Victims speak of trauma and healing as Duluth pastor convicted – Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH — Myrissa Overfors ran barefoot from a house near Lakeside in 2007, hiding in some bushes as she frantically called her mother for a ride.

Recalling the scene from the “horror film” seventeen years later, Overfors told a judge that she would have “fled to the end of the world to escape” the man who sexually assaulted her that day.

“I’m 33 years old and I’m just beginning to heal,” she told a packed courtroom at the St. Louis County Courthouse.

For Jackson Michael Gatlin’s numerous victims, Monday marked an important milestone in their long-awaited quest for justice — a day they weren’t sure would ever come.

Gatlin, 36, a former youth pastor at Duluth Vineyard Church, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for a series of sexual assaults against minors under his supervision.

Earlier this month, he said

pleaded guilty to five counts of criminal sexual conduct,

ranging from first to fourth grade. The charges date back more than a decade, and while only five cases could be charged, authorities said there were at least 10 identified victims.

“We wonder how many others there were,” said Jeanne Filkins, whose daughter, Kacey, died by suicide in 2022 after years of struggling with the trauma of her abuse. “How many girls has he really reached?”

Gatlin served as a volunteer and paid pastoral assistant at the Kenwood community church from 2007 to 2023. His parents, Michael and Brenda Gatlin, were then senior pastors at the church and were also involved in national leadership.

Several investigations were launched, with court records implicating the Gatlins

allowed their son to use the church youth group as a “hunting ground.”

to “prey on underage girls for years without consequences” before police finally got involved in 2022.

Authorities said the known victims ranged in age from approximately 11 to 16 years old.

Overfors, then 16, said she was in a particularly vulnerable position when she joined the Church after losing her father. She spoke of a ‘snowball effect’ after the attack, during which she became addicted to heroin and methamphetamine, among other things.

“I was given that monster on a silver platter under the guise of God,” says Overfors, who says she has been sober for ten years.

Vanessa Josephson listed some of the issues she has faced over the past sixteen years: anxiety, depression, panic attacks, eating disorder, self-isolation, anger, loss of faith, sleep problems, loss of confidence and problems at school.

“When I was 15, I should have been worrying about hanging out with friends, what dress to wear to prom and where to go to college,” Josephson said, “not whether my crippling depression would ultimately take my life .”

Josephson said she wants to use the tragedy to advocate for others, and as a mother of two boys, she added, “We often talk about how ‘no’ means ‘no’ — something I wish Jackson’s parents would tell him had learned.”

The News Tribune generally does not name victims of sexual assault, but the women in this story agreed to be publicly identified.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Mike Ryan called Gatlin’s actions “an exploitation of innocence and faith” and said he “robbed (the victims) of their childhood and treated them as if they were disposable.”

“He is fortunate to receive a sentence determined by the law,” Ryan said, “and not by the moral code of his religion, which would dictate something much more severe.”

Gatlin declined to address the court, but defense attorney Chris Stocke noted that the crimes occurred 15 to 17 years ago, when his client was about 20 years old. He said Gatlin had difficulty remembering many details of the cases and has since complied with the law.

“He’s coming to terms with what he did,” Stocke said, adding that Gatlin is in therapy. “Because he knew what he did was wrong, he spent 15 years trying to be a better man.”

Judge Dale Harris called the victims “remarkable courage” in sharing their stories and said he likely would not have accepted the settlement if they had not signed it.

Harris said police reports suggested some in the church community had spoken out about Gatlin over the years, while some tried to cover up his actions, and others simply had suspicions.

“Ultimately, you all have to look in the mirror and decide whether what you did was enough,” the judge said, noting that this is an issue to be decided another day.

Gatlin was convicted of two of the five convictions on Monday. More victims are expected to be heard on Tuesday when he is sentenced in the remaining three cases.

All sentences will run concurrently and after prison he will be subject to lifetime parole and sex offender registration.

But now that the criminal proceedings have been completed, a new phase of the trials begins. This month, nine lawsuits were filed against Gatlin, his parents and the local and national Vineyard Church.

“Thirteen years is a good start,” Filkins said, “but it will never be enough for what this community has lost because of Jackson’s actions.”

Tom Olsen has been covering crime and courts and the 8th Congressional District for the Duluth News Tribune since 2013. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth and has lived in the city all his life. Readers can contact Olsen at 218-723-5333 or [email protected].