A Newport pastor was arrested last week on charges of statutory rape.

A grand jury returned a presentment charging Artie Michael Sturm, 40, with three counts of statutory rape by an authority figure and three counts of aggravated statutory rape.

Sturm is the pastor of DaySpring Baptist Church, the Newport Plain Talk reported.

He is accused of using his "position of trust or power" to repeatedly sexually assault one teenage girl in the summer of 2016 and from January to March of 2018, according to the presentment.

The victim was between 13 and 18 years old at the time, the presentment says.

In May 2018, the teen revealed in a forensic interview that her preacher had been sexually assaulting her for years, according to a report from the Cocke County Sheriff's Office, which conducted the investigation.

Sturm was booked into the Cocke County jail on April 29, 2019. He was released the same day after a judge reduced his bond from $150,000 to $50,000, the Plain Talk reported.

A status hearing in the case has been set for May 13.