that children were protected from harm during Sunday school." This stemmed from their mentioning the molestation to Hyles who then promised to "investigate". After two months of nothing being done, the parents went to the police. Furthermore, "the suit, filed last week, claims the minister told the child's parents that Ballenger 'just liked little girls,' and, 'You don't have a case.'" Hyles and the church settled out of court. Ballenger was sentenced to five years in prison. Investigation The Detroit news program was not the only one to study if there was a connection between deacon Ballenger at Hyles' church and the North Sharon associate pastor, who graduated from Hyles-Anderson College. The prosecuting attorney for Washtenaw County, Michigan, went to the Ballenger trial "to watch, listen to testimony and observe similarities between this case and other cases involving a rural church [in] Michigan." On May 14, 1993, "the FBI was asked to look into allegations minors were taken from Michigan to Northwest Indiana by employees or officials of North Sharon Baptist Church near Ann Arbor for events sponsored by Hammond First Baptist Church." The FBI concluded, "there is insufficient evidence to probe allegations." On Friday, May 19, 1993, Sgt. Charles Hedinger, a Hammond police detective, described the Hyles investigation as "open-ended." Jack Hyles said that he welcomed an investigation by the police and he attended a meeting with city officials to discuss it. Hyles emerged from the meeting saying that there was no investigation. Confirmation of this came on Wednesday, May 24, 1993, the Chief of Police detectives, Capt. Bill Conner, was quoted in the Tribune saying that, "There is no investigation of the First Baptist Church of Hammond or Jack Hyles". On June 1, 1993, The Lake County, Indiana prosecutor's office stated that it did not have any cases involving Hyles or the First Baptist Church of Hammond.On the same day, the Hammond Police Department reaffirmed the statement it made the previous month when it confirmed that there was no investigation of Hyles or the church. Criticism of WJBK Hyles told his congregation that WJBK's news anchorman was fired and 12 sponsors had dropped the evening news, but Mort Meisner, news director for WJBK, said neither of those statements were true. On May 19, 1993, The Times of Northwest Indiana ran a story entitled Baptism by innuendo, which criticized WJBK-TV's reporting. The Times wrote, "If one were to take