Peeping Pastor Pleads Guilty To Climbing Ladder To Watch Couple Have Sex

Once a university professor and teaching pastor, a 42-year-old man named Jeremy Grinnell now may only be infamously known as a “peeping pastor.” That’s all because Grinnell pleaded guilty to a surveilling of unclothed persons charge at the end of last year.

According to a piece about the incident from The Raw Story, the former pastor was so eager to watch his neighbors be intimate in the bedroom that he was willing to climb a ladder that was propped against a home and peer into a second story window. The act led to a misdemeanor charge. Although sentencing will not occur until June 26, Grinnell may face a maximum sentence of two years in relation to his peeping charge.

The peeping pastor was only able to spy on the couple once, but it’s anyone’s guess whether he would have been able to continue indefinitely. He returned to the couple’s residence later that evening after spying on them, and that appears to have been a mistake for the pastor. That’s because he was caught by the home’s male occupant who had him arrested and taken from the scene.

Before getting detailed for his stint as a peeping tom, Grinnell was employed as an assistant professor of systematic theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. That’s a division of Cornerstone University, a Christian institution. He was also serving as a teaching pastor at Bella Vista Church in Rockford, Michigan. Unfortunately for Grinnell, both employers have terminated him after getting word of his naughty deeds.

Representatives from his church said the former pastor had been employed there since 2012. However, his history with the seminary extends back much further, especially since he earned his own degree there in 2000. The peeping pastor’s teaching career started at 1999, when he was an adjunct professor.

Although the peeping pastor was initially charged with two misdemeanor counts, he was permitted to plead one count. The main benefit of that is that as long as the former pastor does not commit another crime, he has the option of getting the incident wiped from his record after a five-year period.

If this incident has a lesson to teach, perhaps it’s that people should always make sure their windows are shut before engaging in intimacy, even if they live above the ground floor. Alternatively, store ladders in a garage so it’s more difficult for curious onlookers to gain access. After all, who’s to say there’s not a peeping pastor near where you live, too?

[Image Credit: The Herald/Kent County Jail]