Florida church, school allowed suspected child predator to work with children, lawsuits say

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Monday, October 26, 2026

Editor’s note: This article contains descriptions of allegations of sexual abuse that some readers may find disturbing.

Two lawsuits allege that a Florida church and a Christian school failed to protect children from Matthew Clark Graziotti, a former youth pastor and teacher serving a 210-year sentence for federal child sexual exploitation crimes.

The Herman Law Firm, which represents sexual abuse victims, filed the lawsuits Wednesday and provided copies to The Christian Post.

One suit, filed on behalf of Richard “Tucker” Tripp, names the Christian and Missionary Alliance (an Evangelical denomination with over 2,000 churches) and Edgewater Alliance Church. The other, filed on behalf of Camron Armstrong, names Warner Christian Academy, a ministry of the White Chapel Church of God.

“I chose not to file this lawsuit as a John Doe, and to speak today because I refused to carry the shame for what happened to me as a child any further,” Tripp said at a Wednesday press conference in Orlando, Florida.

Tripp’s lawsuit says leaders at Edgewater Alliance Church let Graziotti work with youth despite receiving warnings about his past behavior with children.

In 2004, the Edgewater Police Department investigated Graziotti for suspected sexual abuse of young boys. After the investigation, Friendship Community Church dismissed him as youth minister even though no criminal charges were filed, the lawsuit says.

Graziotti then sought work as a youth pastor at Edgewater Alliance Church. When they learned of this, the lawsuit states that Graziotti’s sister who was also the wife of a pastor at Friendship Community Church contacted Edgewater leaders to share concerns about Graziotti’s behavior with young boys. 

Despite those warnings, the lawsuit says Graziotti “was entrusted with the supervision, care, and religious guidance of children who were parishioners and were participating in youth-serving activities at the [church].” The suit also accuses the church of organizing mission trips on which Graziotti chaperoned children, which it says gave him the chance to abuse boys like Tripp.

After the church hired him, the suit alleges that Graziotti began grooming Tripp, who began attending the church when he was 9, by regularly complimenting him and other boys in front of church staff.

At weekly youth group nights in 2006, Graziotti allegedly deepened the grooming by asking Tripp about his insecurities. The suit says he also commented on the then-sixth-grader’s physical and sexual development and accuses him of unwanted touching.

“In approximately May 2008, when Plaintiff was 12 years old and his parents were away on vacation, [Graziotti] transported Plaintiff from the [church] to [Graziotti’s] private residence, where [Graziotti] drugged and sexually battered Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.

“[Graziotti’s] acts of abuse included, without limitation: giving Plaintiff oral sex, making Plaintiff give him oral sex, and putting Plaintiff on his [Graziotti’s] bed and anally penetrating Plaintiff,” the document continues.

Alexander Lian, an attorney representing Edgewater Alliance Church, told CP the allegations should be addressed in court, not in the media.

“The Edgewater Alliance Church of The Christian and Missionary Alliance has been part of this community for over 50 years, and nothing is more vital to us than the safety of the children in our care,” Lian said in a statement on the church’s behalf.

“We take allegations of abuse seriously, and we have cooperated and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement,” the statement continued. “Because this matter is in litigation, and out of respect for the privacy of everyone involved, we will not comment on the specific allegations and will respond through the legal process.”

Around 2005, Graziotti also began teaching fifth grade and directing a summer camp at Warner Christian Academy. Armstrong’s lawsuit says the school’s background check before hiring him did not look into his dismissal from Friendship Community Church.

Had the school asked why he was dismissed, the suit argues, it would have learned of concerns about his behavior with young boys and the 2004 police investigation.

Armstrong is one of the victims involved the federal case brought against Graziotti in 2014. Along with various child exploitation counts, the charges included “seven counts of production of child sexual abuse material, one count of distribution of child sexual abuse material, and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material.”

Armstrong was in fifth grade when Graziotti was his teacher. Besides tickling Armstrong and other young boys in the classroom and elsewhere on campus, Graziotti would go into the restroom with young boys during school hours, the lawsuit says.

As summer program director, Graziotti “had young boys sit on his lap while playing video games, tickled children, routinely told children he would take them home with him if their parents were late picking them up, and was known to frequently carry a camera and take photographs of the children in his care,” according to the suit.

Graziotti allegedly used his authority to separate Armstrong from his parents’ supervision, usually by having the boy stay overnight at his home. During those stays, the suit says, Graziotti fed Armstrong applesauce, and Armstrong later woke up feeling “groggy” and “disoriented.”

During a 2014 search of Graziotti’s home, the FBI recovered images of Graziotti sexually battering Armstrong, the lawsuit states. According to the suit, Graziotti’s “modus operandi,” or usual method, involved drugging young boys, fully or partly undressing them, and then filming or photographing the abuse.

Armstrong’s lawsuit says the school knew, or, “in the exercise of reasonable care,” should have known that young children were not safe around Graziotti and that he was likely to abuse them.

The suit argues the school gave Graziotti “unfettered access” to Armstrong, providing him “the opportunity to commit foreseeable acts of sexual abuse” on the boy.

Warner Christian Academy did not immediately respond to CP’s request for comment.