The Lindsey Whiteside Saga

In this episode of Exposed Scandalous Files of the Elite, Jim Chapman examines the case and impending firestorm the sentencing created for Lindsay Whiteside, a former youth pastor charged with sexual battery against a minor in DeSoto County, Mississippi. 

Jim analyzes the single charge filed despite multiple abuses and discusses the manipulative tactics used by Whiteside. The impending sentence which calls to question the motives behind it and the community's response to the sentencing.

Jim also dives deep into the double standards in sexual crime cases and how an elected official became entangled in this ongoing saga.

Follow “Crime Wire Weekly” on it’s new channel HERE:
Apple Podcasts  
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crime-wire-weekly/id1815864889
Spotify 
https://open.spotify.com/show/3zyrgjtW6gLUVbicJaYXV9?si=0dbf4983938344a2
Amazon Music 
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/3738411d-828e-4138-9976-223ab5de2c87/the-crime-wire-weekly

Legal Note:  
 
The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only.  The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any affiliated organizations or institutions. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, we cannot guarantee the completeness, reliability, or suitability of the information discussed.    

The podcast does not constitute professional advice, and listeners are encouraged to seek guidance from qualified professionals regarding any specific issues or concerns. By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge that you understand and accept these terms.  We are not liable for any actions taken based on the content provided in this podcast. 

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/exposed-scandalous-files-of-the-elite--6073723/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of
the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and today I
am bringing you what is a case. I would almost
call it an active case because there's still some things
that are going to go down with this one truly
just wrapped up legally, and we'll get into that. But

(00:37):
before I start, I want to get a short shout
out to my buddy Chad for recommending this one, which
initially became news in DeSoto County, Mississippi, and this has
grown in just the past couple of days into a
national story, and that's where I come in. I have

(00:58):
got to tell you, of all thees I have covered,
this one right here takes the cake bar, none, shocking, appalling,
every other adjective that you can think of. So, as
I mentioned, this particular story took place in DeSoto County, Mississippi, which,
for those unfamiliar, de Soto County is located on the

(01:21):
northwest border of Mississippi. It's just on the outskirts, and
I mean just on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee. Now,
the incidents that I'm about to tell you about more
specifically took place in the Hernando area of DeSoto County.
So let's discuss Lindsey Whiteside, who at the time of

(01:43):
her arrest was nearly twenty six years old. She was
a youth pastor for a church known as Getwell Church.
And Getwell, y'all, is a road it runs. It's basically
a long main road. There's a lot of things on
that road that are named after the road itself. This
church no different in this church was a rather large church.

(02:06):
They have two locations, one of those being in Hernando,
the other one being in South Haven area of Mississippi.
So continuing on, she was also a former assistant basketball
coach for De Soto High School de Soto Central High School. Now,
all that came to an end for Lindsay when she
was arrested and then on December thirteenth of twenty twenty four,

(02:30):
indicted on a charge of sexual batter And while the
indictment was short in length, it was descriptive. So if
you have anyone listening to this with you, especially under
the age of eighteen, or if this type of subject
matter is a trigger for you, here is your warning.

(02:51):
The indictment reads like this. The Grand Jurorsey of the
State of Mississippi, taken from the body of good and
lawful citizens of descetto County thereof duly elected and paneled
sworn in charge to inquire in and for the County
and state aforementioned at the Grand Jury Session aforesaid, in
the name and authority of the State of Mississippi, upon

(03:15):
Barrows present, that Lindsey Aldey Whiteside, of the County and
state aforesaid, which is descetto County, between the dates of
May fourteenth, twenty twenty four November sixth of twenty twenty four,
in the county and state above and within the jurisdiction
of this Court, did wilfully, unlawfully, felonously, intentionally, and knowingly

(03:37):
engage in sexual penetration with m F. And it's just
the initials because obviously this is someone under the age
of eighteen, a child less than eighteen years of age,
by placing her finger in the vagina of MF and
or engaging in conelingis by touching her tongue to the

(03:59):
vagina up at a time when Lindsey Alti Whiteside was
in a position of trust or authority over the child,
in direct violation and it goes into the section. So
that is the indictment of Lindsey Whiteside, and as you
can see, very serious shit right now in that indictment.
One thing that stuck out to me is that she

(04:20):
was only charged with a single charge. And after many
of the facts of this case came out, it was
surprising to me that the DA did not do what
is known as stacking charges. You basically throw the buck
at someone and that kind of starts to force a
plea deal that would become more weighted toward the county. Now,

(04:42):
as we go along in the story, you're going to
gain an understanding of maybe why he did not do that.
The instances of sexual battery occurred numerous times, many times,
yet only that single charge. Now, technically, by law, every
occasion of sexual could have resulted in a separate charge,

(05:02):
at least in my state. Pretty sure it's that way
in Mississippi, but I could be wrong. Let me know
if I am. And what I mean by that is,
if it occurred on let's say, ten separate occasions with
that same female. Technically, in some states, including mine, you
can be charged with ten separate counts, not one count.

(05:23):
Why does this matter? Well, instead of facing up to
thirty years for a single count you're now facing three
hundred years for ten counts. It just gives the state
larger bargaining chips, if you will. But for whatever reason,
that did not happen, and I would be curious to
know why. Just a question. We'll move on. So on

(05:46):
November twenty first, Lindsey Whiteside actually gets arrested and immediately
news of her rest. Now that makes ways throughout DeSoto
County's area. Lindsey was well known in DeSoto County. The
white Side family name carried a lot of weight in
DeSoto County. The Whitesides produced several basketball stars throughout the

(06:10):
year in that county, and Lindsey herself she played college
basketball for Lipscomb University, which is a private college located
in Nashville, Tennessee, and she was gout five foot ten,
long blonde hair, she would stand out on a basketball court.
So it was a natural transition that after high school

(06:31):
for her to go back home and she started coaching
basketball at DeSoto Central High School. She was an assistant
coach there to my knowledge, and then she was also
very active in her church, which was the Getwell Church
in Hernando, Mississippi, which is a Baptist church in that area,

(06:51):
and she was what they called a student outreach coordinator,
which is essentially a youth pastor, a youth mentor, if
you will. Now, this is a major problem when you're accused,
at least as of November twenty twenty four, when she
originally got accused of the things that she was accused of.

