Ex-youth pastor pleads guilty to transporting minor across state lines for sex

A former Mississippi youth pastor accused of using her position to groom a teenager under the age of 18 and transporting a child across state lines for illicit sexual purposes has accepted a plea deal, according to reports.

Lindsey Aldy Whiteside, the former youth pastor of Getwell Church in Hernando, accepted the plea deal on Friday afternoon. Whiteside pleaded guilty to one federal charge of transporting a minor from Tennessee to Mississippi with the intent of engaging in sexual activity with the child.

The two other counts — knowingly transporting an individual under the age of 18 from Mississippi to Georgia for sexual purposes and enticing or coercing a minor — have been dismissed against Whiteside as part of the plea agreement.

The former youth pastor remains in custody, with sentencing scheduled to take place on Jan. 13, 2027. She faces a minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison, along with a possible $250,000 fine, according to Fox13 Memphis, and she could receive at least five years of supervised release; by the end of her supervised release, Whiteside must register as a sex offender.

Whiteside was previously indicted in 2024 for assaulting a child under the age of 18, and she later pleaded guilty in 2025 to sexual battery while in a position of trust and authority over a minor child.

At the time, the former youth pastor and basketball coach at DeSoto Central High School was sentenced to three years of house arrest and court supervision.

Whiteside is accused of sexually abusing a minor during two church trips while serving as the victim's youth pastor.

"The minor disclosed that on each of those trips, as well as several times a week during their association, there was vaginal and oral penetration by WHITESIDE," United States Attorney Clay Joyner wrote in a legal filing.

"The minor disclosed, and text messages between the two corroborate, that decisions were made by Whiteside to isolate the minor from the church group and her family in order to perform the sexual conduct on those trips," the filing continued.

According to court documents, "Whiteside groomed the minor and her family over an extended period of time in order to gain their trust. Once the grooming was complete, Whiteside was able to convince the family to allow Whiteside to take their minor child across state lines in order to sexually abuse her."

"Whiteside leaned on her role within the church to gain access to the child, open lines of communication to the family and the child, transport the child interstate, and sexually abuse the child. The family of the victim had no idea this conduct was occurring, and Whiteside's own mother had no idea this conduct was occurring," the court documents continued.

"This conduct shows that Whiteside is a danger to the community in that she built trust between the victim's family and herself in order to facilitate the abuse and showed no outward signs to her own mother that she was engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor."

DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton said during an October 2025 press conference that Whiteside abused a minor girl on a church bus while other church leaders were nearby. Barton stated that Whiteside used a blanket as cover while abusing the girl on the church bus.

Barton claimed that the former youth pastor committed "sexual abuse in the worst type of manner."

"She was trusted with a congregation. She was trusted with children, and she betrayed that trust. She used the gospel of Jesus Christ as a weapon," he said.

Following the decision to sentence Whiteside in 2025 to three years of house arrest and seven years of probation for child sexual abuse in DeSoto County, she was later rearrested by federal authorities.

The new arrest followed Special Circuit Court Judge Andrew Howorth's recusal from the case amid public backlash and a strong rebuke from the District Attorney for DeSoto, Matthew Barton, over the light sentence Whiteside received.