The former pastor of a Southern Baptist church near Houston, Texas has been sentenced following his conviction as a child molester.
Steven Bratton was arrested in 2019 after charges of child sex abuse were made against him. Steven Bratton was found to be molesting a teen relative between 2013 and 2015. He was later convicted of the crimes in court after pleading guilty to "aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14."
Bratton was a pastor at Grace Family Baptist Church in Cypris Station between 2008 and 2019. The pastor stepped down from his role after confessing his inappropriate sexual contact to the local pastors and to his wife. In the days after, his fellow pastors reported the crimes to the local sheriff, who immediately arrested Bratton. He was later excommunicated from the church and no longer allowed to perform ministry as part of the church.
"Several other pastors came forward to tell authorities what was going on after this man confessed to them, and we applaud those people of conscience,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg told local news outlets. “This man, who had risen to a position of authority in the church, turned a child into a victim and violated his community’s trust. The victim and his community deserved, and got justice.”
Bratton had previously received media attention when he became a vocal proponent for legislation that would ban abortion and charge women with homicide if they ever had the procedure done. If the bill had passed, it would have condemned anyone who had the procedure to a death sentence.
