Local

Former pastor, teacher arrested on child sex charges

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. — A former Winter Springs teacher and pastor was arrested again, said investigators on Tuesday.

In August, 47-year-old Jimmie Blake was charged with the sexual battery of a boy who was reportedly assaulted between 1998 and 2002, officials said.

The judge dropped those charges last month, but prosecutors are trying the case again with a new strategy, WFTV reporter Kathi Belich learned.

Investigators said Blake faced a Seminole County judge on Tuesday afternoon on six charges of molesting a teenager when Blake was a teacher's assistant at Lyman High School.

Police said the victim, who is now in his late 20s, told them one of the assaults happened in a school bathroom.

A Sanford police report said Blake threatened to kill himself and the teenager if the boy told anyone.

Last month, a judge dismissed the original two charges against Blake, stemming from the same alleged incidents from 1997 to 2002, ruling the deadline for prosecuting him had long passed.

But prosecutors are trying again, hoping a change in the law in 2003, which lifts deadlines in those types of cases, will keep the Blake case alive.

Blake was arrested at his Sanford home Monday afternoon. Blake is being held at the Seminole County jail on a $25,000 bond.

Blake is suspended with pay from Winter Springs High School, officials said.

He was a pastor at the Morning Glory Church in Seminole County.

Blake's father told WFTV he believes his son is innocent.