(07:12):
Because think of the access to young people that this
girl had, not only with her involvement in employment at
Getwell Church, but also her involvement in employment prior to that,
coaching basketball assistant coach at Desto Central High School. So,
as I said, the white Side family, they have a

(07:34):
lot of stroke in the De Soto County area. They
were well known as a matter of fact, so much
so that two judges, and there were only two circuit
judges in Decetto County, those judges would have to recuse
themselves due to their relationships with the white Side family.

(07:55):
One of them, I believe, went to church with the
white Sides, knew Lindsey very well, and the other one
was friends maybe or had some sort of relationship with
someone in her family. But for whatever reason, they would
accuse themselves, and that would really come into play later
on in this story. Now, the fact that they accused themselves,

(08:16):
I have no problem with whatsoever. I think it was
the right thing to do. The problem you run into
if you do not recuse yourself is if Lindsey Whiteside
is found innocent and then come to find out the
judge went to church with her, which that would come
out right, that opens up a big shot at an

(08:38):
appeal for a defense team. So if you accuse yourself,
you just keep the public's eyes off of the fact
that maybe there was some tomfoolery going on, for lack
of a better word. So we'll move on. Most of
what we know about this case. It stayed under wraps
until about a week or so ago, maybe a week

(08:58):
and a half, And that's especially in cases involving underage victims.
You want to, more than anything else, protect the privacy
of these victims. And I got to say the DeSoto
County District Attorney did a great job, an amazing job
of doing this prior to that conviction in sentencing that

(09:22):
just occurred. Now, what we have learned in the past
week has been nothing short of shocking. So on November six,
of twenty twenty four. The sheriff's office, they get notified
by someone that the miner in this case confided in
them that Lindsey Whiteside was having a sexual relationship with her.

(09:46):
The sheriff's office notifies the DA, and as I told you,
on December thirteenth, she Lendsy Whiteside gets indicted. Now, the
two judges, as I said, they had to recuse themselves.
So the DA at this point has to go outside
of the county to get a judge. And when something

(10:07):
like this happens, the county DA does not just go
pick a judge out there and say, hey man, you
mind coming to DeSoto County and you know overseeing this
trial that we're about to have. They don't get a
choice in that. The judge is actually appointed by the
Mississippi State Supreme Court, and this process is called appointing

(10:30):
a special judge. This is what these judges are known
as special judges. And in this case, the appointed judge
was Judge Andy Howorth and he is from Oxford, Mississippi. Now,
when you have a special judge come in, it takes
a while before these cases can move along. While these

(10:52):
judges are retired and that's important to mention. Special judges
are retired judges. They're not active, they're not getting voted
into office every so often by their constituents. They're retired
and they're kind of doing this as a side hustle,
if you will, and they may be working other cases.

(11:12):
There is a limited amount of them, and that's kind
of what happened in this case. What they could have
got done in five months or so really took double
that amount of time because they had to have a
special judge appointed. Although I will say a case of
this magnitude, especially that involves sexual battery, ten months is

(11:37):
pretty quick, ten to eleven months from start to finish
on a case, and I think a lot of that
was because of the evidence that we're going to get
into that the prosecution had in this case. And let's
talk about the evidence they had implicating Lindsey Whiteside. Here
is what they ascertained through a massive amount of evidence,

(11:58):
over sixty four text messages as well as letters to
the victim from Lindsey Whiteside that were so damning. Let's
put it this way. They were written on church letterhead.
Not a smart moved for this girl. Of course, after
I tell you what occurred in this case, You're going

(12:18):
to understand that she's not a great decision maker by
any means. So they discovered that Lindsey Whiteside started grooming
this kid when this kid was just fifteen years old.
What's that mean? Well, you can ascertain that through these
messages that they went through this sixty four thousand plus,

(12:38):
Lindsey was positioning herself into a position of trust with
this victim. These texts early on would start out simple enough,
with the victim responding yes ma'am, no, ma'am, calling her
miss Lindsey. It was a very professional relationship, if you will,

(13:01):
and Lindsey would slowly get this kid to confide in her.
I mean, this victim was no different than most fifteen
year old girls. And look, I raised twin girls, and
there's some drama with girls when they're fifteen. And this

(13:21):
one she had her own personal struggles, especially as it
relates to her mental health. She had some depression problems, etc.
And she was leaning on Lindsey white Side a lot
about these problems and Lindsey Whiteside would take full advantage. Now,
Lindsey at this point was nine years her senior. During

(13:45):
this grooming stage, and as I said, she would take
complete advantage over the fact that she was nine years
her senior. In this early grooming period, she displayed nearly
every indication of grooming Lindsey Whiteside, every indication that you
could have. First, she would build trust with this victim.

(14:08):
This was displayed by the amount of attention that Lindsey
was getting this child. She would flatter her by saying
things such as, you know, you're my favorite, but don't
tell anyone else because they'll get jealous. And that's another
grooming technique. And that's called secrecy. By the way, when

(14:29):
you act like you're giving when you're grooming someone and
you're insinuating, hey, I'm gonna tell you things that nobody
else knows, that's a grooming technique. Then that progresses to
testing boundaries and she would start having very sexually explicit
conversations over text with this kid, and she would also

(14:54):
then move on to another grooming technique, which is isolation.
Now it's important to mention that on church field trips,
the one who determined these youth church field trips, the
one that determine where people would sleep, where they would
sit on the bus, that was Lindsey Whiteside, and she
would isolate this kid on those bus trips to sit

(15:16):
next to her. And finally, when this kid turns sixteen,
an outright, full blown sexual relationship starts. And let's talk
about that for a second, because laws are different from
state to state. Now, in Mississippi, it's true that the

(15:38):
age of consent sixteen. However, it is also true that
the law in the state of Mississippi, as it is
in many other states, is that a person in a
position of trust or authority can be prosecuted if the
victim is between the ages of sixteen and eight because

