A Kenai grand jury has indicted 45-year-old Aaron “Scott” Merritt on multiple sex crime charges, accusing him of sexually abusing four young girls while serving in a leadership role at Kenai’s Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses more than two decades ago.

According to the Alaska Department of Law, Merritt faces 20 separate charges stemming from alleged abuse that occurred between 1998 and 2002, when he was a Ministerial Servant in the church. The indictment includes six counts of first-degree sexual assault, one count of second-degree sexual assault, four counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, eight counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, and one count of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

Police say one report of abuse was made to the Kenai Police Department in 2002

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