LE††UCE PREY
Alphonso Joseph, a 48-year-old Palm Coast resident and pastor associated with several Bunnell churches and spiritual organizations, was arrested Friday and charged with molesting a 15-year-old boy in a vehicle on the Matanzas Woods Golf Course. Joseph himself may have inadvertently attracted sheriff’s deputies to the area: the 911 center had received a noise complaint late the night of July 14. The caller complained of loud music in the direction of the golf course.
A sheriff’s deputy arriving at the scene found a gray Toyota Camry somewhere near or on the course. When the deputy shined a light on the vehicle, it shook, and the deputy then saw two males pulling up their pants. One of them was a 15-year-old boy. The other was Alphonso.The boy told deputies that he’d met Joseph on a dating app that same day, that he’d provided Joseph with his address, and that Joseph then picked him up and took him to the area of the golf course, where Joseph performed oral sex on him, according to Joseph’s arrest report.
Another deputy spoke with Joseph separately. He said he and the boy were “just chillin.” He was shirtless, but he said he had taken off his shirt only because it was hot. But he, too, conceded that he met the boy on Grindr, an app generally frequented by gays, but that ostensibly requires users to be at least 18–a requirement easily circumvented. Joseph said the boy told him he was 18. According to his arrest report, he admitted to engaging in sex with with the boy. That would amount to unlawful sexual activity, a second degree felony.
The pastor is charges with lewd and lascivious battery on a victim 12-16 years of old.
