Gerald Champ

Texas Mennonite church member convicted of sexual abuse of a child and sentenced to life in prison

In 2022, Stanley “Gerald” Champ (b. 1970) was convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and sentenced to life imprisonment by a jury in Kaufman County, Texas​. Champ was a member of Grays Prairie Mennonite Church, Scurry, Texas, a congregation affiliated with the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church​​.

Champ’s crimes took place over multiple years and involved multiple victims, including at least one who testified at trial that the abuse began when she was five years old and continued until she was nine​​. Prosecutors established that Champ used his position in the church to gain access to children and sexually abused young girls in his home​. The trial evidence detailed forced sexual acts, grooming, and manipulation, with testimony indicating that Champ’s pattern of abuse spanned over a decade​. Prosecutors suggested there may be additional victims in other states, as Champ had been assigned to work in multiple locations by the church​.

The primary survivor in the case, referred to as Jada (a pseudonym), testified that her family moved to Grays Prairie because “[t]hey believed it would be a safe place to raise their children.” Jada told the jury that Grays Prairie was not a safe place because “they protect predators, the church does,” and Champ “sexually assaulted” her “numerous times” when she was between five and nine years old. She described multiple incidents of rape and sexual abuse, stating that she was often forced into submission under the expectation of obeying adults in authority​.

Jada first disclosed the abuse in April 2019 and filed a police report in August 2019​. Law enforcement in Kaufman County, Texas, and New Holland, Pennsylvania, were involved in the investigation​. A recorded phone call between Jada and Champ, conducted in 2020 under law enforcement supervision, was a key piece of evidence in the case. In the call, Champ refused to deny the allegations outright, instead stating he needed guidance from church leaders before responding​. Later, when confronted again, he denied wrongdoing in a manner that the jury later found unconvincing​.

During the three-day trial in August 2022, multiple victims testified, and jurors heard additional evidence of Champ’s prior sexual misconduct, including abuse allegations within his own family​. The jury deliberated for approximately one hour before returning a guilty verdict​.

At the sentencing hearing in September 2022, Jada addressed members of Grays Prairie Mennonite Church (GPMC) in her victim impact statement:

GPMC, you play word games saying you didn’t know Gerald was a predator. And the reason everyone who heard about Gerald’s abuse did not know, is because they did not listen. No one knew, according to your definition of know, because no one handled the reports of abuse properly.

When I came forward in 2019, I was called a liar and was told I only dreamed I was assaulted. This has never been contradicted, retracted, or refuted. Is this the right way or the wrong way to handle disclosures of sexual assault in the Grays Prairie Mennonite Church?

GPMC, you need to realize you are greatly compounding the trauma we suffer by the way you are responding. This, what it took to get here, what we had to go through for our voices to be heard because of the responses of the adults in authority, has greatly compounded the damage we suffer. And it matters.

Jada described the devastating emotional toll of Champ’s abuse:

I first tried to take my own life at seven years old. I felt dirty and violated and to this day I struggle to accept my body and despise my sexuality. I battled depression and self-harm through my teen years and have deep-seated feelings of distrust around men. When I got married, my abuse cast a horrific shadow over what should have been an occasion of pure joy. I told my husband what I never wanted to tell anyone, but I couldn’t even look up at him because closeness wasn’t safe, and trust wasn’t safe.​

On September 1, 2022, Champ was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole​.

Champ later appealed his conviction, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, the admission of testimony from other victims, and the constitutionality of the laws used in his prosecution​. In July 2024, the Texas Fifth Court of Appeals upheld his conviction, affirming that the evidence overwhelmingly supported the guilty verdict​.