nix was booked into San Juan County Detention Center Thursday charged with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual penetration of a minor and two counts of criminal sexual contact, and bond was set at $300,000, the paper reported.
