Pastor's Accuser Says Police Waited 3 Years To Make Sex Arrest

One of five women who accused a pastor of touching them inappropriately said on Friday evening that she first complained to police three years ago.

Harley Keough, 72, posted bond Friday night and got out of the Gaston County jail. Police charged Keough earlier Friday with sexual battery involving five women who came to a church food bank for help.

One of the women told Channel 9 Eyewitness News she and a friend visited the food bank at King James Independent Baptist Church in Bessemer City in 2006.

"We went in. She filled out her paperwork and when we got up to go get the boxes for food he got up and come around the table and as I got up he stuck his hand down the back of my pants," the woman said.

The woman who spoke with Channel 9 Eyewitness News on Friday evening said she went to police immediately. She said investigators talked with Keough and told her he denied the allegations.

The woman said she heard nothing further until a detective left his business card at her home this week. She said when she called the investigator, he told her that other women had come forward.

Police said Keough's alleged crimes occurred between 2006 and this year.

"That's taking advantage of a bad situation of someone who is probably desperate like I was," said the woman. "I didn't have nowhere else to go."