Former youth minister pleads guilty to sexual battery of minor
by: Mike Suriani, Sarai Bennett, Vivian Nguyen
HERNANDO, MS. — A woman indicted by a DeSoto County grand jury for sexual battery of a child pleaded guilty on Monday.
Lindsey Whiteside, a former youth minister and basketball coach at Getwell Church in Hernando, 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.
WREG reported in January that, according to the indictment, the incident happened between May and November of 2024, “at a time when Whiteside was in a position of trust or authority over the child.”
“I want you to know that I deceived you. You guys didn’t deserve that. I’m sorry that I didn’t bring honor and respect to your family,” said Lindsey Whiteside.
Judge Andrew Howorth, a retired Circuit Judge, sentenced her to 10 years under court supervision with no contact with the victim or her family. The first three years, she will be on house arrest.
The remaining seven years, she will be suspended on condition of house arrest, followed by five years of supervised probation and two years of unsupervised probation.
District Attorney Matthew Barton held a press conference Monday afternoon to discuss more about the case.
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.
“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.
Pam Pegram, a family member of the victim, said during the press conference that the evidence presented on Monday was vile, evil, and quite honestly just shocking.
He said Whiteside was in charge of assigning where children should sit and sleep on youth church trips, and she would take advantage of her position as a youth minister.
Barton also took aim at Michele Henley, who represents District 2 on the DeSoto County School Board, and wrote a letter of support for Whiteside, a former basketball coach at DeSoto Central High.
“I believe she’s not fit to be on our school board. I’ve given her a letter today demanding her resignation, and I hope she will,” said Barton.
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