A Virginia Beach pastor facing felony charges for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor has been earning $30,000 a month and traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard while free on bail, according to state court filings.
John David Blanchard, who serves alongside his wife Robin as senior pastors of the Rock Church in Virginia Beach, got caught up last year in a prostitution sting that netted 17 area men who thought they had been chatting online with underage girls. Blanchard learned he had actually been communicating with an undercover detective and not a teenager after allegedly driving to meet up for sex at a local motel, where he was handcuffed by cops.
Blanchard, 52, was released on $20,000 bond shortly after his Oct. 29 arrest, and “voluntarily stepped down” from his position at Rock Church. In a bail document provided Wednesday to The Daily Beast by the Chesterfield County General District Court, Blanchard reports an income of $30,000 a month from his work in “technology.” Under “family ties,” Blanchard’s wife and 6-year-old daughter are listed. His only prior arrest stems from a charge of improperly altering a price tag, the document states. Public records indicate Blanchard has in the past faced charges of sexual battery and stalking, which appear to have later been dismissed.
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Blanchard’s arrest warrant in the prostitution sting, which was also shared with The Daily Beast by Chesterfield County officials, includes handwritten notes spelling out various court-approved revisions to the pastor’s release conditions. (The Daily Beast redacted sensitive personal information from the document before publishing.)
“Bond amended with agreement of bondsman,” it says. “Business travel with Zion Solutions. Travel 11-16 to 18 to Atlanta. 11-22 to 27 to Tampa. 12-7—16 to N.Y. and other travel as req’d for work. When traveling on dates not specifically listed, will notify court + bondsman of dates + locations. Will check in weekly w/ bondsman.”
A related filing reviewed by local CBS affiliate WTKR reportedly showed additional travel by Blanchard to Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Blanchard, who has been married for some 30 years, holds a Masters of Divinity degree from Oral Roberts University, an evangelical college in Tulsa, Oklahoma founded by the late televangelist. The school’s Honor Code Pledge, which all students must sign at the beginning of the year, requires people to promise “at all times to keep my total being under subjection from all immoral and illegal actions and communications, whether on or off campus,” and that they “will not engage in or attempt to engage in any illicit, unscriptural sexual acts, which include any homosexual activity and sexual intercourse with one who is not my spouse through traditional marriage of one man and one woman.”
Other prohibitions include alcohol and tobacco use.
On the Rock Church website, Blanchard is described as having grown up an atheist with “a dysfunctional childhood,” adding, “John’s heart is to reach a generation with a message of hope through the healing and delivering power of Jesus Christ.”
There is one business named Zion Solutions that is incorporated in Virginia, and state records do not list Blanchard as a company official. However, he touts himself online as the founder of TechDirect, a self-described “LED screen solution for churches.”
In a promotional video for the company, Blanchard tells pastors and church leaders “I believe that the blessing that the Lord has given us at our church can be a blessing to you,” explaining that his own search for “high definition LCD screens” to use during services had been stymied by “outrageous” and “exorbitant” prices.
“I began to just pray about solutions and…so I had an opportunity to go to China and meet a distributor,” Blanchard says in the clip. “And now we have a direct connection to directly bring this technology to churches in the U.S. at a great discount, to help pastors and leaders all across America to have this technology at a fraction of the cost… And it will be a blessing to you and your church to have this modern technology to be able to communicate the gospel in a powerful and visual way.”
Prices for TechDirect’s “turnkey” LCD monitors, which range in size from 6.5-feet tall to nearly 10 feet, start at just over $32,000 and run as high as $62,000.
Blanchard’s next court appearance on charges of solicitation of prostitution and use of a vehicle to promote prostitution is scheduled for March 22, Chesterfield County officials told The Daily Beast. Blanchard did not return multiple voicemail messages left on three phone numbers associated with his name, and did not reply to emails seeking comment. His lawyer, T. Noel Brooks, did not respond to a request for comment.