(16:01):
they cannot consent, and consent loss can be tricky. For example,
in my state of Louisiana, if you, the listener, goes
out to a bar and you get legally drunk, and
another individual goes into that bar, and let's say they
end up hooking up with you, and let's say the

(16:23):
listener gave that other individual the green light to have sex.
Technically that other individual committed third degree rate because in
the state of Louisiana, someone who is drunk cannot consent,
and in this case, regardless of age, why because they're

(16:43):
drunk decision making is off. So even if they consented
by the letter of the law, they can't consent. You
can go to jail for that. Now that's very rarely prosecuted,
but we have a pretty big case here in the
state of Louisiana right now that covers just that. So
consent laws can be tricky. So for all of you

(17:06):
out there that claim this was a two way relationship
and this girl was all for it. Everything Lindsey was
doing was approved, if you will, by this victim, you
need to learn consent laws. Because regardless of what this
victim allowed, she could not legally allow it. She could

(17:28):
not legally consent according to Mississippi law. And this is
to protect sixteen to eighteen year olds from being sexually
battered by people such as teachers or preachers specifically. And
you can throw law enforcement in there, anyone else with

(17:49):
perceived authority. So this predator, and I'm gonna call her
a predator, Lindsey Whiteside, she would go to some there sickening,
downright disgusting things to get this kid alone. She would
offer to babysit the younger kids at the home, and

(18:12):
she would buy the parents concert tickets for example, which
she did on one occasion, and she would say, Hey,
I got y'all these tickets. Y'all go have a night
on the town, and I'm gonna watch your kids. And
imagine for a second being these poor parents when you
discover that this person you trusted, she was looked at

(18:37):
at this point like family while you're out on a
rare night on the town, was at your home, essentially
turning your daughter out. As they would say in prison.
How awful these people must feel for something they really

(18:57):
would have never expect from this sick chick. That is
a disturbing level of manipulation. Now, in addition to that,
Lindsay was also as essentially the youth pastor of this church,
responsible for a lot of things. And I already covered

(19:18):
she was responsible for where these kids would sit on
a bus when they would travel on the church bus.
And why is that important Because on one occasion, and
again to give you the best picture of how twisted
this girl is, I'm not going to sugarcuat it. On

(19:39):
at least one occasion, while this kid is on the
bus and this bus is full of other kids, it's
full of other church leaders, this monster takes a blanket,
puts it over this kid's legs and and fingerfucks her

(20:03):
right there in the seat. And how do we know
this the text messages? And if that does not tell
you how twisted this girl is, I don't know what
will into those that say, well, the age of consent
in Mississippi is sixteen and she did not know the

(20:27):
whole rule with position of authority aspect of that. To you,
I say this, why are their text messages talking to
the victim to quote make sure she deletes certain texts?
Why are their messages telling the victim I can't message

(20:48):
you from the church computer because the church might call
the police if they see what we're talking about. Now,
I'll tell you why. It's because she knew what she
was doing was not only wrong, it is fucking illegal.
In its tremendous proof for prosecutors in this case. And

(21:12):
these incidents weren't a one off, not that that would
make much of a difference, but they weren't a one off.
These were repeated over and over and over again, not
just a one time thing. She would evolve and suggest

(21:32):
alcohol to obviously try to lower this kid's good judgment. Now,
the district attorney in this case is a guy by
the name of Matthew Barton, and you're gonna hear from
him in a little while. And I gotta say, man,
I like this guy. He has been saying lately what

(21:53):
I have been saying for years on the Bad Teachers
series that I bring you most on a weekly basis.
He said he had the goods and he was willing
to go to trial, and he flat out refused to
cut a deal with Lindsey Whiteside, and y'all, I have

(22:14):
covered thousands at this point of court cases throughout my
career in podcasting. I cannot tell you how rare it
is that a da not cut deals when he has
the goods. And my biggest pet peeve in life as

(22:35):
it comes to the court system is when you have
all the evidence as a prosecutor and you still cut
a deal. So Desato County hold on to this guy.
He's a keeper. He fights for these victims. He doesn't

(22:56):
give up the form just to get a conviction.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Shout out to him, Jim, did you see what happened
in Texas today?

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you
what happened in New York.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
It cannot be as crazy as the case I told
you about yesterday in Louisiana, you.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Know what, we should do a podcast.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
About it, And with that we did. Crime War Weekly
covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
We cover trending crimes from all over the country and
even sprinkle in a few globally.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to
your podcasts.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link
in the description of this podcast. So, in this particular case,
Lindsey Whiteside, she knew she was screwed from the very beginning.

(23:55):
She knew that they had the goods if you will,
and the evidence, and she really couldn't fight the charges.
She knew that a trial would for sure result in
being found guilty. So she does something that I would
consider extremely rare in this judicial environment we have today,

(24:17):
and she pleaded guilty without having a deal in place. Now,
her hope was the judge would be linging because she
is admitting to her crime. Right, she's taken responsibility. He's
going to feel bad for her, and he's going to

(24:37):
like the fact that she did that, and maybe he'd
go easy on her. So on October thirteenth, just a
week and a half ago or so, depending on when
you're listening to this. She has her day of sentencing
now at this sentencing hearing, despite the fact that she
is going to plead guilty, the prosecution, they are still

(25:00):
we allowed to present evidence and their allowed testimony. And
this is so the judge can have all that information
when he imposes the sentence. And one of the people
to testify was the victim herself. And I want to
quote verbatim what Dia Barton said on another podcast, it's

(25:23):
called the Local yokel Shout out to that guy. He
helped me a lot with my research, and so I
definitely want to make sure I shout him out. Go
listen to him if you're interested. Local Yogal podcast. But
he spoke on that podcast about the state of mind
of the victim on this sentencing day, as well as

(25:43):
who this victim was as a person, which I found
even more important. I think it's very important what he said,
and I want you to hear it, so I'm going
to quote that for you. He said, we had the
victim testify. She testified for almost an hour, and that's
unbelievable strength that this young lady had This is the

