Pastor Sentenced for Engaging in Prostitution Blogged About Struggles Following Daughter’s Death
Late last month, an Ohio court sentenced a pastor for engaging in prostitution after police arrested him in an undercover sex sting nearly a year ago.
Aaron Newell, 49, reached a plea deal that says he will not serve jail time but will serve a two-year probationary period.
Newell pleaded no contest and was found guilty of engaging in prostitution and possessing criminal tools.
In February 2022, Newell responded to an ad for an escort agency secretly set up by the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force. On the site, he offered $180 for unprotected sex and arranged to meet an undercover officer at an agreed-upon location.
There, the police arrested him.
Police seized $200 from Newell and the phone he used to arrange the meeting.
Until his arrest, Newell was lead pastor at Niles Christian Assembly.
MinistryWatch spoke to an elder at Niles Christian Assembly, Vincent Stigliano, who described Newell’s arrest as a “shocking event.”
Stigliano verified that Newell is no longer the Niles Assembly’s pastor and said the church immediately suspended his credentials upon hearing of his arrest.
After they got the news, the church board met and determined the decision. Stigliano said the board concluded that while Newell will always be welcome to attend the church, he will not be permitted to return to a pastoral position, even following restoration.
“People were hurt,” he said. “Some felt strongly that he should come back.”
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Stigliano said Newell is making progress.
He and his family are working through counseling to recover from the consequences of the arrest, but also from a tragedy that occurred less than a year before.
Newell and his wife, Joyce, lost their 9-year-old daughter, Josie, in a car accident in May 2021 when Joyce’s car struck a stopped vehicle towing a trailer.
She was the youngest of the couple’s five children.
Newell’s blog, “Walking on Edges,” recorded his struggles.
“…now I’m the one that’s saying…‘Josie wait… don’t leave.’ and there is no sleep…just this yawning jagged hole in my heart and soul, a jar of marbles on the mantle that will never empty, a family screaming at the gates of Heaven please give her back,” he wrote the day after Josie’s death in Not Okay.
After his arrest, in an entry titled, The Elephant in the Room, Newell listed depression and PTSD as driving factors that caused him to seek escape from his pain.
“I wasn’t suicidal, I just didn’t want to exist…I went down a dismal path of self isolation, electronics buying mayhem, and disassociation so huge that I created an alternate world to escape to, anything to get away from the ugly that was real life,” Newell wrote.
In Ink Therapy, last November’s entry, he said he had apologized to many people. “I have done it here on the blog I have done it on the phone and in person. I don’t feel like that’s going to end for a long time. I messed up I failed all those things are true and I live with the regret, shame and consequences. My family lives with the fallout as well.”
Newell continued: “As we all know I did not deal with any of that the way I should have. I fell hard and while that fall had reasons it still is a fall that happened because of my own choices.”
Stigliano said the church came together to comfort the Newells grieving their daughter’s death. “We care about Aaron Newell and his family and pray for healing. But, the church also has a responsibility,” he said.
Newell is ordered to pay $750 in fines plus a $400 probation fee.
During probation, Newell must take a 12-hour education course, perform 20 hours of community service within two months, and make every effort to obtain and maintain employment.
Main photo: Aaron Newell / Faithlife Profile
