The brother-in-law of Pastor Jeremy Pfeil of Accelerate Church in west Texas has been arrested and charged with sex crimes against minors. Last December, Pfeil made headlines for warning congregants that if they spoke about criminal sex charges against someone else—Pfeil’s pastor friend—they’d be “be sniped and taken out.”

On Monday, the Amarillo Police Department (APD) arrested and charged Kegan Abram, 28, with multiple child sex crimes. Abram is Pfeil’s brother-in-law and also a coach and academic monitor at the church-run Accelerate Christian School in Amarillo, Texas.

Police charged Abram with two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact and one count of an improper relationship with an educator and student, an APD spokesperson told The Roys Report (TRR).

According to Jamie Hartwell, a former staff member at Accelerate Church, who spoke with TRR, the school hired Abram in August 2020 and he worked often in the church’s children’s ministry. 

In a statement to TRR, a spokesperson for Accelerate Church said Abram was “instantly removed from all positions” when the allegations “first came to light.” Follow-up questions about Abram’s specific role at the church and length of his tenure went unanswered. 

Last December, a pastor friend of Pfeil’s, James Randolph, also faced multiple counts of child sex crimes.

As previously reported by TRR, Pfeil threatened any church member who spoke or responded to people online about Randolph’s charges. 

“If you still talk to them and listen to them, you’re gonna be sniped and taken out,” preached Pfeil. “Don’t come crying to me later. I’ve warned you and warned you and warned you and warned you!” 

Randolph’s trial for alleged sexual assault of children is ongoing. 

Multiple alleged victims come forward

The charges against Abram came after APD investigators interviewed multiple alleged victims of Abram, according to a redacted criminal complaint obtained by ABC 7 News.

The complaint reportedly stated that Abram forced a child under the age of 17 to touch his genitals on Oct. 11, 2023. Similarly, on November 15, 2023, Abram allegedly forced a girl under the age of 17, who attended Accelerate Christian School, to do the same. 

Abram posted $100,000 in bond on Monday evening and was released from custody, a spokesperson for Randall County Sheriff’s Office told TRR. 

A court date for Abram’s case had not been set by publication time. 

According to Hartwell, who served on Accelerate Church staff until she was fired in 2022 for speaking out, the church has an “insular culture” that’s “dangerous” to members, particularly those with young children. 

Five of the eight staff listed on Accelerate’s webpage are related. Listed as pastors are Pfeil, his father-in-law, Mark Farley, and brother-in-law, Garrett Griffin. Pfeil’s wife, Erin Pfeil, is a worship leader and Griffin’s wife, Farrell Griffin, is the children’s director. 

The staff page for Accelerate Christian School, which was removed on Monday but available via an archived version, lists several of these same people as staff, along with Egan Abram and his wife, Sydney Abram, a teacher.

“Kids are not safe there,” said Hartwell about the private Christian school in Amarillo. “I have six kids, and I still deal with guilt because I had them enrolled there for so long.” 

Hartwell said two of her daughters were in Kegan Abram’s classes during their sixth and seventh grade years.

“They observed his grooming-type behavior in the classroom,” she said. “He was kind of flirty with all the young girls. And he gave one little girl a lot of special treatment.” 

Hartwell did not disclose the girl’s name but said she has communicated with local investigators.

Parents told to disbelieve child reporting of abuse, says whistleblower

Since its inception, Accelerate Christian School has used curriculum from Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), a fundamentalist group based in Tennessee and linked to Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles which was recently exposed in a docuseries. 

Hartwell said ACE staff visited the school to train their teachers on policies related to allegations of abuse. These policies instruct teachers to tell parents not to “take sides with a complaining child.”

ACE also tells teachers to urge parents to give the “school staff the benefit of the doubt” and “realize their child’s reporting is emotionally biased and probably lacking all the facts.”

According to Hartwell, the ACE teaching communicates to child victims that the school won’t take their reports of abuse seriously.

“The kids know that they can’t tell anybody,” said Hartwell about students at the Amarillo school where she formerly volunteered. “There’s no adult there that would advocate for them.” 

Peer-reviewed studies have found false allegations of sexual abuse by children and adolescents are statistically uncommon, seen in an average of only 2% of cases. 

TRR reached out to ACE for a response regarding the charges against the teacher at an ACE-affiliated school, and about ACE policies, but did not receive a response. 

The Amarillo Police Department told TRR that the Abram investigation is ongoing and encouraged anyone with additional information to contact the Special Victims Unit.

Freelance journalist Josh Shepherd writes on faith, culture, and public policy for several media outlets. He and his family live in central Florida.