No you are incorrect. He didn't spank anybody. He advised his congregation to use either a wooden spoon or a dowel to spank their children and since some of them apparently did, the pastor was the one who was charged. The parents who may have "abused" their children were given immunity to testify against the pastor.
The Bible teaches that to spare the rod is to spoil the child. Apparently if you believe that proverb or if you read it aloud in public, then you can be sent to prison.
You should get your-facts straight before defending something.
He advised parents to beat their children as young as a few months old with a wooden spoon (he first denied this and then admitted say this on the stand) and that bruises were NOT and indication that the beatings went too far. He also knew that this activity was illegal and advised parents to do it out of the sight of witnesses. His own brother was convicted of child abuse.
This demented psycho was probably abused himself at a young age and maybe we can pity him, but I would no more defend him I would than a father who rapes his own son.