The Cocke County Sheriff’s Office says a pastor at Dayspring Baptist Church in Newport is out on bond after being charged with statutory rape.

Forty-year-old Artie Michael Sturm was arrested April 29 on three counts of statutory rape by an authority figure and three counts of aggravated statutory rape.

He posted $150,000 bond the same day.

Court documents say the victim was a teenager at the time of the alleged sexual penetration; they further allege Sturm acted “unlawfully, feloniously, and knowingly” on or around summer 2016 and again from approximately January to March 2018.

Documents place Sturm in a “position of trust, or had supervisory or disciplinary power over” the victim at the time the purported incidents occurred.

He’s due in court for a status hearing for the charges brought against him Monday, May 13 at 9 a.m.