A judge has rejected a plea agreement that would have imposed a two-year jail term on a suburban Philadelphia pastor accused of having raped and impregnated a teenage girl.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Judge Jacqueline Cody called the circumstances "way too serious" to accept the deal with Chester County prosecutors in the case of 34-year-old Jacob Malone.
The girl told authorities that Malone, who worked at nondenominational Calvary Fellowship in Downingtown, began to sexually assault her in the fall of 2014, when she was 17, and she gave birth to his daughter a year ago.
The now 21-year-old woman said in a statement Wednesday that Malone took advantage of her "mentally, physically, spiritually." Malone apologized, saying he betrayed her trust and that of thousands of other people.
