Maine:

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A former youth minister at a Lewiston church pleaded guilty to a felony sex charge Monday.... Joshua Williams, 23, who formerly lived at 16 Granite St., was scheduled to stand trial in Androscoggin County Superior Court this month on three counts of felony gross sexual assault and three misdemeanor counts of unlawful sexual contact. He agreed to the plea arrangement before a jury was picked for his case. The charges stem from allegations brought by a male teenage member of the First Assembly of God Church. Williams worked at the church from June 2009 to October 2010, according to a church spokesman. During that period, Williams was alleged to have committed the crimes.

Illinois:

Police say a man once convicted of having sexual relationships with teenage girls has been on a high school campus recently. John P. Bitakis, 39, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at his residence, on two counts of being a sex offender in a school zone. Chief Mike Trafton said Bitakis went to Plainfield South High School on Oct. 27 and Nov 3 to pick up his girlfriend’s son for dental appointments.... Bitakis was the youth minister at Bethel Christian Fellowship Church in Oak Park when he was arrested by Chicago police in May 1996. According to reports, Bitakis was in consensual relationships with a 13-year-old girl from January to September 1995 and a 15-year-old girl in March and April 1996. Prosecutors said he would pick the girls up from school, who were youth group members, “drive to secluded locations in the city, fondle them and engage in oral sex.”

Iowa:

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A former Council Bluffs youth pastor accused of sexually exploiting teens as he tried to help them gain “sexual purity in the eyes of God,” pleaded guilty to three charges Tuesday. Brent Girouex, 32, was initially charged with 61 counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist and 28 counts of third-degree sexual abuse related to acts he is alleged to have performed while he was a youth pastor with the Victory Fellowship Church.... Girouex allegedly said as a youth pastor he felt it was his duty “to help (the teen) with homosexual urges by praying while he had sexual contact with him.”