(26:06):
most brave girl I've ever met, so I told her
before we went to court, I don't know how this
is going to go. The judge can choose anything he
wants technically, but you don't need a judge to pick
a number for you to feel good about yourself. This
girl shines brighter than the midday sun. You can tell

(26:26):
when you sit down with her that she is. And
then he starts to kind of get emotional, and he says,
I'm sorry, I'm getting a little bit emotional. I feel
attached to her and her family. But if you spend
time with her, if you set across the table with her,
she is a pure reflection of what is good on
this earth. And she knows herself better than any other

(26:49):
eighteen year old possibly could because of what she's been through.
She's been to a dark place where she's had to
find some sort of courage and strength in her deep
down that most people never have to dig that far
to find. And that's how she became to know herself,
and that's how she now. She is now in touch

(27:11):
with a strength that can never be taken away from her,
and she is brave and you can tell she has
a strong relationship with Christ. I believe in Jesus. I'm
not the most spiritual or religious person, but I believe
in Jesus, and I believe that it's only through His
grace that someone can become this strong. And I think

(27:31):
she's found a victory in Jesus just by learning who
she is and learning no one can stop her. I
honestly believe that there's nothing in this world that will
ever stop her because of what she's ever come and
the person that she's able to be because of it.
She is loving, she is kind, and she is talented.

(27:51):
She's interested in theater and art. She's very well spoken.
She presents herself very well. She's very easy to talk to,
and she is very relatable. I think the thing that
is so great about her is if you have a
conversation with her, you'll almost immediately feel some sort of connection.
You meet certain people that are just kind of that way,

(28:13):
and she's truly a very special person. And I'm very
proud of her because I've met so many people that
can never do that. Most of the times my victims
begged not to have to speak, but she wanted to speak.
She had to face her accuser in court. She looked
her in the eyes and she said, you do not

(28:33):
have a hold on me anymore. And in that moment
I had chills all over my body because I felt
she was liberated from the control of this defendant had
on her. Now, I'm not saying this is not going
to affect her in the future. There's pain that you
never get rid of. You just learn to put it
away somewhere, you learn healthy ways of coping. But she

(28:56):
is liberating now because she spoke up for herself, even
though the system failed her with the sentence, she will
not be held down by anybody. I told her after
it was over that I honestly feel like she is
a rocket ship at a launching pad and about to
just take off straight up. The trajectory for this girl

(29:17):
is out of this world and I don't think anything
will slow her down. So that tells you a little
bit about who this kid is now. After all that
is done, after all this evidence is presented, and all
these people have testified, and that's again so the judge

(29:39):
when he imposes his sentence, he'll have all the information
right And it's important to mention before I get to
the sentence. That the DA asked for thirty years, the
victim asked for thirty years, and the victim's family asked
for thirty years. This was all they all spoke to
the judge and set in an open core we want

(30:00):
thirty years. So the judge imposes his sentence and get
ready for this. Lindsey Whitehead is sentenced to three years
of house arrest followed by seven years of probation. All
that in spite of having the victim herself testify for

(30:21):
almost an hour at the sentencing. Not a single day
of jail time. And let me cover house arrest real quick.
This ain't you're stuck at your house for three years.
It doesn't mean that. It just means she has to
be home between ten pm and six am every night.

(30:42):
Other than that she can go pretty much anywhere except
a playground, live her life as if nothing ever happened,
have a job, all those sorts of things. She's just
got to be home between ten and six am. Now,
to Da Barton's credit, as I said, he asked for
the math them thirty years. And although some may say

(31:03):
that would have been a little bit too stiff of
an ask, I mean he's been a district attorney a while.
He's been an attorney a while, Yes, for forty. Typically
you're really hoping for twenty, maybe ten, but zero, it's unprecedented. Now,
a couple of things about Lindsey Whiteside's attorney in this

(31:25):
case that I think are important. First, he's considered one
of the best attorneys in the entire South. His name
is Steve Faresi. And look, in my experience, I've known
a lot of attorneys of Italian descent and they are
always good for whatever reason. Faresi is no different. So

(31:52):
the fact that he has allowed his client, this great
attorney that he is, he allows his client to enter
a guilty plea with no deal in place. That tells
me I would suspect that this guy knew something. This

(32:12):
is just my opinion. I have no direct evidence of this,
but I've covered enough of these types of cases to
know if you're that good of attorney, there's no way
you're just going to throw your client at the mercy
of the court without knowing something. Relative to the sentencing

(32:35):
part of this case. This one just did not pass
the smell tests. And it's worth noting that it is
also been said that the special judge in this case
was Fares's divorce attorney. That's been said. I don't have
any direct evidence of that. This is just some things,

(32:58):
some chatter, if you will, on thing Facebook, so take
it with a grain of salt. I don't know if
it's true or not, but if it is, wow, that's interesting. Right.
And while we are on this particular subject, it's also
important to keep in mind the special judges in this
case is as I mentioned earlier, they are retired. They
are no longer elected officials. They do not have to

(33:21):
consider the impact of their decisions in the same way
unelected judge does. This judge can pass a bullshit sentence
for example, like we have here, and I'm not afraid
to say it, that's a bullshit sentence. But they can
pass that type of sentence and there's no re election

(33:42):
concern in the back of their mind. Yes, when you're
a judge, you're not supposed to have that anyway. I
get that, But we are all human and when you're
worried about getting re elected in two years, you certainly
are a little bit more cautious on your decisions. Now,
I'm sure he can get removed from the bench by
the State Supreme Court. But think about it if you're

(34:06):
in his position, So what he's retired, he just leases
his side hustle essentially. Now, it's what came out after
this sentencing. If you ain't heard enough to piss you off,
that has turned the entire County of DeSoto sideways, and

(34:28):
it's really launched this case nationally. And that is as
it relates to the character letters that were written on
behalf of the convicted in this case, Lindsey Whiteside. Now,
as if the forty nine and you just heard me right,
forty nine character letters were not enough, the fact of

