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Youth pastor gets prison for sex with teen

A Placer County judge sentenced a Rocklin youth pastor to prison Wednesday for carrying on a sexual affair with a 14-year-old church member.

Jeffery Allen Waisner, 33, of Lincoln, was handed a three-year prison term for a charge of lewd and lascivious acts with a child stemming from an estimated six-month relationship with a female youth.

The then-14-year-old Rocklin victim and Waisner met at a youth group he led as part of the Crossroads Community Church in Rocklin.

On Wednesday, the victim’s mother stood in an Auburn courtroom to describe the pain and damage Waisner has caused her family.

The mother, whose name is withheld to protect the minor victim’s identity, said that Waisner sent her daughter more than 4,000 text messages in one month. She said many of the messages were sexually explicit.

Speaking through tears, the victim’s mother said Waisner convinced her daughter to sneak out of the family’s Rocklin home and go with him on a trip to San Francisco.

She added that Waisner told her daughter he would leave his wife and three children to be with the teen and that he loved her.

“To this day, my daughter still believes that,” the victim’s mother said.

Currently, the now-15-year-old victim lives with an aunt in Southern California where she is undergoing daily therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, the mother said.

“He has caused her emotional damage that will last a lifetime,” the mother said.

When Judge Robert McElhany asked if Waisner would like to say anything, the defendant declined to speak in the courtroom.

Earlier in the proceedings, public defender John Lyman argued for a motion to continue the sentencing. He said Waisner’s wife had filed a restraining order against the victim on behalf of their family and they needed time to attend the hearing. McElhany denied the motion.

Prosecutor Todd Kuhnen said in court that a mandated reporter referred the case to the District Attorney’s Office but did not say who or from where.

Lincoln Police arrested Waisner in September. In February, he pleaded no contest to the charge of lewd and lascivious acts with a child. He will serve three years on parole after he is released and was ordered to pay $200 in restitution. Waisner must also register as a sex offender.

Outside of the courtroom Garland Bell, a Granite Bay attorney representing the victim’s family, said the relationship between the victim and Waisner lasted about six months and that the two had sex “many times.”

Bell said the family has hired him to look into the possibility of a civil lawsuit against Waisner and the church. No lawsuit had been filed as of Wednesday.

“He was a youth pastor at Wednesday night programs,” Bell said. “It was advertised as a very safe place to be.”

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