Scottsdale pastor resigns after admitting to sexual misconduct
Apr 27, 2018, 10:28 AM | Updated: Apr 28, 2018, 11:51 am
(Instagram Photo/highlandsaz)
PHOENIX – A senior pastor at a Scottsdale megachurch resigned this week in the wake of a newspaper story detailing allegations of sexual misconduct.
Pastor Les Hughey stepped down from his position at Highlands Church after admitting to inappropriate relationships with staff members at a Modesto, California, church more than four decades ago.
“Over 40 years ago, as a church intern in California, I sinned and harmed the most important relationships in my life,” Hughey, 64, said in a statement to The Modesto Bee after the newspaper contacted him about the allegations.
“I was unfaithful to my God, my wife, the ministry, and was rightly removed from that church. I engaged in consensual relationships with fellow college-age staff.”
On its website, Highlands Church said it accepted Hughey’s resignation on Wednesday.
Hughey was a founder of the nondenominational church, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The congregation moved to its current location on 21 acres at Pima and Pinnacle Peak roads in north Scottsdale in 2003.
On April 21, the Bee reported that four women said Hughey sexually abused them when he was a youth pastor at Modesto’s First Baptist Church in the 1970s.
According to Highlands, church elders first became aware of the allegations when Hughey told them about the story before it was published.
The church placed Hughey on indefinite leave after the story came out.
While investigating the case, the church said it learned about additional alleged incidents that occurred more than two decades ago when Hughey was a youth pastor at Scottsdale Bible Church.
Highlands said it hasn’t received any reports of sexual abuse by Hughey during his time there, and the church will continue with a third-party investigation into his actions.
Tracy Epler told the Bee she was a 17-year-old virgin when Hughey, then 23 and married, initiated a sexual relationship with her.
“I was a good little girl and he was a powerful youth pastor,” Epler told the newspaper. “I knew I had to comply. And I knew it was wrong and I felt terrible but I didn’t know what to do about it.”