(34:51):
who they came from were even more shocking. Vice principal
of a school, teachers, a former police chief that went
to church with Lindsay Whiteside. But the most shocking one
came from a school board member, an active school board

(35:14):
member in DeSoto County by the name of Michelle Henley,
an elected official for the freaking school board, writing a
character statement for someone accused then admitting guilt of sexual
battery of a child. And it has come out that

(35:37):
again I don't have any direct knowledge, but this has
been said from the district attorney that she knew that
Lindsay Whiteside was going to plead guilty, so she knew
she did this. She wrote this letter anyway, Here's what
it said. I'm going to read her character letter quickly

(35:58):
says to Honorable Judge Andrew Howorth. My name is Michelle Henley.
I'm a mother and member of the DeSoto County school Board.
I'm running on behalf writing on behalf of Lindsey Whiteside.
I have known the Whiteside family for many years. However,
in the past five years I've had the privilege of

(36:19):
getting to know them better. Being on the school board,
I got to know Gail better as well as her children.
Four years ago, I asked Gail if Lindsay would coach
my daughter in basketball because she wanted to try out
for middle school team. Lindsey gladly agreed. She worked one
on one with my daughter to practice and improve her skills.

(36:41):
Lindsey was always encouraging, supportive, and helpful during their training sessions.
She gave my daughter pointers on how to improve her
game while encouraging her every step of the way. When
my daughter made the team, we sent Lindsay a text
to tell her, and she was so excited for my
daughter and again encouraged her to keep working hard to
get better every day. Middle school can be hard for

(37:03):
a young person, and I am happy to say Lindsey's
encouragement and support helped my daughter not only make the team,
but have a wonderful middle school experience. Thank you for
your time and consideration. Michelle Henley, So, let's digest that
for a second. You got a freaking school board member

(37:26):
going to bat for someone they knew was about to
plead guilty to sexual battery of a child by someone
in position of authority. You reckon. The community got pissed,
Damn right they did. They flipped out, A firestorm erupts

(37:50):
from the DeSoto County community and everybody from the district
attorney to mom and pop were calling for the And
this just occurred a few days ago, the resignation of
Michelle Henley. So, Michelle Henley, who has already shown a

(38:13):
record of bad judgment with that letter, right, she does
something else stupid. She goes on Facebook and she tries
to defend this. I'm going to read you the statement
she posted on Facebook on October fifteenth. Over the past
few days, there had been considerable discussion on social media

(38:36):
regarding my character and involvement in a recent matter. In
a recent matter like just say it, you know what
it is, I would like to take a moment to
share the facts directly. Who tell us more? First, I
wrote a letter describing a personal interaction I have with

(38:56):
Lindsey Whiteside. In that letter, I mentioned that Lindsey had
coach my daughter prior to basketball trials. At no point
did I express support for her actions or endorse her behavior.
For full transparency, I have attached a copy of my
letter for your review. Contrary to what has been claimed,

(39:17):
I did not testify for the defense. I was subpoenaed
by the district attorney to appear in court. While on
the stand, I was asked whether I condone Lend's exactions.
My response was no. When asked about what her senate
should be, I stated that such a decision was for
the judge to determine. De Soto County has been my

(39:38):
home for nearly my entire life. I take great pride
in our community and in the years of service I
have dedicated to it. My integrity and commitment to the
people of Decetto County remain steadfast. Lady, you are full
of shit. That's my opinion, my thought process, because for

(39:59):
you you to say in this letter that at no
point did I express support for her actions or endorse
her behavior. What the hell do you think a character
letter is? That's an endorsement. Of course, you didn't endorse
her behavior directly as it affects this victim, but you
endorsed her. You endorsed her. Are you insane? One of

(40:26):
the craziest, dumbest things I've ever seen in five years
of doing this. So to that, I say this, Miss Henley,
I hope you're listening. I hope you're listening right now.
No one compelled to you to write a letter. You

(40:47):
did that of your own volition. And the fact that
you would choose to write that letter despite the fact
that you were elected to ensure the welfare of school
age students, speaks volumes about who you really are, in

(41:08):
my opinion, and in my view, do the right thing. Resign.
You have disgraced your community, and I think what you
did was sick a f We'll move on from her.

(41:30):
So the day after the sentence, DA Barton, he is pissed.
He comes out and he says, hey, I plan to
challenge the ruling. Now, his argument is that under Mississippi law,
a sex offender, which Whiteside is, or violent offender for

(41:51):
that matter, cannot be sentenced to house arrest. Which that
makes the sentence imposed even more questionable because he's right,
that's clear in the law in Mississippi. So he's going
to pursue that, and he is indeed going to be
seeking a resentencing, which this process is really kind of

(42:14):
strange because to get a resentencing you have to go
to the same judge and he has to approve and
agree to resentence in this case Lindsy Whiteside. Now basically
he has to admit he screwed up and thus re
sentence Lendsy Whiteside using the reasoning that caused him to

(42:36):
rethink his decision, such as in this case. The prosecutor stated,
he's already filed this resentencing request that the crime is
disproportionate to the sentence, and hey, you'll get no argument
out of me on that. It's about as disproportionate as

(42:57):
you can get. And look, this judge has a history here,
he has some precedent that he set on how he
sentences people involved in these crimes. And I'll tell you
another thing, and then we're gonna get to the DA's
press conference, because that's very important for you to hear.
In this press conference. One thing I do want to
mention is man he and I are on the same

(43:20):
frame of mind, because he says something in that press
conference relative to if this were a guy that had
sexually assaulted this girl, he hadn went to prison, and
that we've got to get rid of this double standard

(43:41):
when females commit these egregious acts. He is one hundred
percent on it. That's why I've done a series for
the past two years called Bad Teachers on exposed scandalous
files of the elite. I do that specifically, and I
cover specifically women who are sexually assaulting. Most times its boys.

(44:02):
And the reason that I do that is, you know what,
they must never get jail time, almost never, or if
they do, they screwed a fifteen year old boy and
it's a forty year old teacher for you know, four
years in high school and they get a year in jail.

