Kansas Senate Dem nominee Adam Hamilton accused of shielding ‘child predator’ who worked for his church in mid-2000s
New York Post
Josh Christenson
October 2, 2026
The US Senate race in Kansas is taking a nasty turn after incumbent Republican Roger Marshall’s campaign released a new ad accusing Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton of failing to report a pedophile who once worked at Hamilton’s church to law enforcement.
Hamilton, who has served as lead pastor at Church of the Resurrection in Leawood for more than three decades, caught flak from a Democratic primary opponent for allowing the employment of Scott Moore, a church volunteer accused of molesting teenage boys at two retreats in 2005 and 2006.
The Marshall ad, part of a $1.2 million buy that will run statewide on broadcast, cable and streaming services beginning this weekend, says Hamilton let the “child predator” return as a camp counselor in 2006 after allegations by two of his victims were ignored.
“What did Hamilton do when victims reported him to church leaders? Parents were ignored, and Hamilton never called the police,” the narrator says in the 30-second ad spot.
“The next fall, Hamilton welcomed him back. Free to lurk for new victims — later convicted of more child sex crimes,” the script continues. “Adam Hamilton protected a pedophile. He should never be our senator.”
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Moore was convicted in 2013 of misdemeanor sexual battery for inappropriately touching his son’s friend at a sleepover in 2010. Among those who testified against him were the teenagers from Church of the Resurrection whom he purportedly victimized in 2005 and 2006.
In November 2005, two boys were preyed upon in a cabin at the Methodist church’s annual weekend-long sleep-away camp, according to trial testimony viewed by The Post.
One victim, 15 at the time of the abuse, testified that Moore put a hand on his penis, while a then-14-year-old recounted that Moore thrust his hand inside the boy’s sleeping bag near his groin before being scared off as others in the cabin woke up.
“I felt like a hand on my private area. And as soon as I began to stir, I noticed someone rise and leave the room very quickly,” one of the victims testified, identifying the groper later as Moore.
“He came in that night and said that he had an open door policy. And he repeated it multiple times when we tried to shut the door,” the second victim testified of Moore.
Both teenagers brought their concerns to church leadership the following day — only to be accused of “slander” by one of the church’s youth ministers.
“Essentially he told us that we were trying to slander Scott’s name and trying to make him look bad, and basically told us that we were messing with his life, and there could be serious repercussions for that,” the first victim testified. “And besides that, he really didn’t take any action to look into this further.”
At the time, two church officials investigated the allegations but were unable to conclude Moore was the culprit, allowing him to return as a counselor in November 2006 — despite the boys’ parents expressing frustration at not being told the findings of the church’s internal investigation.
“I was never really told the outcome,” one of the boys’ mothers later testified, referring to a Nov. 7, 2005, meeting between parents and church officials Randy Meyer and Nancy Brown to discuss the probe of Moore.
Hamilton, the church’s founding pastor, did not attend that meeting.
Church of the Resurrection fired Moore the following year and referred him to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly inappropriately touching a 15-year-old boy at the 2006 retreat, but the county attorney’s office declined to pursue charges.
Prosecutors later wrote in court documents that the teenage victims provided “detailed” statements to church officials, but weren’t able to positively identify Moore as their abuser at the time.
“As such, the non-experienced church investigators decided that they were not to report the disclosures to social services or law enforcement,” prosecutors said in a November 2011 filing.
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After serving less than a year in prison and being released on probation, Moore was found dead in a family member’s home in 2015 — after being caught in the backseat of a car, half-naked, with a teenage boy and fleeing the scene, the Reflector previously reported.
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