Former Baptist Minister Sentenced to 12 Years’ Imprisonment

HAMMOND, IN—United States Attorney David Capp announced that Jack Allen Schaap, 55, of Crete, Illinois, was sentenced by Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano to 144 months’ imprisonment and five years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

According to documents filed by the government in this case, Schaap, as the pastor of Hammond Baptist Church, superintendent of its schools, and a trusted advisor to the victim and her family, involved himself with counseling the victim, a then-16-year-old church member who had been identified by an administrator at the school as vulnerable. Once their sessions began, Schaap met with her for longer durations and with increasing frequency over time, beginning with a few hours per week in April and May 2012, to semi-weekly in June and then daily or several times a day in July. Schaap encourage the victim to view him as not just her pastor but also as her friend and finally, love interest. Schaap’s phone records revealed that in one month’s time, he and the victim spoke on the phone or texted one another approximately 662 times. He also arranged to have the victim transported to Illinois and to Michigan so they could spend extended periods of time alone together. The government recovered photos taken at his property in Illinois and inside a cabin in Michigan that depicted Schaap and the victim in intimate poses.

This case resulted from an investigation by members of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Indiana State Police, and the Lake County Sheriff’s Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jill Koster and Susan Collins.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.