(44:22):
But when you flip it and you look at the stats,
when men do it, they get twenty thirty years almost
every time. It's shocking how disproportionate it is, so I
save this press conference for the end of this one,
and it's because I likely have a lot of people

(44:43):
from Deceto County specifically listening to this particular podcast, maybe
the first time you've ever heard exposed scandalous files of
the elite. I do want to say we've got over
two hundred episodes besides this one on this feed. Listen
to some other ones. If you liked it, stay with us.
We love to have you here. But I know a

(45:06):
lot of you have already heard the press conference. If
you're in DeSoto County, you've certainly heard it. So I
wanted to save it for the end so that you
didn't have to fast forward through a thirty minute press conference. Now,
I do want to say quickly to those of you
in DeSoto County, keep up the fight, don't let this stand.

(45:29):
And if you like the podcast, stick around. We expose
people from all over the country every week on here,
and they go global quickly. And if you see Da
Barton around town, shake his hand from me, tell him
it's from me. He's doing great work for everyone else.
What you're going to hear next is the explosive press

(45:53):
conference following the verdict from da Barton. So here's that
and till the next episode. Much love.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
Okay has everybody turned on ready to go? I figure,
so y'all are waiting for a little bit. I appreciate
you waiting. In cases this streaming somewhere, I will warn
audience this subject matter may not be suitable for everybody.
But today we're announcing the conviction of Lindsay Whiteside, who

(46:25):
has now been found guilty of sexual battery while in
a position of trust and authority over a minor child.
This stems from her time as a youth pastor at
Getwell Baptist Church in Hernando. The victim in this case
was a member of that youth group and that is

(46:46):
what created the opportunity for this repeated sexual abuse of
a child. Procedurally, the way we got here is in
November of twenty twenty four, these accusations were disclosed to

(47:06):
the Sheriff's apartment here in De Soto County. They were
investigated right away. Our office was able to secure an
indictment in less than a month after the investigation started.
The case that was put together was very, very good,
maybe the strongest you could hope for in a situation

(47:26):
like this. We had sixty four thousand pages of printed
out text messages, we had handwritten letters that were on
church stationery. We had just a mountain of evidence. It
was overwhelming proof. There was no way Lindsey Whiteside would
have ever been able to get out from under the
pile of evidence. So she did ultimately plead guilty, knowing

(47:50):
that a trial would be it would not be a
worthwhile endeavor. So she played guilty really out of necessity,
had no chance of going to trial. We did that
earlier today. That was immediately followed by sentencing hearing. We

(48:11):
as a state of Mississippi, and on behalf of the
victims requested the maximum sentence, which is thirty years, And
I don't mind just saying it, frankly, I'm extremely disappointed.
This sentence ended up being three years of house arrest
followed by seven years of post release supervision, for a
total of ten years of supervision. This sentence is an

(48:35):
absolute abomination of justice. It is not right. Is everything
is wrong. This is the reason why people question whether
our institutions actually serve victims. This is the wrong message.
It is very, very difficult for a victim of a crime,
especially a child to come forward and then to have
her voice silenced by a hor horrible sentence. Miscarriage of

(48:59):
justice makes it even more difficult for future victims to
want to come forward and be brave. I want to
commend the victim in this case and her family. I've
rarely seen such a display of courage and faith, and
I consider it one of the privileges and honors of

(49:20):
my career so far to have represented them in this process.
I am very disappointed that we did not get a
result that I think was appropriate, but I am very
proud that our victim did what she was supposed to
and that would speak up for herself. And even though
we did not get the result we wanted, that will

(49:41):
never be taken away. Lindsey Whiteside will have to register
for the rest of her life as a child's sex offender,
which would hopefully be a mark to show society that
she is the worst type of menace that can never
be trusted. She was trusted with a congregation, she was
trusted with children, and she trade that trust. She used

(50:02):
the Gospel Jesus Christ as a weapon. She used the
vulnerabilities of a child who was going through personal struggles
to gain access and manipulate an entire congregation. But even
worse and more specifically, she manipulated a family through an
undeniable pattern of abuse that started with several months of

(50:23):
grooming and in several months of prolonged and repeated sexual
abuse in the worst type of manner. I cannot summarize
the entirety of this abuse, and a short press conference
suffice it to say, I sincerely believe that if this
was perpetrated by a man against a young woman, that

(50:45):
we would have seen something akin to twenty years in prison.
I think that she is a benefactor of a very
wrong double standard in society. I think that it is
high time for people to start paying attention to what
goes on our court systems, because this is an absolute travesty.
It is not right. I condemn it in every way.

(51:07):
I am quite frankly somewhat ashamed to be associated with
a system that has performed so poorly in this matter.
We have advocated as zealously as we possibly could, we
put forth as much evidence as we could have ever
hoped for, and this decision is quite frankly just poor.

(51:29):
With that said, I am very honored to be joined
by a member of our victim's family. Her name is
Pam Pegram. She has prepared a statement that she would
like to share on behalf of the victim. It is
my belief that victims should always be heard, and so
I am sincerely proud to turn it over to her

(51:53):
for a moment to share something on behalf of the family.

Speaker 4 (51:58):
Thank you, thank you. My name is Pam Pegram and
I'm speaking on behalf of the victim's family.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
It's my family.

