A former Ohio missionary has been indicted on four counts of “illicit sexual conduct” with minors while in Haiti, having previously been convicted of similar crimes years earlier.
Jeriah Mast, a 44-year-old resident of Millersburg, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct stemming from alleged behavior in Haiti.
According to a press release from the United States Department of Justice, Mast took over 30 flights to Haiti, sometimes traveling with Christian Aid Ministries as a missionary.
During these overseas trips, which took place between 2002 and 2019, Mast allegedly abused minors in the Caribbean nation, with each count representing a different underage child.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the DOJ Criminal Division was quoted in the press release denouncing the “heinous, unspeakable crimes against vulnerable children living in an impoverished nation.”
“Despite the fact that the defendant’s alleged crimes occurred abroad, our law enforcement partners and prosecutors will continue to relentlessly seek justice on behalf of the minor victims,” stated Galeotti.
“Wherever the Criminal Division has jurisdiction, we are committed to investigating and prosecuting those who engage in the intolerable crime of abusing and exploiting children.”
In July 2019, Mast was indicted in Holmes County under charges that he engaged in sexual abuse of children younger than 16 in Ohio between 1998 and 2008.
The 2019 indictment came one month after Mast’s church, Shining Light Christian Fellowship of Millersburg, announced that he “began voluntarily confessing hidden sins” soon after returning from his most recent trip to Haiti.
“He confessed multiple instances of immoral sexual relationships with boys, which began in his youth. He acknowledged to living a life of deception and hypocrisy,” stated Shining Light leadership at the time.
“Because of the sins that were committed and the victims that were abused, an appointment was made to report this to our local Sheriff Department. Jeriah voluntarily went in person for an interview and confessed to a local detective and an FBI agent (including giving names of victims).”
A missionary organization founded in 1981 and affiliated with the Anabaptists, Amish and Mennonites, CAM’s board of directors said they had no advanced knowledge of the abuse.
However, the board also acknowledged that two CAM managers, Paul Weaver and Eli Weaver, allowed Mast to continue serving in the mission field even after he confessed in 2013 to engaging in sexual activity with young men years earlier.
In response, CAM placed both managers on administrative leave pending a full investigation into their role in the matter, with the organization stating that the two men “recognize that their failure to properly investigate and inquire into Jeriah’s conduct was a serious failure in judgment and should have severe consequences.”
Mast was later sentenced to nine years in prison in November 2019 after prosecutors had reduced the number of charges from 14 to two and recommended a 5-year sentence.
