FFRF publishes a monthly newsletter from 20-30 pages long. They cover violations of the Constitution, publish writings by members and students, letters from crackpots, and a monthly "Black Collar Crime Blotter" where they publish news items of those in positions of trust in the religious community who have been charge with various crimes.
Yes, I know that many people who are not in a church hierarchy commit various crimes. But the people listed here are people who are in positions of trust in their communities, and when they commit crimes, it is much worse than your run-of-the-mill criminal. Those who attend church regularly are certainly more gullible and trusting than those who do not, so abusing their trust is much worse than defrauding the regular citizenry.
After all, aren't "good Christians" supposed to be strong enough to resist temptation? Aren't they supposedly pillars of the community? Are they just all crooks, charlatans and criminals? Well, surely not all of them, but a large number.
To me, it would be so easy to start a religion and become a preacher. Fleecing the flock is too easy. I, as an atheist, have the integrity to NOT take advantage of other people. I wish I could say the same for everyone in the church hierarchy.
Black Collar Crime Blotter
Arrested / Charged
Kelly Shannon, Warwick, RI: Possession
of child pornography on a cell phone and 7 other
counts, including making false statements to
police and forcing the alleged victim and other
witnesses to make false statements. The bio
on her Christian music website says Shannon,
who’s married with 2 children, is a graduate of
Zion Bible College and “licensed minister (evangelist)
with the Assemblies of God.” The alleged
victim is a young female relative.
The state Attorney General’s Office brought
the charges. Court documents allege Shannon
made the girl pose and then shared the images
on the Internet. The same girl told Warwick police
last year she was raped by a teen boy, but
more recently she alleged Shannon forced her
to lie, telling police Shannon took the photos to
teach her how to perform sex acts detailed in
the rape allegation.
Her bio says she was rescued from abusive
surroundings as a youth by a pastor who sent
her to bible college. Her signature gospel song
is “Rescue Me.” Source: NBC 10, 8-14-15
Vitaly Korchevsky, 50, Glen Mills, PA: Securities
fraud. Korchevsky, who leads the Slavic
Evangelical Baptist Church in Brookhaven and
has chaired the Association of Slavic Baptist
Churches USA since 2000, is accused of working
for years with Ukrainian hackers on a $100
million insider trading scheme. A parallel civil
suit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission names 21 more defendants.
According to his professional biography,
Korchevsky became a born-again evangelical
in 1981. He later moved to the U.S. and earned
an M.B.A. from Regent University, the Virginia
college founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.
Source: philly.com, 8-12-15
Pablo P. Mata, 46, Montebello, CA: Mata,
a Santería priest, is being sought on allegations
of sexual assaults occurring during “healing
rituals” at his business. It’s alleged he had a
16-year-old girl disrobe on 3 occasions for the
ritual in 2013. Police suspect there may be other
victims. Source: L.A. Times, 8-6-15
Jerry W. Cox, 72, Franklinton, LA: Structuring
financial transactions to avoid federal
reporting requirements. Cox, pastor of Faith
Tabernacle, is charged with moving more than
$100,000 around in banks in 2011 to avoid
reporting it as income. He lives in a multimillion-dollar
home a few miles from the church,
which owns the tax-exempt property.
Cox has close ties to former St. Tammany
Parish District Attorney Walter Reed, who was
indicted in April on similar charges and has
given thousands of dollars to Faith Tabernacle.
Source: WWL, 8-6-15
Larry Bates, Memphis, TN: Multiple counts
of fraud for allegedly bilking about 300 victims
out of $18 million. Bates and his sons, Charles
and Robert Bates, are accused in a federal indictment
of targeting individuals seeking advice
from a supposed trusted Christian adviser and/or
an alleged reputable Christian financial company.
From 2002-13, the trio allegedly told potential
customers they needed to buy gold and
silver to protect themselves from “Mystery Babylon,”
a forthcoming economic, political and religious
downturn. Source: Memphis Flyer, 8-5-15
Melvin Ollison Sr., 60, Bayboro, NC: 2
counts of 1st-degree rape, 4 counts of 1st-degree
sex offense with a child and 3 counts each
of 2nd-degree sexual offense and indecent liberties
with a child. Sheriff Chris Davis identified
him as a former associate pastor but didn’t release
the church’s name. Investigators said Ollison
told church members in April he was taking
a leave of absence.
The 4 alleged victims are Ollison family
members all under age 13, the youngest age
5. The first alleged incident was in 1979 and the
last in April. Source: WNCT, 8-5-15
Jimmy Chang, 32, East Longmeadow,
MA: 12 counts of 2nd-degree sexual assault.
Chang, who works at private tutoring center,
was a leader of a Christian youth group in Agawam
at the time of the alleged assaults in 2012
on a girl in the group.
