Jeff Turner Taylor, who served in the 1990s as the youth minister of the Falls Church Episcopal, one of the Washington region’s most prominent houses of worship, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to sex abuse charges stemming from his tenure at the church.
Federal authorities have charged Taylor, of Milford, Ohio, with coercing and attempting to coerce three minors into sexual activity between the 1990s and early 2000s. He is also charged with four counts of traveling out of state with the purpose of engaging in “illicit sexual conduct with another person under 18 years of age.”
A trial is set for Feb. 16 at U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
Taylor, 66, has been the subject of investigations since 2024, when the Falls Church Anglican — another church about a mile away from the Falls Church Episcopal — published the resultsof an investigation it had commissioned into his actions as youth minister. One person who helped build and lead the Anglican church for many years was the rector of the Falls Church Episcopal, who had recruited and supervised Taylor.
That report said Taylor allegedly sexually abused three Falls Church Episcopal youths in the 1990s or early 2000s. The church-commissioned investigation also alleged that Taylor discussed masturbation habits with nearly a dozen male youths and held graphic discussions with six children about his penis or theirs.
A separate Washington Post investigation in early 2025 found that Taylor allegedly had a lengthy physical relationship with a boy in Atlanta in the early 2000s, when Taylor lived and worked ultimately at two churches.
Taylor’s attorney in 2025, Christopher McDowell, told The Post at the time “no physical evidence or independent corroboration links Mr. Taylor to any abusive conduct.”
This month, a federal grand jury indicted him after an FBI investigation. Accounts in the agency’s investigation match those that appeared in The Post or the independent church report.
At Thursday’s hearing, Taylor approached the defense table in a suit. His pink tie was loosened, and his white shirt was untucked in the front and back. He walked with a cane in his right hand. He did not speak to the court.
Many of his alleged victims, now grown men, and parents whose children were allegedly subject to his behavior were in the courtroom. For most of them, it was the first time they’d seen him face-to-face in decades.
The mother of the Atlanta boy said after the hearing that she was hopeful that the “wheels are turning, and we will see justice.”
Taylor, sitting on a bench outside the courtroom later, defended himself in a brief interview. Asked if he was innocent of the charges, he said yes.
“Nothing has captured the good I’ve done,” he said, speaking for the first time to The Post. “It’s too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Once all these ugly things have been said about me, you can’t take it back.”
His wife, Lolly Taylor, sat by his side and also asserted his innocence. The charges, she said, are “just devastating.”
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