FRANKFORT (Kentucky Today) – Attorney General Russell Coleman announced Monday that action from his office will send a former Lexington pastor to prison on charges related to the rape of a young church member.
Zachary King, 48, the former executive pastor of LexCity Church, pleaded guilty to seven felony counts in Fayette Circuit Court on Monday. King pleaded guilty to Rape First Degree (a Class B Felony punishable by 10-20 years in prison), Sodomy First Degree (Class B Felony), Unlawful Use of Electronic Means to Induce a Minor to Engage in Sexual or Other Prohibited Activities (Class B Felony), Unlawful Transaction with A Minor First Degree with a Victim Under 18 (Class C Felony with a 5-10 year prison term), Rape Third Degree (Class D Felony with a potential 1-5 years behind bars), Sodomy Third Degree (Class D Felony) and Sexual Abuse First Degree (Class D Felony).
The victim, who attended King’s church, was a minor at the time the abuse occurred. According to court documents, King restrained her on one occasion to rape and sodomize her and on at least one other occasion raped and sodomized her. A Fayette County Grand Jury indicted King in August 2024.
As part of a plea deal, King received a recommended sentence of 13 years and must register as a lifetime sex offender. He has also been ordered not to have any contact with the victim for the next 10 years and will not object to a renewal of that no contact order.
“This so-called pastor’s abuse of his position of spiritual trust to prey on a young victim was heartbreaking,” said Coleman. “We are sending this predator to prison to protect more Kentuckians from horrific abuse.”
The Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) investigated the case with support from the Lexington Police Department. Assistant Attorneys General Todd Willard and Amanda Morgan prosecuted the case. Erica Paske, with the Attorney General’s Office of Victims Advocacy, provided services to the victim.
King is scheduled to be sentenced June 4 at 11:30 a.m.
