DUNLAP, TN (WRCB) -- A Sequatchie County pastor is charged with having sex with an inmate.
Before his arrest, Charles Rawlins didn't have so much as a traffic ticket on his record. Some locals refuse to believe it, but police say otherwise. In an interview with the TBI, Pastor Charles Rawlins admitted to having sexual contact with an inmate.
"I know people that go to the church there, they say he's the finest man they've known, just shocked, hate to think it is true," said Dunlap resident Steve Harmon.
According the affidavit, it is true. Charles Rawlins admitted to having sex with a female inmate on four different occasions this year at the Sequatchie County Food Bank which he started years ago.
Rawlins who pastors the Covenant Fellowship Center with his wife, works with the Sequatchie County Jail Ministry Program.
"We as Christians should set the standards and show other people Christ through us, so it's very disheartening to hear something like this," said Sharon Neighbors a concerned Christian.
Neighbors isn't a member of the Covenant Fellowship Center, but she like everyone else we talked to feels for Rawlins' family, and church members.
"He's supposed to be teaching us the right way, and he goes out and does something like that. That confuses a person if they're just learning, trying to follow the right steps. Well if my minister can do it, I can do it," said Stewart
The TBI said that they were investigating Rawlins for sexual contact with an inmate.
They were rushed to make an arrest when a witness said Rawlins made a threat by saying, "bad things happen to bad people."
Stewart said it's just tough to trust anyone these days, but she said she's not going to judge, it's not her job.
"There's only one judge and one judge only. We ain't got the right to judge him, just the good lord up above can. But it's not giving a good example of God's people," said Stewart.Â
