A pastor and former president of a Baptist State Convention, accused of sexually assaulting a young girl multiple times, has pleaded not guilty.

Robert Stine, 61, is charged with two counts of first-degree child sex assault.

Stine previously worked as the pastor of Midvale Baptist Church in Madison, Wis., led the church’s Kid’s Best daycare program, and served as president of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention.

Stine was first reported to the police in 2021 for touching children inappropriately, according to a News 3 Now Investigation. Yet, Stine wasn’t charged until this past August, when Madison police concluded an investigation and forwarded tentative charges to the Dane County District Attorney’s Office.

Stine assaulted girls at church’s camp

A mother of a girl under 13 years old contacted Madison police regarding sexual assault allegations against Stine in April, according to court records obtained by News 3. She alleged that Stine sexually abused her daughter at a summer camp he operated in 2018 and 2019.

The daughter reported the abuse after she learned about sex education at school, the records report. She shared three incidents involving Stine from when she was nine years old and attending Kid’s Best day camp at Midvale Baptist Church. She alleged that he told her she was “special” and massaged her and touched her inappropriately while having an erection.

She also reported that Stine had the children at the summer camp play a game called “Murder in the Dark.” She alleged that during the game, Stine made her sit on his lap in the dark and do inappropriate things.

“She did not know how to feel about it, and she trusted the defendant as he was an adult,” the mother told law enforcement, court records say.

When the daughter discussed Stine’s actions with a friend who had attended the camp, her friend said she had similar inappropriate contact with Stine.

After this, the records report the daughter told her mother and social workers at her school about Stine’s inappropriate behavior. School officials then contacted child protective services and the girl’s mother contacted police.

Police first notified about pastor in 2021

Police were first notified about Stine’s inappropriate behavior in 2021, News 3 reportado. The Department of Natural Resources and the Middleton Police Department had been contacted by three witnesses who saw Stine doing inappropriate things to a child during a group outing to Devil’s Lake State Park that year.

However, Stine denied the allegations, and police took no further action, according to records from the Department of Children and Families.

It’s unclear how many children have made allegations about Stine, News 3 said. Court records from the 2023 police investigation center around one child but reference another child who had made similar comments. It’s uncertain if those children were the same as the ones witnesses referenced in 2021.

Stine continued preaching despite police investigation

This June, Stine lost his license to operate the church’s Kid’s Best child care facility following an investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and the Madison Police Department, according to News 3.

Despite this, he continued to preach and lead church business meetings sporadically throughout the summer, the investigation found. Videos documenting these facts on the church’s YouTube channel have since been removed.

Stine has since resigned from Midvale Baptist Church, his attorney Chris Van Wagner told News 3 in August.

“Bob Stine denies he did anything illegal or wrong and looks forward to the opportunity to clear his name,” Van Wagner said in a text message to the news agency. Stine didn’t resign, he said, because “he did anything wrong but because he wants [to] spare the church and its members any unnecessary distraction or concern.”

According to a former bio on Midvale’s website, Stine is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has been a pastor since 2007.

Stine resigned his position with the state’s Baptist convention because of the police investigation, Leo Endel, the convention’s executive director told El Informe Roys (TRR) en agosto.

Endel said that state conventions affiliated with the SBC are all working to upgrade their process to address abuse.

The SBC, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, passed a series of reforms in 2022 aimed at addressing the issue of sexual abuse, including setting up a “Ministry Check” website that will track abuse by pastors and creating a toolkit of resources for preventing abuse.

The SBC has also expelled churches that have mishandled abuse allegations.

Un 2019 investigación by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News found hundreds of abuse cases in SBC churches over several decades. A 2022 informe from Guidepost Solutions found that SBC leaders had spent years trying to downplay the scope of abuse in the 13 million-member convention and had mistreated abuse survivors for years. 

At their 2023 annual meeting, Southern Baptists reauthorized a task force that is implementing the abuse reforms. 

Freelance journalist Liz Lykins escribe for WORLD Magazine, Christianity Today, Ministry Watch, and other publications.