Former youth minister accused of sex abuse later became a fundraiser for UC Foundation

A former youth minister accused of sexually abusing children spent at least a decade working as a charitable fundraiser in Cincinnati.

The former minister, Jeff Taylor, worked for most of that time at the University of Cincinnati Foundation, where he solicited donors and helped coordinate fundraising on behalf of UC Health’s Gardner Neuroscience Institute from 2013 to 2023.

A UC Foundation spokesperson, Julie Engebrecht, said officials there conducted a routine background check before hiring Taylor and had no knowledge of the abuse allegations until after he left the foundation.

She said Taylor’s work at the foundation involved regular contact with physicians and adult donors but not with children.

Taylor arrived in Cincinnati years after working as a youth minister at three different churches, one in Northern Virginia and two in Georgia.

An independent investigation commissioned by one of those churches, Falls Church Anglican in Virginia, reported that three men have accused Taylor, now 64, of sexually abusing them when they were boys under his supervision in the 1990s. More than a dozen others told the investigator Taylor behaved inappropriately and asked them questions related to sex and masturbation.

“Taylor, while employed with the Church, engaged in varying levels of conduct that was inappropriate and would fall within the definitions of sexual grooming or sexual abuse,” wrote Edward Isler, an attorney with the IslerDare law firm, which was hired to conduct the investigation.

Isler also concluded that after receiving a credible report of abuse in 2007, about five years after Taylor had left Falls Church, the leaders of Falls Church “failed to take all of the necessary steps to determine whether there had been other victims of sexual abuse by Taylor.”

Reports describe charismatic leader, troubling behavior

Taylor could not be reached for comment. But The Washington Post, which reported new allegations against Taylor in an investigation published this week, said Taylor’s attorney described the accusations as false and said no physical evidence supports the accusers’ claims.

The Post also reported that at least some of Taylor’s accusers have spoken to the FBI about their experiences with him when they were boys.

When contacted Thursday, FBI officials in Cincinnati and Washington, D.C., said they could neither confirm nor deny they are investigating Taylor.

According to the IslerDare report, Falls Church hired Taylor in 1990 to run its youth program, which grew to include 300 to 500 young people during his tenure. The report said participants in the program and their parents considered Taylor a charismatic leader and good public speaker who was treated at times as a “revered saint” or “mini-Jesus.”

But there were warning signs, too, the report found. Taylor focused his attention on boys, some former youth group members told Isler, and often asked them intimate questions about sexuality and masturbation.

At times, some former group members said, Taylor touched them on their legs or private parts while wrestling with them or engaging in other kinds of physical play. Isler’s report said the touching included “credit-card swipes,” which involved Taylor putting his hand between a boy’s buttocks, and “oil checks,” during which he’d stick his finger into a boy’s buttocks over his clothes.

Three students reported what Isler described in his report as “overt sexual abuse,” or specific sexual contact such as fondling.

One of those students told Isler that Taylor referred the next day to the alleged abuse as “some really crazy spiritual warfare.”

In the article published this week, The Post described Taylor’s encounters with one of his accusers as “intense sexual activity.”

UC Foundation says it followed ‘normal hiring procedures’

Taylor left Falls Church in 2002. He worked at two Atlanta-area churches until 2009, when, according to The Post, an accusation related to his days at Falls Church resulted in his suspension and resignation.

Taylor then worked for the Red Cross in Georgia before moving to the Cincinnati area and taking a job with the UC Foundation in 2013.

Foundation officials would not describe their vetting process or say whether they spoke to anyone at any of the churches where he’d worked before coming to Cincinnati.

“We followed normal hiring procedures (background/reference checks) at the time of Taylor’s hiring,” Engebrecht said in an email.

She said she could not discuss whether Taylor had been disciplined for any reason while working for the foundation, or whether the foundation had received any complaints about his behavior.

According to The Post, Taylor worked briefly in a fundraising role for the Cincinnati Nature Center after leaving the UC Foundation, but he left last year after Isler’s report about the abuse allegations became public.

A spokesperson for the Cincinnati Nature Center did not return a call seeking comment.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Youth minister accused of sex abuse later became Cincinnati fundraiser

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