Lindsey Aldy Whiteside, a former youth pastor in Mississippi, pleaded guilty last week to a federal charge of transporting a child across state lines for the purpose of sexually abusing her.
Whiteside has been the subject of community ire but also community support, with her case spanning both state and federal courts. The plea means that Whiteside will serve prison time after avoiding it for a different state charge.
Whiteside, 27, previously pleaded guilty in DeSoto County, Mississippi for a state charge involving the same victim, Roys Report (RR) previously reported. In October 2025, she was sentenced to house arrest and court supervision for committing sexual battery while in a position of trust and authority over a child.
Whiteside was a youth pastor for Getwell Church in Hernando, Mississippi, and prior to that, a basketball coach at DeSoto Central High School in Southaven, Mississippi, RR previously reported. Hernando, the county seat of DeSoto County, is 26 miles south of Memphis. Southaven is 14 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee.
On Sept. 25, Whiteside changed her plea to guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi for one of three federal charges, WATN-TV Ch. 24 reported. The ABC affiliate in Memphis reported the charge was related to transporting her alleged victim from Tennessee to Mississippi to engage in criminal sexual activity.
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Whiteside’s October 2025 federal indictment states the crime happened in July 2024. She was also indicted for one count of transporting a child from Mississippi to Georgia. Her third charge was for coercing and enticing a child. These latter two charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement, WATN reported.
In Whiteside’s case in the Mississippi legal system, staff from her previous church and school, including a school board member, sent letters of support to the court, RR previously reported. Some parents, though, kept their children home from the school for a day, in protest of some school staff’s support of Whiteside.
In an October 2025 press conference announcing Whiteside’s conviction, DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton said Whiteside manipulated and groomed the child. The child was nine years younger than Whiteside. Barton said he had 64,000 pages of Whiteside’s printed-out text messages. Whiteside also bought the victim’s parents concert tickets to give her an excuse to babysit the girl.
Additionally, Whiteside sexually abused the girl on a church bus, with other church leaders and children nearby, using a blanket for cover, Barton said at the press conference.
Whiteside committed “sexual abuse in the worst type of manner,” Barton told reporters.
“She was trusted with a congregation. She was trusted with children, and she betrayed that trust. She used the gospel of Jesus Christ as a weapon,” according to Barton.
In October 2025, Lafayette County Southern District Justice Court Judge Andrew Howorth gave Whiteside a relatively light sentence for her state case. She was sentenced to three years of house arrest followed by seven years of court supervision, RR previously reported. Barton had sought the state law’s maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and called the judge’s sentencing an “absolute abomination.”
In November 2025, Barton challenged the sentencing in a motion in court, according to WHBQ-TV, Ch. 13, a Fox-affiliated station in Memphis. But in February, Special Circuit Judge Jeff Weill upheld Whiteside’s sentencing, according to the Daily Memphian.
In the federal case, Whiteside faces a sentence of 10 years to life in prison, according to court documents. Whiteside’s sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 13, 2027, according to WREG-TV, Ch. 3, a CBS affiliate in Memphis.
During Whiteside’s Sept. 25 federal plea hearing, more details of Whiteside’s charges were read in court, WREG reported. For instance, Whiteside was counseling the victim at the time of the abuse.
“Whiteside groomed the minor and her family over an extended period of time in order to gain their trust,” court documents said, according to WREG. “Once the grooming was complete, Whiteside was able to convince the family to allow Whiteside to take their minor child across state lines in order to sexually abuse her.”
Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.
