Correction appended

A youth pastor admitted Thursday to sexually abusing two boys in the Hillsboro congregation of the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.

Dylan Ritterman, 28, pleaded guilty in Washington County Circuit Court to two counts each of attempted first-degree sexual abuse and second-degree sexual abuse.

Circuit Judge Kirsten Thompson imposed the sentence outlined in his plea agreement, which sends him to prison for six years and eight months.

Before the hearing began, Ritterman, who was out of custody, sat in the back of the courtroom with his wife. Later, he joined his attorney, Anne Tracey, at the defense table.

Prosecutor Kevin Barton told the court that the abuse began several years ago, when the boys were in their early teens.

Authorities learned about it last fall when one of the victims disclosed the abuse to his mother, who contacted the state Department of Human Services.

Ritterman abused the boys inside the church, on church grounds, at his home, in his car and in a grocery parking lot, Barton said. The contact included sexual touching, oral sex and an incident in which the defendant pulled down one of the boys' pants and kissed the teen's upper thigh, he said.

Dylan Ritterman

Hillsboro police arranged for a "pretext phone call," in which the one of the boys called Ritterman and confronted him about the abuse, Barton said. In that call, Ritterman admitted to abusing the teen, apologized for it and denied having abused anyone else.

Investigators faced a greater challenge in seeking information from the church.

"This was a worst-case scenario when it comes to a church and a pastor not cooperating," Barton said.

Barton said the church's head pastor first declined to speak with police without a briefing on their investigation, which officers would not provide, and then declined unless his insurance agent could be present.

Finally, the head pastor talked to police and revealed with a "heavy heart" that he had known about the abuse of one of the boys. The teen had told the pastor about the abuse, Barton said, and the pastor told him to document it in a letter. But the boy didn't speak English well and was incapable of writing a letter in English.

In addition to the two boys who Ritterman was pleading guilty to abusing, Barton said, there was also a third victim.

Ritterman's plea deal included the state's guarantee that no charges related to the third teen would be filed.

The prosecutor said he was unsure that his office would have been able to bring those bring charges because the teenager, who is developmentally disabled, wasn't certain about whether the contact began when he was still a minor.

"I wish there were a way to send him to prison longer," Barton said of the youth pastor. "The 80-month agreement is, we believe, the most we were able to do in a bad situation."

The mother of the third teenager, frustrated over the state's decision, fought tears as she addressed the court. She said she believed the abuse of her son began when he was 16.

Before she knew about it, she hadn't doubted the character of anyone in the church.

"That was my church home for 16 years," she said.

But later, she learned: "I could not trust the people in the building."

Ritterman continued to pursue her son's company even after the police investigation began, she said. Her son was last abused in November, she said, after Ritterman had been confronted with the pretext phone call.

The mothers of the other boys also talked about the pain their families had been through. One told the judge the sentence wasn't long enough.

Throughout the hearing, sobs escaped from the gallery, where the victims' family members filled several seats.

When it was Ritterman's turn to speak, he sounded calm.

"There are no words that can fix or express how deeply sorry I am for what I've done," he said. "And my only hope and prayer is that there can be healing and restoration to all parties that have been involved.

"Sorry is not enough to say," he said.

A short time later, a deputy led Ritterman out of the courtroom, his hands clasped behind him in handcuffs. His wife's eyes welled.

-- Emily E. Smith

esmith@oregonian.com

503-294-4032; @emilyesmith

Correction appended May 27, 2015: The prosecutor said the head pastor had prior knowledge about the second victim, not a third. A previous version of this article misstated a comment about the head pastor's statements to police.