Ex-pastor charged with not reporting suspected abuse of 16-year-old girl

CONWAY, N.H. – The former pastor of a Maine church has been charged with failing to report suspicions that a former Conway police sergeant molested a teenage girl.

Donald Maranville, 50, former pastor of Fryeburg First Assembly of God Church, was charged under a state law that says anyone with reason to suspect a child has been abused or neglected must report it.

Failing to report suspected abuse is a misdemeanor. The list of people required to report includes doctors, psychologists, teachers, school counselors, day care workers, priests, ministers and rabbis.

When contacted this week, Maranville declined to comment.

He is charged with one count of “having reason to suspect a child had been abused and knowingly failing to report said abuse” between October 1998 and February 2004. He faces up to 12 months in prison and fines of up to $2,000 if convicted. He has been released on $500 personal recognizance bail until his trial, which is set for late fall.

Former Sgt. William McClellan, 51, is charged with molesting a 16-year-old girl who was living at his home while he was her guardian. He also is accused of using his position to coerce her into having sex. His trial is set for next month.

According to a police affidavit, the girl met McClellan and his wife through the church and eventually moved in with them around April 1998. Maranville was pastor of the church at the time.

According to a police affidavit, Maranville told investigators “it somehow came up in the church community” that McClellan might have molested the girl.