Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Casey Ashton Phillips, 32, has been charged with two counts of lewd/lascivious battery on a victim under 16 after a woman came forward to say he had coerced her into having sex in 2014 or 2015, when she was 14 or 15 years old; Phillips was 20 or 21 years old at the time of the alleged incidents and was a volunteer at Northwest Baptist Church.

The victim came forward in January 2025 and said Phillips was a volunteer at Northwest Baptist Church (5514 NW 23rd Avenue) when she was a child, and her parents sometimes let him drive her to church for youth group meetings. She said that on one occasion, he parked behind the church and told her he was having problems with a girl who wouldn’t have sex with him because he could not “fit” inside her.

The victim said Phillips used this to coerce her into having sex with him to see if he would “fit” inside her, and they had intercourse three or four times. The victim told an Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Detective that these incidents were “out-of-body experiences,” and she was afraid to tell anyone or run away from the situation.

The victim showed the detective Facebook messages between her and Phillips from December 2024 in which she asked him if he was sorry for what he did. The messages reportedly showed Phillips saying he was “very immature.” The messages also said, “I should never done that. Or asked you to do things. I was in a leadership role and took advantage. I am sorry.” She tried to get him to be specific by writing, “Being sexual with me? Was it just me back then?” and Phillips reportedly responded, “It was just you. And I would go back and have never put you in that situation.”

The detective reported that Phillips went into the Navy after leaving Gainesville and is now out of the Navy and living in Chesapeake, Virginia. The detective spoke with Phillips by phone, and Phillips gradually moved from saying he and the victim would “fool around” to saying they “made out” with “some touching.” When the detective asked whether he and the victim ever had sex, Phillips reportedly replied that they tried to, but he did not think he ever “got in” because of his “size.”

Phillips reportedly said he was 18 and the victim was 16 at the time of the incidents, but when the detective said he believed the victim was 14, Phillips reportedly said she could have been 14.

Phillips is currently being held without bail, although Judge James Colaw set bail at $300,000 on his arrest warrant.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.