A Kennesaw city councilman and former mayor facing child molestation and child exploitation charges turned himself in Friday after being indicted Thursday.
Leonard Leroy Church, 66, was indicted on charges of aggravated child molestation, child molestation, and four counts of sexual exploitation of children by a Cobb County grand jury, Cobb District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Kim Isaza said.
The indictment alleges that Church on or around May 9, 2014, performed acts of a sexual nature against a child younger than 16 years of age. The aggravated child molestation count alleges that Church touched the child in a sexual nature, to the point of causing injury to the child, while the child molestation charge accuses the man of showing the child pornography.
One count of sexual exploitation of children accuses Church of possessing an image last year of a boy engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The other three counts allege that he possessed in 2006 three separate images of girls engaged in sexual conduct. The indictment states that authorities did not know about these images until July of last year.
Church was arrested June 27 on the child molestation charges. The arrest warrant stated that the victim was 9 years old. Church was released from the Cobb County Jail the next morning on a $10,000 bond.
He turned himself in Friday at the jail following the indictment. Bond was set at $20,000 by Cobb Superior Court Judge Robert E. Flournoy III after the district attorney’s office asked that Church be held without bond.
No date has been set for the arraignment.
Church was first elected mayor in 1999 and served two terms.
He was elected to the city council in 2013 and took office last January.
“A situation like this is devastating for all involved,” Kennesaw Mayor Mark Mathews said Friday. “Any actions we might take are unclear until we have more information.”
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