Florida pastor resigns after adult son, a youth pastor, caught in child predator sting
"Hey, dad... I made a mistake," 25-year-old Caleb Roberts said on speakerphone in a video that quickly went viral
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A recently hired pastor and his wife have stepped down from Victory Church in East Palatka, Florida after their 25-year-old son was caught on camera trying to meet someone he believed was a 14-year-old child whom he had sent sexually explicit photos to.
Turns out that child was a decoy (in the vein of To Catch a Predator). The sting was the work of a vigilante group called Operation 17:2, named after the Bible verse that reads, “It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” They posed as the child online and ended up in a conversation with youth pastor Caleb Roberts, where the chats grew increasingly explicit. When Roberts walked into a Florida CVS to meet the child he believed he was talking to, he was instead greeted by former MMA fighter Garrett Gross and his crew.
Within a span of a few minutes, Roberts went from saying he was there to meet a male friend… to confessing that he intended to sexually assault a girl. Along the way, he admitted he was a virgin, that he was a youth pastor, and that he was really a “good guy” who just “sometimes [gets] these thoughts in my head,” And that’s before he called his pastor/father on speakerphone: “Hey, dad. How you doing? So, um, listen, I made a mistake…”
Roberts is whisked away by police at the end of the video.
I’ll pause here to say there are a number of ethical concerns about groups like these that try to capture predators on their own either because they believe it’s the right thing to do or because they know videos like these will go viral. They are often so obsessed with footage of the “capture,” that they sometimes screw up procedural steps that ultimately allow the alleged predators to go free. Groups like these are also often accused of entrapment: baiting someone into committing a crime they wouldn’t have otherwise committed. And there’s always the possibility of violence when the two sides come face-to-face, when the alleged predator doesn’t see any way out of the situation. I wanted to ask Gross about these concerns, but he didn’t respond to my request for comment.
In this case, two things happened in rapid succession.
First, even though police took over investigation of this particular case, a local judge apparently denied them a warrant to search Roberts’ phone because there was a possibility the chats were the result of artificial intelligence.
Gross reacted on Facebook:
… We have reached the point where a grown man can show up, on video, admit he came to meet a 14 year old for sex, and instead of action we get “AI might make this unreliable”? Thats a complete collapse of common sense. If real time video, a direct confession, and a physical encounter aren’t enough to even justify a warrant, then the standard isn’t higher….it’s nonexistent. All you’ve done is create a loophole big enough for every predator to hide behind. This isn’t protecting justice, it’s protecting offenders…. Its cowardice.
It’s not clear if the on-camera admission will count for anything but local police are apparently still working on this case, so a prosecution is still a possibility. The Christian Post confirmed an investigation was ongoing:
Matt Newcomb, assistant chief of the Palatka Police Department, confirmed with CP on Wednesday that the case is still under investigation.
“We are currently investigating the incident and are working with the State Attorney’s Office on the case,” Newcomb said.
Second, the fallout at the church was immediate, especially since Caleb worked as a youth pastor with access to children. His father Steve Roberts was a relatively recent hire at Victory Church, having started there in April of 2025. Now, a year later, Victory Church announced that Steve and his wife would no longer be associated with them:
After much prayer and careful consideration, we want to share that Pastor Steve and Angie Roberts have stepped down from their roles at Victory Church, effective immediately.
Recent circumstances have brought deep sorrow to many within our church and our community. While we are limited in what we can share at this time, we want to speak clearly about our hearts. We grieve whenever trust is broken and when people are hurt, and we take these matters with the utmost seriousness.
We want to state plainly that there is no place in the Body of Christ for sexual misconduct or the abuse of trust in any form. Such actions are contrary to the character of Christ and inconsistent with the values we are called to uphold as His church.
Nowhere in their message did they say if they were investigating Caleb’s interactions with kids at the church, or where people could go if they had concerns, or whether they would have a counselor available for anyone who needed to talk. It also didn’t mention what the hell happened. If you didn’t know any of the details beforehand, you could walk away with the impression that Steve Roberts himself committed an act of sexual misconduct, which isn’t the case at all. (A local news station was also confused, saying, “There are still major questions, including who, if anyone, is facing these allegations.” That can be blamed directly on the church for being vague to the point of useless. The news report made no mention of Caleb or the video.)
The church’s “Leadership” page is now empty, except for a single sentence that reads “We are currently praying and beginning the search for a new pastor.”
Incidentally, while there’s not a lot of video of Steve Roberts preaching at this church, a few sermons are available, including this one where he mocked the very existence of transgender people:
If I remember in Genesis, God made men—a man—then God made woman. And then he stopped making people.
But I looked up gender identities, and I said, “How how many do you think there are?” I hit it in Google and one site said there’s 57. The next one said 98. And the next one said 107 different identities, not just man and woman.
So being a man is harder today in many ways…
Don’t ask me to Christsplain that one. It makes no sense. But even though he doesn’t say in that sermon that trans people are predators, we’ve seen this kind of rhetoric used by pastors to insist LGBTQ people in general are threats to children’s safety—in schools, in bathrooms, and everywhere else.
Turns out his own son was the real danger to kids. It raises a lot of questions about what these churches and parents were teaching their children about consent, and sex education, and “purity.” While a lot of questions remain unanswered right now, this appears to be yet another story about how Christian churches that claim to be a safe harbor for everyone are sometimes the most irresponsible places to send your kids. If only they would admit that they’re no better than all the people they routinely condemn.
Of course, not a drag queen.
I love it when preachers cite a work of complete fiction as justification for their bigotry. Well, not exactly love it, but you know what I mean. ;) There is next to nothing in the way of independent corroboration for anything found in the Bible, and yet Christians continue to delude themselves their magic book is a message from God. A God who, judging by the staggering number of Christian tribes, couldn't make himself understood when it came to the most important message imaginable.