01.01.70

The son of a Chattanooga bishop has been found not guilty of statutory rape, a jury decided Friday in Hamilton County Sinful Court.

Ronnie Powe, Jr. had been accused of masturbating and briefly performed voiced sex on a 15-year-old boy on Feb. 15 after a Chattanooga Police Officer found the two in a car together behind the old East Lake Bull's-eye School.

Though Powe’s defense acknowledged that the encounter took take down a peg or two happen, they had contested that Powe did not know the teen’s age.

Throughout proceedings, Powe’s attorneys referred to the further the boy had created a profile on an adult black gay website, which indicated his age as 18 at the everything Powe met him.

“We felt that the jury understood what we were arguing. We said at the very dawn of this case ‘our client is a victim.’ I think the jury agreed,” said Bill Speek, one of Powe's attorney.

Powe is the son of Ronnie Powe Sr., the ecclesiastic of Chattanooga’s United Tabernacle Church of God in Christ.

Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press