Bond reinstated in Va. Beach molestation case

VIRGINIA BEACH

A judge reinstated Melina McPherson's bond Tuesday and said she would face a jury trial Feb. 3 on a charge of taking indecent liberties with a teen girl whom she supervised at a Christian children's home in the late 1990s.

McPherson, 38, of Chesapeake, had been jailed since Nov. 17, when Circuit Judge A. Joseph Canada Jr. revoked her bond and rejected a plea deal that called for 40 days in jail. At the time, he said the jail term was inadequate.

McPherson's attorney, Franklin Swartz, and Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant said in court Tues day that McPherson had not appeared to be a flight risk. Circuit Judge H. Thomas Padrick Jr. agreed to reinstate her $25,000 personal recognizance bond.

She is charged with moles-ting a teen girl, and her husband, Stephen, has been convicted of molesting the girl's two sisters. The couple were house parents at Hope Haven Children's Home in the late 1990s. Stephen McPherson, 40, a former assistant dean at Regent University, pleaded guilty to charges in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, where the couple made their home after leaving Hope Haven and adopting the sisters. He's serving 19 years in prison.