Speaker 4 (52:06):
Today, a very brave young girl showed remarkable courage as
she shared about the abuse she suffered from a sexual predator,
Lindsey Aldie Whiteside. This vulnerable child was manipulated and betrayed
by someone more than nine years older than her, who
was supposed to be her spiritual mentor someone who grossly

(52:29):
abused her position of trust, someone she looked up to
as her youth minister. The evidence presented today was vile,
it was evil, and quite honestly, it was shocking. How
could anyone do things like she did to a young
girl and then show up sometimes to preach at church

(52:50):
on Sunday morning, sometimes to lead a Bible study, sometimes
to lead a youth retreat or a youth event after
knowing what she had just done. Today, in Lindsey Whiteside's
own words, through her text messages and her letters, we
saw the depth of depravity, deceit, and deliberate efforts to

(53:11):
hide her twisted actions. The pain of the suffering this
victim and her family have experienced or beyond words, this
trauma has touched every part of their lives. Yet it
does not define this victim or her family. As believers,
we know that God will redeem what has been lost,

(53:33):
and He will use this devastating season to grow us
and strengthen us and draw us closer to Him. For
almost a year, our family has remained silent, waiting for
this day when truth could finally be revealed. During that time,
we have heard the rumors, we have read the comments,

(53:57):
and we have listened to people's opinion who did not
have any of the facts or any information to base
those on. That has only deepened our pain. Let me
be clear, no adult should ever engage in sexual contact
with a child. In no way, shape or form. The

(54:22):
victim is never at fault. This adult could have any
time said mom helped me, pastor help me, friend, help me.
She never did. She plotted, and she planned, and she deceived,
and she manipulated so that she could have her way.
When you support this offender, you revictimize the victim, y'all.

(54:48):
This is why victims don't come forward and tell their story. Still,
her family, we will stand firm in our faith. We
believe in truth, justice, and even forgiveness. But can I
tell you forgiveness is hard, It is challenging, and it
may be a day by day decision that we work
our way toward. Now that Lindsay has been found guilty,

(55:12):
I really wanted to say that justice had been served. That, y'all,
it has not been served. She gets to go home
and put on her favorite pajamas and cuddle up in
her favorite chair and hang out in her safe place
where she entered into our family's safe place and destroyed
that it became a place where she pursued the victim.

(55:36):
How is this fair?

Speaker 3 (55:37):
How is this right?

Speaker 4 (55:37):
And the judge said that prison was for people that
we're afraid of, y'all. Isn't prison a place for people
who commit crimes, regardless of what they look like and
regardless of whether you know to be afraid of them
or not. I mean, like Matthew said it would have
been so different had the offender looked different. Can we

(56:01):
all agree? Oh? But I have to say, for those
of you who have prayed for us, for those of
you who have supported our family during this horrific time,
we are forever grateful and we appreciate you you. Yes,

(56:23):
my name is Pam Pegrom p a em last name
is p.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
E g r A M.

Speaker 5 (56:29):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
So with that, I would just add briefly before I
taken questions that it is true that when you support
the abuser, you revictimize the victim, and for that that's

(56:53):
part of the reason why I was so disturbed by
the amount of pedophile sympathizers that wrote into the court,
and specifically, Michelle Henley is an elective member of our
school board. Our victim at the time was a student
at one of the schools that Michelle Henley is supposed
to help govern, and yet she wrote a letter in

(57:16):
support of the defendant that she testified on behalf of
the defendant's good character, which I submit, there is no
good character to somebody that would sexually abuse a child.
That I don't care how much good you've done in
the world, if it's followed up by committing a repeated
sexual act against a child. This is somebody that was

(57:38):
not victim of an overwhelming moment or a temporary lapse
in judgment. This is more akin to an adult lioness
stalking prey and then pouncing when it was least expected,
and then continuing to do so over and over again.
Lindsey Whiteside committed second ual crimes against this victim while

(58:02):
on church trips while in while on a bus with
other kids, put a blanket over the victim, and then
sexually abused her while in the presence of church leadership
and other children, and then preached about Jesus. We're talking
about that manner of depravity. It's awful because Michelle Henley

(58:24):
is in a position of authority and trust over children
and yet sides with a child predator. I believe she's
not fit to be on our school board. I've given
her a letter today demanding her resignation, and I hope
she will because we can have no faith in an
institution that protects child predators. We cannot expect children who

(58:45):
are victims of crime to tell their teachers or administrators
that they have been victimized. When an elected member of
the school board is advocating for a known convicted sexual
predator is inexcusable. She has shown tolerance where there can
be none. She's got to go and quite frankly, any

(59:07):
teacher or vice principals that wrote in on support they
should likewise be gone. I would never send my kid
to an institution where the adults in the room were
not taking care of the kids, period, full stop. With
that being said, now my tangent is over. I will
take any questions you may have, yes and back.

Speaker 6 (59:27):
Martin Stein Fox thirteen.

Speaker 5 (59:30):
So what struck me when I got to the courthouse
today was the level of security.

Speaker 3 (59:37):
When I googled what.

Speaker 5 (59:38):
This story was about, it didn't tell me that there
were two signs in terms of people supporting the defendant
people supporting the family.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Can you talk about.

Speaker 6 (59:49):
Why that I counted thirteen debuties.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
In the book.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Yeah, I think the divide comes from a lot of
people and get well. Church leadership and members have offered
a great deal of support for the perpetrator who used
to work and worship among them. Then you have the
defendant's family were lifelong educators, so they have friends in

(01:00:17):
the school system. They called upon those friends to write
letters of support. And so we have this great divide
that's hard to reconcile, where you have church people and
school people supporting a perpetrator for a child crime, and
that will certainly draw out the type of emotions you

(01:00:38):
would expect. So as a precautionary measure, certain things were
put into place for security purposes.

Speaker 5 (01:00:47):
And I was gonna say, and the other thing that
struck me is before the judge what was his name?

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
His name is Andy Howorth. And the backstory there is
Judge Wilson and Judge Chad, who were the only two
judges we had at the time this case was indicted.
Both recused themselves, stating that they had personal relationships with
the defendants family or shared community interest, which would be

(01:01:14):
church basically. And so because both of our judges recused themselves,
we were then left with the liberal judge from Oxford
who thinks that child predator shouldn't go to prison because
he's not scared of them.

Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
And he also said that nobody's gonna be happy.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
But I don't think that's quite true.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
No, I actually saw the defendant looking relieved. I heard
some rumblings from her side the room where they were
actually very happy. This is exactly what they asked for.
So they are very happy because she will get to
go to the same restaurants that you and your families
go to. She will continue to have access to people's kids,

(01:01:58):
and she will live her life life as she always does,
as long as she registers. When it came down you.

Speaker 6 (01:02:05):
Talk about disappointment, was there anger or raise as well?

