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Kansas Democrat Adam Hamilton admitted during a testy Senate debate Wednesday night that he made a “mistake” by failing to bar a volunteer accused of sexual abuse in 2005 from a retreat where he allegedly abused another boy.
Hamilton, a Methodist pastor who runs Kansas’ largest church, is facing late-campaign attacks from incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall over now-convicted sex offender Scott Moore, who was accused of molesting teenage boys at church retreats in 2005 and 2006.
The Democratic challenger said an internal review of allegations from two boys in 2005 was “inconclusive” and that police later found the same, but that he still believes Moore should not have been allowed to return to the church in 2006.
“I was actually preaching that weekend at Church of the Resurrection, and I did not sign off on him going back. I should have checked to make sure that he wasn’t going back,” Hamilton said.
“That was a mistake on my part. But I will tell you, when he was investigated the next year, we forbade him from working with youth or children anymore. He left our church angry and upset. And again, we played a critical role several years later in getting him arrested and convicted.”
Moore was convicted in 2013 of misdemeanor sexual battery for inappropriately touching his son’s friend at a sleepover in 2010. Teenagers from Hamilton’s church who alleged abuse in 2005 and 2006 testified against him.
In November 2005, a 15-year-old boy alleged that Moore touched his penis and a 14-year-old said Moore reached inside his sleeping bag at an overnight retreat.
Prosecutors later wrote in court documents that the two victims provided “detailed” statements to church officials, but weren’t able to positively identify Moore at the time.
He returned as a volunteer in November 2006 and allegedly inappropriately touched a 15-year-old boy. The church informed the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, but the county attorney’s office didn’t pursue charges.
Hamilton told the Kansas Reflector in July he “absolutely” would handle things differently in retrospect, but that “there was no attempt at a cover-up.”
The candidate told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday that “it was not completely clear what had happened at the time [in 2005] and who exactly had done this thing” and that Moore “should have never been there [in 2006]. These were mistakes that were made.”
Marshall also answered for late-breaking attacks, including over reportedly suing 700 patients of his medical practice for unpaid bills.
Marshall said that litigation decisions were “out of our hands” after unpaid bills were turned over to collections agencies and said it was the “same practice” other doctors and hospitals use.
The Kansas Senate race is close, according to the latest polls, as Hamilton positions himself as a moderate Democrat, criticizing former President Joe Biden’s border policies and disapproving of the rising socialist wing of the party.