SAGINAW, MI — The day his trial was to begin, a former Bridgeport church volunteer accepted a plea deal that will require him to be imprisoned.
The man was previously convicted of a similar offense in another state and is currently in prison for abusing a Saginaw County child.
Jonathan S. Russell, 42, on July 9 appeared before Saginaw County Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson and pleaded no contest to 10 counts he faced: two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with victim 13 or younger, four counts of assault and battery, and single counts of second-degree sexual assault, second-degree child abuse, indecent exposure, and accosting children for immoral purposes.
The judge also indicated he would sentence Russell within his advisory guidelines, which have been calculated at 50 to 100 months.
Russell pleaded no contest rather than guilty for reasons of civil liability. As such, Jackson relied on documents to enter convictions on the record.
According to reports obtained by MLive, police began investigating in February 2023 after a person contacted them saying Russell had taken a child into a basement and inappropriately touched him in the spring of 2022.
Russell had access to the child as he was a volunteer youth leader at First Baptist Church of Bridgeport and had been with the church since about 2017.
Police were subsequently contacted by additional parents associated with the church, alleging Russell had given their children gifts, disciplined them against their wishes, and touched them inappropriately while they were at his house.
Over the next few months, the children in question submitted to forensic interviews, the particulars of which were redacted in the acquired reports.
In all, prosecutors allege Russell abused eight children, including a local boy he took to Crawford County. Russell “used his position of authority over the children to get them to trust him,” prosecutors wrote in a bond recommendation.
Police executed a search warrant on Russell’s Saginaw Township home in August 2023. They found him with a pistol and a suicide note, according to prosecutors. Police on the scene petitioned Russell for a mental health evaluation.
Russell in November 2023 pleaded no contest to second-degree criminal sexual conduct in Crawford County Circuit Court. The following February, a judge there sentenced Russell to 38 months to 15 years in prison, with credit for 79 days already served. The judge also ordered Russell to pay $873 in fines and costs.
Russell must also register as asex offender.
Russell moved to Michigan from North Carolina, where in that state’s Henderson County he pleaded guilty to four counts of assaulting a child younger than 12 in May 2016. Russell had been a Little League coach and was accused of pulling down the pants and underwear of four boys and spanking them.
Russell apologized to the children’s parents in court.
“I recognized the misapplication in the sense that these weren’t my children and this wasn’t my place,” he said. “I never tried to hide it from their parents, but I didn’t have their permission either. I’m sorry. I want to seek forgiveness ... I understand the affect it has had on everyone and from the bottom of my heart I did not mean to do any damage.”
Russell claimed he spanked the victims as he was following the methodology of child-rearing book, “Shepherding a Child’s Heart.”
“If you fail to spank, you don’t take God seriously and don’t love your child enough,” Russell quoted from the book in court.
A victim’s mother claimed Russell “used his Christianity in a sick and twisted way.”
A judge sentenced Russell to 60 days in jail and 18 months’ probation.