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
So? I typically don't criticize a choice that a judge makes,
and I certainly would never criticize a jury. In this case,
we have a judge that acknowledged great harm being done
to the victim and then essentially did nothing about it,
And so it would be it'd be a little self
serving for me to pretend like I don't have a
little rage or anger. I certainly do. I think the

(01:02:38):
broader problem is the implication a sentence like this has
on on the community, because you can't how are you
gonna trust the system that that lays down for a
perpetrator like this. So I know we had a question
here in the there. Okay, yes, at the age you

(01:02:58):
ask for a sentence for you see get under a
whole sentence, So we do not have the option for
any type of appeals or sentenced reviews. When a circuit
judge makes a decision, that's just the decision. That's why
elections are so important, because voters are the only person
or the only people that have any sort of oversight
on a circuit judge. The best I can do, and

(01:03:20):
it's a little early for me to really be able
to give any indication whether it would help, but I
do plan on taking my case, filowing the transcripts to
the federal prosecutors, letting them know what a horrible mischaracter
justice this was, and see if, based on the fact
that she crossed multiple state lines to do this type
of offense, and other jurisdictions, if we may be able

(01:03:42):
to get her prosecuted through a neighboring jurisdiction or maybe
our partners in the federal government. I will certainly do
everything I can to advocate for my victim, no matter
what juncture the proceedings we are. I can't personally prosecute
or appeal anything, but I will certainly appeal to prosecutors
and other jurisdictions, share evidence and plead for them to

(01:04:04):
pick this up so hopefully she'll be properly punished. Let
me go here.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
I just wanted to ask, you know, we were supposed.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
To start at one point. Was there anything in the
court rook that got up smaller than I think? Maybe
there were more people coming in than we're maybe expected,
so they're given some time for that to settle off.
Judge wanted to address the media about certain rules for
recording before we began. We did not bring the victim

(01:04:33):
or her family into the courtroom until after the judge
had a chance to make that address, and so there
were a few little housekeeping things that slowed us down.
But that's about it.

Speaker 6 (01:04:46):
If you could sit down in a room with miss Whiteside,
what would you say to her.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
I think she's such as narcissistic, feelative person that there's
probably nothing I could say they would even register with her.
As we stood there today, she was making excuses for herself.
She was downplaying what she did. I don't think she
fully even gets it. She is so self absorbed that

(01:05:18):
speaking to her would only it would only fuel her
own desire for attention. She wants to be special, she
wants to have attention from a congregation or social media whatever.
But she's not special. She's just a child. Predator. She
is notorious at best, and she will not be remembered

(01:05:39):
for her father's legacy. She will not be remembered for
any contributions her family made to education. She will be
remembered for what she is, and that is a child's
sexual predator. And I will tell you there's nothing good
about someone who will prey upon a child. That's what
she'll be remembered. And she's not worth anyone's time, much

(01:06:02):
less mind the victim recently turned eighteen. I'm not personally
gonna do it.

Speaker 5 (01:06:11):
Do you think that her families, like you said, you know,
the status, had anythings dow with maybe the moving today.

Speaker 3 (01:06:18):
I think the fact that our judge is from an
outside jurisdiction probably limits the amount of effect that that
could have. I think he had his own reasonings. I
don't pretend to understand him. I'm not so sure that
is the reasoning, but I will say that when you
have educated you have letters from nine teachers, you had
a letter from a vice principal out of school, and

(01:06:41):
you had a letter from an elected member of the
school board. And so when you and then you got
many people from the church where she perpetrated these crimes,
also sending letters to the judge, so he probably felt
safe making this decision. But I can't really speak to

(01:07:02):
exactly what's in his mind. I can't speak to what's
in my mind, which is this is not right, plain
and simple. There's no other way to put it. This
is just not right. I'll take one more question, third one.

Speaker 6 (01:07:13):
I heard him say that he that prisons are for
people that scare us. He literally said from the bench,
this woman Whiteside doesn't scare him. That kind of scares me.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
Well, I think that my child is growing up here
in Desutto County. It's where I chose to raise a family.
People like Lindsay Whiteside scare me. They're not gonna be
able to do anything to me personally because I'm older
than she is, I'm stronger than she is. But I

(01:07:50):
think about my children, my child and the children that
she plays with, and I'm really worried for people that
aren't as guarded as I am, because I see this
every day. Most people don't, and it's the people you
don't expect. It's the church pastor, it's the teacher, it's
the coach or whatever, and so yeah, people like her.

(01:08:10):
It's a very scary part of our society. I don't
know if you're just envisioning, but I come here all
the time. Y'all hear me. I say stop Memphis saved
de Soto. I'm very critical of Memphis criminals that come
down here and perpetrate violent crime. I talk about all
the time. You don't have to look like that or
act like that to be an absolute menace to society.

(01:08:32):
I think that praying our child sexually is very much
more egregious than a lot of the crimes I'm seeing
people in prison for every single day. There's no way
to balance or rectify that. I think you have one.
I'm gonna call it. That's it.

Speaker 6 (01:08:53):
Without going into graphic detail of what type of behavior
as far as manipulation are you talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
I mean, she would bring alcohol to a kid. So
she would bring alcohol to a kid. She would she
would buy her parents like concert tickets so they could
have a night out, and she would volunteer a babysit.
She would make reservations, say hey, I can babysit. She

(01:09:20):
she was in charge of logistics at for the church
group when they would take kids on youth trips and
church trips. Church camps, things like that, And so she
had the logistical control to determine where children would stay,
what rooms they would stay in, what betting, what beds
they would be in, uh, dormitory arrangements, things like that,

(01:09:44):
where they'd sit on the bus, whatever. And she would
use that logistical control to isolate the victim away from
everybody else so that she could perpetrate these heinous acts
while on duty as a as a youth minister. She
would I mean, I would just encourage all the prototypical

(01:10:04):
grooming practices were displayed by Lindsay Whiteside. I mean, we
could write a book about it. But like I said,
this was not a one time deal. This was a
very calculated effort to abuse a child, and I think
anyone that supports that should be ashamed.