Authorities allege Chang persuaded the girl
to sneak out of her house and give up her virginity
when she was 17. Her sister told police
she found detailed descriptions of the sexual
relationship in her sister’s online diary, including
a statement that she loved Chang but felt “used
and pathetic.” Source Hartford Courant, 8-4-15
Yishai Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox extremist
who lives in an Israeli West Bank settlement,
was arrested for stabbing 6 participants in
the back during Jerusalem’s gay pride parade.
Shira Banki, 16, died of wounds sustained in the
attack.
Schlissel was convicted of a similar attack
at a pride parade in Jerusalem in 2005 and had
been released from prison 3 weeks before after
serving 10 years of a 12-year sentence. According
to prosecutors, Yishai Schlissel told police in
2005 he had come “to kill in the name of God.”
Source: AP, 7-31-15
Karen J. King, 64, Madison, WI: 9 counts
of theft, identity theft, forgery and making false
representations. King, a part-time secretary at
Burke Lutheran Church, is accused of using 4
church credit cards and a checking account to
pay for personal items, including trips to Las
Vegas and Florida and her cellphone bills. An
estimated $34,443 was taken. King was fired in
June 2014,
The complaint alleges she took collection
money after erasing the amounts written down
and used the same tactic to alter her time slips
to reflect overtime. She was paid $11.56 an hour
for 15 to 20 hours a week. Source: State Journal,
7-31-15
Brian K. Burchfield, 42, Shawnee, OK: 1
count each of soliciting and engaging in sexual
communications with a minor and violation of
the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act. Burchfield,
young adult pastor at Quail Springs Baptist
Church, was fired after being accused of “sexting”
4 boys ages 14 to 17. He met them while
working at Immanuel Baptist Church.
Police records say text conversations included
grooming habits of private areas, genital size
and requesting photos from the teens. A police
report says Burchfield “invited the juveniles to
attend a ‘Man Journey Retreat’ with him” and
stay at his in-laws’ lake house in Eufaula in July
2014, the month he was fired. Source: NewsStar,
7-30-15
Oscar Vasquez-Guzman, 38, Indianapolis:
Attempted sexual misconduct with a minor,
2 counts of child molesting and 7 counts of sexual
misconduct with a minor. Vasquez-Guzman,
a pastoral associate with St. Anthony Catholic
Church, is accused of sexual contact with 2
boys between the ages of 11 and 15 from Sept.
2013 through July 20, 2015.
Court documents said the older boy alleged
he was first touched inappropriately when
he was 14 and again about a year later when
he went to Vasquez-Guzman’s house before
a church activity. The boy told investigators
Vasquez-Guzman performed oral sex on him
and warned him if he told his mother the police
would get involved and his family would be deported.
Source: Indianapolis Star, 7-29-15
Ezra Sheinberg, 48, Safed, Israel: 12
counts of rape, indecent assault, sexual harassment,
fraud and obstructing an investigation.
Sheinberg, a rabbi and founder of Orot HaAri
Yeshiva, is accused of assaulting 13 women.
The married father of 8 was arrested in July at
Ben Gurion Airport as he waited for his flight to
Brazil. Source: Jerusalem Post, 7-24-15
José Luis Montes Toyos, Madrid, Spain:
Money laundering. Montes Toyos, a monsignor
and pastor of the Catholic parish of San Ginés,
and his brother and a family lawyer are accused
by Swiss and Spanish prosecutors of laundering
funds linked to the expropriation by the city
of Madrid of a farm, thousands of acres of land
and valuable paintings. Bank accounts are tied
to companies domiciled in Panama and Belize.
The period in question is 2004-11. Source: El
Mundo, 7-24-15
Thomas Cooperider, 23, Valparaiso, IN: 2
counts of rape and counts of sexual battery. The
complaint alleges Cooperider assaulted 3 women
during bible study he led in 2014-15 at Liberty
Bible Church in Chesterton. The women were
“so mentally disabled or deficient” that consent
could not be given, it’s alleged.
Cooperider told police he’d been accepted
at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, where
he planned on studying law. Source: nwi.com,
7-22-15
Joe Habegger, 55, Tarpon Springs, FL:
Lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under
the age of 12. Habegger, a physical education
teacher at Westlake Christian School in
Palm Harbor in 2013-14, is accused of molesting
a student who won an auction to spend a
day with a teacher outside of school.
Deputies said the boy and Habegger began
spending time together and that the alleged
criminal activity occurred after the school year
ended. After Habegger’s contract at Westlake
Christian was not renewed, he was hired at Solid
Rock Christian School, where he was fired
when the principal found out about the allegations.
Source: Fox Tampa Bay, 7-21-15
Yanhao “Eric” Ren, 24, Fullerton, CA: Kidnapping,
sodomy with a child under 14 and oral
copulation with a child under 14. Ren, a youth
leader for Evangelical Formosan Church in
Rowland Heights, is accused of starting a sexual
relationship in May 2015 with a 13-year-old
girl who was in his church group. It’s possible
there are other alleged victims, authorities said.
