Who is Charles Brinson?
Charles Berry Brinson, 64, is a pastor of the Brinson Memorial Church on Brinson Avenue in Trenton, New Jersey, United States. He is Eldest Charles and Tardy Brinson‘s son.
Charles was previously convicted in a federal case described as a three-decade-old money-for-marriage citizenship scam. It was described as as an end-around immigration laws in an indictment.
In September 2008, Charles was arrested. He was accused of using a church van to pick up a boy, then 15, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, taking the boy to his residence in Florence, New Jersey and molesting the child.
According to Charles, he befriended the teenager in an online chatroom but he neither met the child in person nor had sexual contact. Eventually, a judge dismissed the charges filed against Charles.
In April 2009, Charles pleaded guilty to a lesser corruption of minors charge so he was sentenced to spend four years on probation. He was required to register as a sex offender.
Since at least 2016, Charles has been pitching city leaders of Trenton on the idea of permanently renaming a stretch of Brinton Avenue between Parkway and Oakland avenues to Brinson Memorial Drive in his parents’ honor. After the city council unanimously voted to approve it in 2021, a councilman introduced a resolution to rescind it after learning about the pastor’s criminal history.
In January 2024, Charles allegedly molested a teenager, 16, at his residence in Trenton after administering an unknown substance that made the teenager lose consciousness. In February 2024, the pastor allegedly did it again to the teenager at his residence so the teenager contacted the Trenton Police Department to report being sexually assaulted by the pastor on two separate occasions.
On February 19, 2025, Charles was arrested at his residence after a joint investigation between the Special Victims Units of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and the Trenton Police Department. He was charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault of an incapacitated victim and two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
Prosecutors have filed a motion to have Charles held in police custody pending trial. An investigation is ongoing.
CONAN Daily 