Jerod Corbin

Ohio Mennonite church member credibly accused of sexually abusing children

Jerod Corbin (b. 1972) allegedly sexually abused multiple children while he was a guest in their home in the early 2000s. Both Corbin and the victims were at the time part of United Bethel Mennonite Church (UBMC), a congregation in Plain City, Ohio, that is affiliated with the Biblical Mennonite Alliance (BMA).

In 2023, the leadership at UBMC engaged Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) after the public criminal cases of two church members. GRACE investigated how UBMC handled those and other allegations of abuse and in 2024 released the report of their independent investigation.

GRACE investigators found the victims’ allegations of sexual abuse by Corbin to be credible and to meet the evidentiary threshold of the GRACE evidentiary standard. According to the GRACE report, “Corbin worked as a dishwasher at a local restaurant when [Clyde Byler, who later became a UBMC leader,] was the assistant manager… Corbin then served 10 years in prison for aggravated arson or aggravated assault and maintained contact with [Byler] and his wife by calling them while he was in prison.” Corbin reportedly began attending UBMC after he was released from prison in his late twenties or early thirties. He was reportedly part of the youth group and became a member of the church.

According to the GRACE report, three girls, approximately ages 5–12, reported to their mother in the early 2000s that Corbin had touched them sexually. The mother told GRACE that she also questioned two younger daughters, approximately one and three years old at the time, and they also reported that Corbin had touched them inappropriately.

Clyde Byler, who was then the lead pastor at UBMC, reportedly learned of the allegations of abuse and met with Corbin. Byler and the victims’ parents told GRACE that Corbin admitted to the allegations upon being confronted. Corbin (then approximately 30 years old) allegedly said he abused the girls because he was bitter that their parents wouldn’t let him date their 14-year-old daughter.

“Two of the reporting victims describe that their father and Corbin and [Byler] met together for several months but the victims were unaware of the focus of the meetings. According to the reporting victims’ mother, [Byler] wanted the victims and their father to meet with [Byler] and Corbin so that Corbin could apologize, but the victims’ mother refused to allow this.”

Byler told GRACE, “We set up parameters then that he’s not going to be around anymore. But we didn’t even think about reporting [to law enforcement].” The family told GRACE that they understood they shouldn’t talk about the abuse and that they were concerned about Corbin going back to jail. One of the victims and Byler each told GRACE they don’t remember anything being communicated to the congregation. “After the abuse disclosures, according to multiple witnesses, Corbin continued to attend UBMC.”

Another UBMC family reportedly “adopted” Corbin into their family “because they sought to befriend those who needed friends.” A woman from this family reported to GRACE that when she was 12–13 years old, Corbin touched her inappropriately under her skirt. This reportedly happened after UBMC leadership had learned of Corbin’s prior abuse, did not inform the congregation, and allowed him to continue attending the church.

[One victim] “described her frustration with [Byler] that Corbin did not receive any consequences for his abuse and that others weren’t protected, stating, ‘You did this to so many of us, not directly, but because you let these men get off with meetings and nothing else and they just kept on being part of the community, they did it. How many victims did you allow to happen because you just didn’t?'”

[Another victim] “describes similar emotions, as it being ‘very upsetting’ that Corbin was able to continue accessing families within UBMC and victimize another young girl … after UBMC leaders had learned of the abuse of her and her sisters.”

A third victim shared how her experience of abuse by Corbin affected her comfort around men:

“[A]s I got older feeling so uneasy in the presence of men, particularly older men. I mean, generally, it wasn’t with men my own age because that wasn’t my experience as much, but I would get picked up to go babysit for a family of some of our friends, and I would feel so uneasy just riding with him back to his house. He was always completely respectful and courteous, but just that uneasiness that this could happen at any time.”

Multiple victims told GRACE in 2024 that they had recently seen Corbin in the Plain City area. One said that “she saw him at the library and went to hide in a different section.” Another said she regularly saw him out walking and “described that in 2018, she had a sort of breakdown from having to drive by Corbin’s house regularly.”

Editor’s note: Clyde Byler appears in a leadership role in three cases documented by the GRACE report, where he is referred to as “Key Leader.” GRACE notes that Byler “became an assistant pastor in 1997 and served as the lead pastor of UBMC from 1999 through approximately 2013.” Byler subsequently became the lead pastor at Living Hope Mennonite Church, in Urbana, Ohio.

In his role as lead pastor at UBMC in the early 2000s, Byler reportedly learned of allegations of child sex abuse by Jerod Corbin but did not report to law enforcement or notify the congregation. Similarly, in his role as lead pastor at Living Hope in 2017, Byler reportedly learned of allegations of child sex abuse by David George and Paul Edwin George but did not report to law enforcement or notify the congregation.