Former Logan County Preacher Admits Transporting a Minor Across State Lines to Have Sex

OWENSBORO, KY—A former Logan County preacher has pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to charges of transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sex. In court today, Jody Dewain Lusk admitted his guilt in exchange for an agreed-upon sentence of 10 years in prison followed by 10 years’ supervised release, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Lusk, 36, of Auburn, Kentucky was indicted by a federal grand jury in Bowling Green, Kentucky in April 2010. The indictment alleged that between September 3, 2009, and September 5, 2009, Lusk transported a person under 18 in interstate commerce for the purpose of having sex.

Lusk is in the custody of the Kentucky Department of Corrections in connection with the same incident, serving a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty in Logan County Circuit Court to six counts of second-degree rape and six counts of second-degree sodomy. The sentence includes five years’ conditional probation.

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.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David Weiser and Daniel Kinnicut, and it was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Logan County Sheriff’s Department.

Lusk is scheduled for sentencing July 21st, 2011 at 9am in United States District Court, Bowling Green, Kentucky.