Judge recuses himself after former youth minister pleads guilty to sexual battery
by: Vivian Nguyen, Mike Suriani
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A judge recused himself in a letter on Tuesday after sentencing a former youth minister and former basketball coach who pleaded guilty to sexual battery of a child.
Judge Andrew Howorth, a retired Circuit Judge, sentenced Lindsey Whiteside to 10 years under court supervision with no contact with the victim or her family. Whiteside received three years of house arrest and seven years of supervision.
“When a judge’s ability to be fair and impartial might reasonably be questioned, whether true or not, recusal becomes appropriate,” said Howorth in his recusal letter.
“…but that’s not going to make anybody happy today, not trying to, not in my job description really, just to do justice and be fair. That’s my job, my whole job,” said Howroth.
This comes after DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton filed a motion to resentence Whiteside last Thursday.
Howorth said that in the Court’s opinion, Barton has been selective and decidedly unnuanced in his portrayal of information in this case.
“The heightened level of public interest in the outcome of this case seems to have occurred, at least in part, as a result of a press conference and other public releases of information in the case by Desoto County Attorney Matthew Barton,” said Howorth.
He said that Barton’s impressions about the case have been parroted not only by internet “influencers” but by numerous, allegedly responsible news outlets who don’t seem to have done their research.
Whiteside, a former youth minister at Getwell Church in Hernando, Miss., and a former basketball coach at DeSoto Central High School in Southaven, Miss., was indicted on one count of sexual battery of a child in December 2024. She was arrested in November 2024 on a sexual battery charge.
D.A. Matthew Barton said she will have to register as a child sex offender.
Barton said the D.A.’s office requested the maximum sentence, which is 30 years.
“We were then left with the liberal judge from Oxford who thinks that child predators shouldn’t go to prison because he’s not scared of them,” said Barton.
“This is the reason why people question whether our institutions actually serve victims. This is the wrong message. It is very, very difficult for a victim of a crime, especially a child to come forward and then to have her voice silenced by a horrible, horrible sentence, miscarriage of justice, makes it even more difficult for future victims to want to come forward and be brave,” said Barton.
Prosecutors say the victim was 14 and 15 years old at the time, and the sexual abuse happened from May 2024 to November 2024.
“We had 64,000 pages of printed out text messages. We had handwritten letters that were on church stationery,” said Barton.
Protestors spoke out at a meeting of the DeSoto County School Board last week after Whiteside was sentenced.
“We are disappointed that Michele Henley’s not here. We would love to hear her speak on her own behalf and tell us why she didn’t renounce that letter. She can still come out and withdraw her support of this pedophile; she can still come out and support our family. You know we will forgive her and support you now, embrace her, but we do believe that she needs to resign from her position,” said Pam Pegram, the victim’s grandmother.
Henley, a school board member, wrote a letter of support before Whiteside’s sentencing. Protesters are demanding her resignation.
Henley declined Friday to voluntarily step down from her position.
On Monday, Ashley Ford, a DeSoto County school teacher at Lewisburg Intermediate School who also supported Whiteside, took a leave of absence, but no reason was given.
An email to parents from the principal at Lewisburg Intermediate stated, “At this time, we wanted to ensure you were aware that Mrs. Ford will be out for an undetermined amount of time beginning Monday, October 20th.”
The email went on to say a certified substitute would be instructing Ford’s class for the time being.
“She’s not going to hurt anybody. This is not going to happen again. I do not condone what she did. However, she’s not a threat to anyone in this community,” Ford said in court.
In a major development, a group called Desoto County Parents for Accountability is asking parents to keep their children home from school countywide on Wednesday, Oct. 22, to get their message of concern across.
WREG reached out to the DeSoto County District Attorney’s Office for a comment, but has not heard back.
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