A former Lake Forest church pastor pleaded guilty Friday to sexual battery and other charges involving four congregants and is expected to be sentenced to two years in prison next month, his attorney said.
Sean Patrick Aday, 39, of Lake Forest was a youth pastor at Grace Community Church in Lake Forest when he attacked the women either on church grounds or a trip overseas, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Aday, who is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 9, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sexual battery and two misdemeanor counts of touching an intimate part of another person, according to court records.
Aday accepted a plea deal from prosecutors in which more serious charges of rape, forced sodomy and sexual penetration by a foreign object were dismissed, according to defense attorney John Barnett.
“We felt this was an appropriate resolution to the case,” Barnett said.
Aday could have faced up to 29 years in prison had he gone to trial and been convicted.
— City News Service