Police: Former Township Youth Minister Charged With Sexual Assault Of Teenagers

Shawn Butler.
Photo: Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Update: Butler was found guilty on Nov. 16 of endangering the welfare of a child in the third degree and criminal sexual contact in the fourth degree, according to a press release from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office  

Butler faces five years in state prison when he is sentenced on Feb. 11, 2019. As part of the sentence, Butler will be subjected to Megan’s Law and will be placed on parole supervision for life upon his release from prison, according to the release.

Original Story (Published April 8, 2015): A former youth minister and executive board member of a township church has been charged with sexually assaulting two teenaged girls in separate incidents.

Shawn Butler, 48, of Hillsborough, was arrested April 3 in Millsboro, Del. on one count of sexual assault and two counts each of criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child, according to a press release from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Butler was arrested at a relative’s home by members of the Delaware State Police Troop 7, according to the release.

Butler was released on $50,000 bond and is expected to surrender himself on May 1 to New Jersey authorities, according to the release.

Butler was charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in North Brunswick on various occasions between July 2012 and August 2013, according to the release.

Butler has also been charged with improperly touching a 15-year-old girl in Hillsborough and South Brunswick on a number of occasions between March and June 2014, according to the release.

Butler’s bail on the New Jersey charges has been set at $300,000, according to the release.

Police began the investigation after the 15-year-old victim contacted the South Brunswick Police Department last July, according to the release.

During the investigation, it was determined that Butler served as a youth minister and on the executive board of Eternal Life Christian Church in Somerset at the time of the alleged assaults, according to the release.

In August 2014, Butler was charged with violating his Megan’s Law probation by volunteering in the Franklin Boulevard church’s youth ministry. Butler in 1990 was sentenced to seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a sexual assault charge in Middlesex County, according to court documents.

This is an active investigation, police said. Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Mark Morris of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at (732) 745-4194, or Det. Roger Tuohy of the South Brunswick Police Department at (732) 208-4896.

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