Jan. 22—GREENVILLE — All charges filed against an Atlantic man in Mercer County for allegedly having inappropriate contact with a girl who attended the Greenville church where he previously served as pastor have been dropped.

All charges against David Cox, 59, have been listed as nolle prossed as of Wednesday in Mercer County Court of Common Pleas, which means they will not be prosecuted by the Mercer County District Attorney’s Office.

In September 2022, Greenville Police Department charged Cox with corruption of minors, criminal solicitation to assault a person less than age 16, unlawful contact with a minor, and criminal solicitation to tamper with or fabricate physical evidence.

Mercer County District Attorney Peter Acker told The Meadville Tribune on Friday that the charges of corruption of minors, criminal solicitation and unlawful contact were dropped for insufficient evidence during an omnibus pretrial motion in Mercer County Court.

The tampering with evidence charge was nolle prossed due to evidentiary issues with Greenville police, Acker said. Due to a software issue, messages of Cox allegedly telling the teen to delete texts he sent her were lost as evidence.

Police had alleged that between 2019 and 2021, Cox tried to encourage the girl to meet up with him alone because he wanted to hold her and kiss her, according to court documents. The girl was 14 to 16 years old at the time, according to court documents.

Police said the investigation began in December 2021, when the girl’s mother told police that her daughter had inappropriate contact with a man.

According to police, the girl’s mother was cleaning the girl’s bedroom when several handwritten notes were found hidden in a Bible. She questioned her daughter, who said the notes had been written by Cox, pastor of First Baptist Church of Greenville at that time.

Reporter David L. Dye with The Sharon Herald contributed to this report.

Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.