Burdened by her secret, one of the victims broke down to her current pastor Jan. 10, 2012, and revealed everything, McGee said. That led to the pastor meeting with Mitten, who admitted breaching “emotional, pastoral and sexual boundaries” but provided no specifics. Police were contacted Jan. 31, 2012; Mitten was arrested three months later.

McGee described how Mitten earned the victims’ trust by using his keen ability to communicate with the church’s youth and becoming an integral part of their lives. He accompanied them to school functions, helped with their homework and braided their hair. He made them part of his family, and they would spend nights at his home with their mothers’ permission.

But the attention eventually progressed to rubbing and touching, which the girls initially discounted. As they grew older, Mitten began talking to them about sex and sexuality, and that evolved into inappropriate touching and various sex acts in a Wendy’s parking lot and on bike rides into the woods, the prosecutor told the court.

The girls told no one, McGee said, because they did not want to forfeit the emotional attention to which they had become accustomed or sever the bond they developed with Mitten’s family.