Gregory B. Washington

A gospel singer, who taught music to the schoolchildren of Minneapolis has pleaded guilty to raping a teenager from Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Park girl was 15 at the time the assaults took place in her home and his Plymouth home. The girl's mother discovered the sexual nature of their relationship after she learned he had given the girl a ring and after the mother read explicit text messages the two exchanged.

Gregory B. Washington, 33, of Plymouth, pleaded guilty Monday in Hennepin County to two counts of third-degree sexual assault.

Washington offered no statement to the court when he entered his plea but will have a "more complete opportunity" to speak about the crimes he committed when he is sentenced on Nov. 12th.

Also while on probation, Washington was a contract music teacher in three schools on Minneapolis' North Side. Nobody with the district ran a required criminal check on Washington before he was hired.

Washington was convicted in a similar incident in St. Paul in the late 1990s that involved another 15-year-old girl.

At the time of the St. Paul assault, he was the music director at Zion Baptist Church in north Minneapolis.

In February, a county prosecutor called the parallels between the cases "astonishingly similar."

"He leads a young female through the auspices of the church, had sexual relations with the female and eventually had a child with her," Assistant County Attorney Judith Cole said in Hennepin County District Court of Washington's earlier conviction.

According to Washington's online biography, he started recording with the awarding-winning gospel ensemble Excelsior, and he has shared the stage with Sheena Easton, Roberta Flack and Sounds of Blackness.

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