Former Stanley pastor sentenced for assaulting boy - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports

Eau Claire (WQOW) - A former area preacher is going to prison for sexual assault.

Ervin Witmer was a pastor at the Church of the Brethren in Stanley. He resigned after he was accused of having sex with a 15-year-old boy he met in an Internet chat room.

Witmer was sentenced Monday to 1.5 years in prison. For the next 10 years he is prohibited from using the Internet and social networks. He was also ordered to get sex offender treatment.

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NEILLSVILLE, Wis. (AP) -- A former pastor from Clark County has been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for sexually assaulting a boy he met on the Internet.

Dane County prosecutors say 51-year-old Ervin Witmer, of Owen, talked to the boy in an online chat room for gay teens and became aware that he had been sexually abused as a youngster by a relative. He then arranged to meet him at a Madison motel.

Witmer was a pastor at the Church of the Brethren in Stanley until 2011 when will became a district manager for a Christian book distributor. The State Journal says Witmer pleaded guilty in October to one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child. Two other counts were dismissed but considered at sentencing.