David Anton appeared before a judge this morning. News Channel 8 image

By CHIP OSOWSKI
of News Channel 8

A former pastor faces drug charges this morning after he was arrested in his church’s parking lot.

  David Anton, 70, faces charges of possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine within a 1,000 feet of a church and possession of drug paraphernalia.

  A judge this morning ordered that Anton remain behind bars on a $2,500 bond.
 

If he does bond out, the judge ordered that he stay away from the church where he spent years preaching.
   
For nearly two decades, Anton and his wife ministered at the Living Word Fellowship Church on North 13th Street in Sulfur Springs.

An officer patrolling the area noticed Anton in the church’s parking lot and had received a tip earlier that a man fitting Anton’s description was smoking crack in the area.
 
The officer talked to Anton, who consented to a search.

According to the police report, Anton dropped a marker and when he bent over to pick it up, the officer saw a baggie and a glass pipe in his shirt pocket.

Anton’s granddaughter, Jessica Anton, says her grandfather and grandmother are in the midst of a divorce and he is no longer affiliated with the church.

She hopes his arrest won’t shed a negative light on all the positive things that happen there.

“Hopefully this will show him if you think you are better than God, He has a way of knocking you down,” Jessica Anton says.

Jessica Anton says her grandfather has asked family members to bail him out of jail, but they declined.

According to police, Anton at first told officers the crack cocaine didn’t belong to him but later they say he admitted the drugs were his.

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