NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Police arrested a Norfolk pastor for sexually assaulting a member of his congregation.
Pastor Troy Edwards of Portsmouth was taken in custody this week from his church, Greater Emmanuel Ministries.
Edwards was indicted by a grand jury in May.
The 57-year-old Edwards was escorted out of his church Wednesday by Norfolk police. Edwards was charged with sexual assault and kidnapping.
Court documents obtained by 10 On Your Side cite an incident that took place in July 2018. On May 1, a grand jury charged Edwards with sexual penetration of a person who was not his wife and of kidnapping with the intent to defile.
In an exclusive interview, Vanessa Edwards, who serves as co-pastor of Greater Emmanuel Ministries, told us she first heard of the allegations directly from the victim in 2021 and removed her husband from the pulpit as a result.
“I didn’t find out it was being done until 2021 when they [victim and family] sat on this porch and told me that he had assaulted her [victim], offended her, or something and that’s when I found out, two years later,” Vanessa Edwards said. “He [my husband] didn’t deny it. He didn’t deny the fact that he spoke to her out of turn. Like I said, I wasn’t there, I don’t know.”
Edwards told us she felt betrayed by the family who pressed charges.
“They were one of the best families in my ministry,” Vanessa Edwards said. “They really were. That’s what hurts so bad. All that’s been said is fabricated. Some of it lies, some of it truth. Two years you said he was making passes at you. My opinion about it was you should have stopped it from the very beginning.”
We asked Vanessa Edwards if she thought her husband was capable of the allegations against him.
“No. No. No, I don’t,” Edwards said. “Right now, I’m just waiting to see what way God is going to tell me to handle it.”
Edwards is currently being held without bail.