Three pastors accused of exploiting and abusing teenage girls were indicted this week on federal child sex trafficking charges in Toledo, Ohio.

The men, Kenneth Butler, 37; Anthony J. Haynes, 38; and Cordell Jenkins, 47, were charged with conspiracy for child sex trafficking as part of an 11-count indictment handed down on Tuesday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio said. The three men pleaded not guilty.



They are accused of sexually assaulting a girl beginning in 2014, when she was 14, through 2017. Some of the abuse is thought to have taken place at hotels and at Greater Life Christian Center in Toledo, where Mr. Haynes was a pastor and used his telephone to record the sexual assaults, prosecutors said.

Mr. Haynes gave the girl money and told her not to tell anyone, saying it would ruin his family and his church, according to court documents. He “facilitated” the victim being abused by several other men, including Mr. Jenkins, who repeatedly sexually exploited the girl at his home, in his office at Abundant Life Ministries, and at a motel in Toledo, prosecutors said.