Pastor at former President Jimmy Carter’s church arrested on child sexting charges
‘If you plan to come to our community thinking you will be meeting a child to engage in unlawful activity, keep in mind you may be greeted by these officers instead’ said police
A pastor who served at the same Georgia church attended by former President Jimmy Carter has been arrested and accused of involvement in a child exploitation ring in Florida.
Jeffery Summers, 52, a father of four, allegedly attempted to meet with a 14-year-old boy to engage in unlawful sexual activity on March 7, police say.
Officers managed to track down Summers and others involved in the child sextortion ring by posing as minors online, reports WALB News.
“The defendant knowingly used a computer, the internet, or a cell phone to solicit a child whom the defendant believed to be a 14-year-old male with the intent to engage in some form of unlawful sexual activity with that child”, according to the incident report seen by WALB.
At the time of his arrest, Summers also worked with children at the Horizon Elementary School in Port Orange, Florida.
Baptist News Global reports that Summers, a graduate of McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, is married with four children.
Port Orange police said that officials at Horizon Elementary and the Volusia County School Board “have been made aware and are taking appropriate action.”
Summers preached at the Maranatha Baptist church in the town of Plains, Georgia, for eight years, from 2005 to 2013, according to Baptist News Global.
Maranatha Baptist is the same church where former President Jimmy Carter volunteered as a Sunday school teacher and where he was a congregant for most of his life.
Carter, who died at the age of 100 in December 2024, was celebrated as “a man compelled to live in the footsteps of Jesus, with hands of peace and a heart of love for all of Creation,” according to a statement from the church.
Summers, meanwhile, he is facing charges of obscene communication with a minor and traveling to meet a minor after using a computer to lure a child along with the obscene communication of a computer to solicit/lure a child, according to the Port Orange Police Department.
He was charged alongside 15 others in an extensive sting operation earlier this month led by the Port Orange Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit. Other law enforcement agencies were involved in the operation.
Operation Full Throttle in Volusia County saw the group of men charged with an array of child exploitation-related offenses – most of which were conducted via messaging online.
Anyone with additional information is urged to contact the Port Orange Police Department via Detective Nugent at 386-506-5894.
“If you plan to come to our community thinking you will be meeting a child to engage in unlawful activity, keep in mind you may be greeted by these officers instead”, a statement provided by Port Orange PD to WALB read.
The Independent contacted Port Orange PD for information.