🌎 Resumen en español · traducción automática
Un pastor de jóvenes de Lincoln County que se confesó con la policía estatal de Kentucky hace dos semanas por mantener una relación sexual con una menor de 17 años de su grupo juvenil ahora enfrenta cargos federales de seducción en línea de un menor, con una pena mínima obligatoria de 10 años de prisión. Jason Coulter, de 48 años, trabajaba como vendedor de seguros, director de funeraria y pastor de jóvenes en la Iglesia Pentecostal Green River, y según su confesión, conoció a la víctima a través del grupo juvenil de la iglesia, iniciando comunicaciones inapropiadas por TikTok y Snapchat que duraron aproximadamente mes y medio entre abril y junio. Además de los cargos federales, Coulter enfrenta cuatro acusaciones estatales incluyendo sodomía de tercer grado y posesión de material que retrata actividad sexual de menores.
Traducción y resumen generados por IA a partir del artículo en inglés. Puede contener errores; consulte el texto original.
A Lincoln County youth pastor who called Kentucky State Police two weeks ago to confess to a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old in his youth group now faces a federal charge that carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint Thursday, Aug. 28, in U.S. District Court in Lexington charging Jason Coulter, 48, of Lincoln County, with online enticement of a minor under 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b), according to an FBI affidavit sworn before U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward B. Atkins. The statute makes it a crime to use the internet or a phone to persuade or entice anyone under 18 into sexual activity. A conviction means at least 10 years and up to life in federal prison.
The federal case comes on top of four state charges Kentucky State Police filed Aug. 17: third-degree sodomy, possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, promoting a sexual performance by a minor, and procuring or promoting the use of a minor by electronic means. WKYT and LEX 18 reported he was booked into the Pulaski County Detention Center.
He called police on himself
According to the affidavit by FBI Special Agent Bethany Harmon, Coulter phoned Kentucky State Police on Friday, Aug. 14, and said he wanted to confess to crimes. A trooper met him at his home. Coulter said he worked as an insurance salesman, a funeral director and the youth pastor at Green River Pentecostal Church, a 105-year-old independent Pentecostal congregation on Ky. 698 near Hustonville.
Coulter told the trooper he met the girl, identified in the filing only as “Minor Victim 1,” through the church youth group. He and his family took her to dinner a few times and “tried to help her out and encourage her,” the affidavit says. The two began talking regularly on TikTok. Coulter said the girl encouraged him to download Snapchat, and they began messaging there too.
For about a month and a half — from late April or early May 2026 until mid-June — Coulter said he sent “a lot of vulgar text messages,” received pictures from the girl and sent her some of his own. He told the trooper they met for sex twice: once after school at Anderson-Dean Park in Harrodsburg, in Mercer County, and once in his vehicle in Lincoln County after a funeral the girl had helped him with, around May 2026. They talked about meeting again and “planned to meet a few times but it never worked out,” the affidavit says.
Coulter said that after the youth group attended a summer camp in the third week of June, he “felt bad about his relationship” and stopped messaging the girl about sexual matters, though they kept talking.
The girl’s account matches
State police interviewed the girl on Monday, Aug. 17. She said Coulter was her youth pastor, that she had attended the church for about a year, and she described two sexual encounters — the first at a park in Harrodsburg in late April 2026, the second in his vehicle near the church after a funeral she helped with. She said nude images were exchanged over Snapchat and TikTok for about a month.
KSP seized both phones and obtained search warrants for the devices and for both Snapchat accounts. Those results were still pending when the affidavit was signed, the agent wrote.
The affidavit says the enticement occurred “while in the Eastern District of Kentucky,” which covers Lincoln and Mercer counties along with Fayette. The federal complaint is the first step in a federal prosecution; a grand jury indictment typically follows within 30 days of an arrest on a complaint.
Kentucky’s age of consent is 16, but state law makes sexual contact with a 16- or 17-year-old a crime when the adult holds a position of authority or special trust over the minor — a category that expressly includes clergy. The federal statute applies to anyone under 18 regardless of state consent law.
No attorney is listed for Coulter in the federal filing.
Sources
- Affidavit in Support of a Criminal Complaint, In re Jason Coulter, No. 5:26-mj-03194-EBA (E.D. Ky. filed Aug. 28, 2026), Doc. 1-1 (CourtListener / RECAP)
- 18 U.S.C. § 2422 — Coercion and enticement
- “Lincoln Co. youth pastor arrested on charges stemming from inappropriate relationship with teen, state police say,” WKYT (Aug. 19, 2026)
- “Lincoln County youth pastor charged with sodomy, child sex crimes after confessing to KSP,” LEX 18 (Aug. 2026)
- The Green River Pentecostal Church — official site
- KRS 510.020 and KRS 532.045 — incapacity to consent; position of authority or special trust (Kentucky Revised Statutes)
This article was drafted with AI assistance (Claude Fable 5) and reviewed and finalized for publication by The Lexington Times. It is based on the FBI affidavit filed Aug. 28, 2026 in support of a criminal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky (No. 5:26-mj-03194-EBA), and on prior television reporting of the Aug. 17 state charges. The minor is not identified in the filing and is not identified here. A criminal complaint is an allegation; Coulter has not been convicted of any charge.
