Prison term meted in Meigs church sex case

December 12, 2005

By Patti Dozier The Times Enterprise Mon Dec 12, 2005, 10:59 PM EST

THOMASVILLE — A Thomasville man was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison in a mid-April case that involved sex at a Meigs church.

Kent Flounory, 38, 814 N. Spair St., was charged with child molestation. He entered a guilty plea to enticing a child for indecent purposes, statutory rape and tampering with evidence.

Flounory returned to the crime scene and cleaned it shortly after the incident, Pascal Autrey, acting supervisor of the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division, said Monday.

Thomas County Superior Court Judge Harry Jay Altman’s sentence calls for Flounory to spend 10 years on probation after completing the prison sentence.

Flounory, who was released on a $5,100 bond in April, was being held at the Thomas County Jail, pending transfer to the state prison system.

The incident took place Friday, April 15, at Morningside Baptist Church on Collins Street in Meigs.

The victim, 13 at the time of the incident, told Thomas County Sheriff’s Office investigators she was enticed to the church by a man she knew as “Ken.” The teen said Flounory lured her into the church as she passed by.

The sex act took place on the men’s room floor, the girl told investigators in April.

A relative who had been looking for the teen found her at the church and took her to the Archbold Memorial Hospital emergency room. An April sheriff’s office incident report shows Flounory went to the hospital looking for the child.

After processing the church and interviewing the girl, sheriff’s office investigators and Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents determined Flounory’s identity.

The teen told officers the sex was consensual.

Flounory, who contacted the sheriff’s office the night of the incident and surrendered, was charged with child molestation because the girl was not of age to give consent.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 220.