Reverend Strick Strickland, 36, is pastor at Kalamazoo’s Second Baptist Church. His wife Jazmonique Strickland, 25, was a paraprofessional at Phoenix High School in Kalamazoo until she resigned. After a lengthy four-month investigation by Michigan State authorities , several sources confirmed that detectives found Strickland had paid teenagers to engage in illegal intimate acts at his family’s home. The home is owned by Second Baptist Church. Strickland has been pastor their since 2012. Authoriti:4.0: 9 No no no talk about youes located four alleged victims, one of whom was 14 years old at the time. All were under 17. A fifth person came forward with a similar allegation. “At this point, with everything we have done, we believe that it occurred over a period of time on more than one occasion’” Strickland called the allegations against him and his wife “absolutely 100 percent false.” “Wow,” Strickland responded when an investigator detailed the accusations against him and his wife. The pastor and former President of the Kalamazoo chapter of the

NAACP vehemently denied all of the accusations formed against him. He said that his home was a place of refuge for young people. “There are 40 or 50 young people who’ve been in and out of my house,” Strickland said. “I am not afraid to talk about any of my activities with adolescents. … My home is a safe haven for kids in the neighborhood," he continued. "It’s really unfortunate your whole life can be destroyed by things you can’t respond to." The pastor, who came to Kalamazoo from a church in Mississippi, said that he cannot address fully the allegations, due to him needing to get council from is lawyer. The investigation isn't the pastor's first rodeo with negativity. . In a totally unrelated case, Donnovan Lewis, a man who was convicted of fatally injuring his girlfriend, told authorities that he fatally injured his girlfriend Aniya Mack. He chose to do this because he found out that she had an intimate relationship with the married pastor.