Fugitive Sex Offender Wanted For 20 Years Caught Working At Church: Police

A convicted sex offender on the run for 20 years was nabbed last week in Alabama, where he'd been working at a Baptist church for a decade, authorities said.

Larry Albert Flake, 75, was caught on Nov. 19 in Birmingham, Alabama, where he has been living under an assumed name, Larry White, and was known to locals as Reverend White, FBI spokesman Paul Daymond told AL.com.

The fugitive worked at the Evergreen True House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church as a minister of music, church officials said. He served at the church for the last 10 years and never disclosed his past, WBRC reported.

Flake was originally convicted of the 1999 assault of a 15-year-old girl in Richmond, Indiana, on Aug. 30, 2001. According to court records, he grabbed the girl, who had left her apartment to see some friends, and forced her into his car, AL.com reported.

Flake had sexual contact and sexual intercourse with the minor inside the car. Tests confirmed that biological evidence recovered from the girl belonged to Flake, and she picked him out of a photo lineup.

Flake failed to appear for the trial and has been a fugitive since August 2001. In his absence, the jury returned a guilty verdict on sexual misconduct, but a mistrial was declared on a charge of rape. Flake, a habitual offender, was ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Acting on a new lead received in January, the Investigative Services Division of the Richmond Police Department and the FBI Indianapolis Field Office worked together to bring Flake safely to justice.

Flake was taken into custody last week for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, according to a news release from the Richmond Police Department. He will be extradited to Indiana, police said.

Willie Perry, a pastor at the Baptist church who worked with Flake for a decade, told WBRC that he learned of his minister of music's real identity following Flake's arrest at a home near the church.

“It was heart-wrenching. I mean you couldn’t imagine the horror of waking up and finding out that someone had this kind of checkered past,” Perry said.

Perry, who hired Flake after receiving references from at least two churches, said he wasn't close to the other man, who kept to himself. “When you are on the run, you limit as to what people know about you,” Perry said.

Perry apologized to the congregation for this development and hoped that they and God would forgive him for this unfortunate discovery. But he said he was glad that Flake was finally caught.

“I would say to Rev. White, I love you, I will pray for you, but I am glad that you have been caught,” Perry told WVTM of Flake. “You won’t get the chance to do this anymore.”