Jeffrey Turner Taylor, the former youth minister at Falls Church Episcopal whose alleged abuse of boys in the 1990s and early 2000s was first exposed by a church-commissioned investigation in 2024, appeared in federal court in Alexandria on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to seven counts of child sex abuse.** A trial date has been set for 16 February 2027 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Taylor, 66, of Milford, Ohio, had been arrested on 14 Sept 2026 after a federal grand jury indicted him following an FBI investigation. He faces three counts of coercion and enticement, and attempted coercion and enticement, of a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity — each involving a different alleged victim — and four counts of traveling out of state with the intent to engage in illegal sexual activity with a minor under 18. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 105 years in prison.

Taylor served as youth minister and director of adult discipleship at Falls Church Episcopal from 1990 to 2002, one of the most prominent congregations in the Washington region. In the autumn of 2023 the Falls Church Anglican — formed when the Falls Church Episcopal’s conservative majority departed from The Episcopal Church — commissioned an independent investigation into Taylor’s conduct. The 86-page report, released in April 2024, found that three Falls Church Episcopal youth group members were allegedly sexually abused by Taylor in the 1990s or early 2000s, and that eleven male youths reported he had questioned them about their masturbation habits while six said he had discussed the size of his penis or theirs.

The DOJ’s announcement noted that “of the conduct known to investigators, Taylor’s alleged sexual grooming and abuse spanned from at least 1990 until 2008.” 

The case continues.