State Patrol officers found the girl and Ren in
a vehicle parked off Hwy. 330 at midnight in an
unincorporated area of San Bernardino County,
a statement said. Source: OC Weekly, 7-15-15
Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, 30, Dharamshala,
India: Money laundering. Dorjee is revered by
followers as the 17th incarnation of the head of
the Karma Kagyu branch of Tibetan Buddhism.
He fled Tibet for India at age 14 and is seen as a
possible successor to the Dalai Lama, who just
turned 80.
Aboout $1 million in 26 different foreign currencies
was seized in 2011 during a raid on his
monastery but charges were dismissed in 2012.
Now, the high court in the state of Himachal
Pradesh has reinstated the charges. Source:
AFP, 7-9-15
Sentenced
Nicholas Lawrence, 27, Pekin, IL: 40
years in prison (mandatory 85% before parole-eligible)
after pleading guilty to 2 counts
of predatory criminal sexual assault. Lawrence
met the victim while teaching bible classes at 2
churches in Peoria Heights.
The girl he “groomed” sexually starting
when she was 8 in 2010 still thought of him as
her “spiritual mentor” when he was arrested in
2014, court records said. Their relationship had
continued during his classes in 2013-14 at First
Church of God in Pekin.
“I am scarred and damaged. I am broken,”
the girl wrote in a letter read to the court by the
prosecutor. Lawrence “should be considered a
monster.”
“What I did was appalling and inexcusable,”
Lawrence told the judge. “Contrary to popular
belief, I can and will reform completely” with
therapy in prison.
Investigators found 14,000 images on Lawrence’s
computer of “child pornography and
erotica” featuring children from toddlers to about
age 10. Source: Daily Times, 8-12-15
Norman T. Faux, 55, Lake Ariel, PA: 27
months to 15 years in prison and payment of
$5,000 in counseling fees for his victim. Faux,
a United Methodist pastor, had pleaded guilty
to having sexual intercourse with a male juvenile.
The assaults started when the boy was 9
and lasted until he was 19, according to court
documents.
When the boy was 11, he began watching
pornographic videos as a distraction while Faux
performed oral sex on him. The boy said it happened
so many times he lost count.
Lead prosecutor Pat Robinson called Faux,
who is HIV-positive, “disgusting and despicable.
He is an extremely manipulative individual. He
blames everybody but himself for his outrageous
activity.” Source: Wayne Independent,
7-31-15
Simon Reynolds, 50, Barnsley, UK: 32
months in prison for theft. Reynolds, Anglican
vicar at All Saints Church, was found guilty by
jury of stealing $37,000 from 2007-13. The money
came from fees for weddings and funerals
and gravestones. Reynolds fled to Germany
while the jury was deliberating but later returned
to England and turned himself in. Source: Yahoo
News, 7-27-15
Walter Roberson and Robert Young, pastors
at VineLife Church, Boulder, CO, pleaded
no contest to failure to report child abuse and
were sentenced to serve 10 days in jail or on
work crew. Church elders Edward Bennell and
Warren Williams pleaded no contest to the
same charge. Bennell received 2 days in jail or
on work crew. Williams was ordered to perform
40 hours of community service. All received 1
year of unsupervised probation. The men were
all charged for failure to report suspected abuse
in 2013 by youth pastor Jason Roberson, who
is Walter Roberson’s son.
“A message has to be sent that this cannot
happen,” said Judge David Archuleta.
Jason Roberson, 36, was sentenced to 2
years in prison and 10 years’ intensive probation
for a 7-year relationship he started with a
female congregant when she was 15. Source:
Daily Camera, 7-23-15
Yaakov Deutsch, 63, Afula, Israel: 9 years
in prison and a $76,000 fine for molesting 4
teens, 2 boys and 2 girls. Deutsch, a prominent
rabbi in the Nazareth area, told a 15-year-old it
was “God’s will” for him to penetrate her vaginally
and anally in 2008.
The indictment alleged she came to his
home for a blessing to improve a health condition
and that he ordered her to “touch his body
and sexual organ, reasoning that energies will
pass from his body to hers in such a way and
cure her.”
Later he started to take liberties with her Source:
Arutz Sheva, 7-22-15
Civil Lawsuits Settled
The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee
agreed to settle a suit with 330 clergy sex abuse
victims for $21 million. Payments to victims will
vary and be determined by an independent arbitrator.
Archbishop Jerome Listecki said the
proposed settlement sets the stage to close a
bankruptcy proceeding filed in 2011.
The archdiocese objected to all 575 claims
filed in bankruptcy court and tried to have hundreds
thrown out of court. Peter Isley, Midwest
director of SNAP (Survivors Network for Those
Abused by Priests), said in a statement: “In a
perverse and cynical parody of the famous
biblical story of King Solomon, it has been announced
that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has
reached a monetary ‘settlement’ with the Creditors
Committee of the nearly 5-year-old church
sex abuse bankruptcy. It is exponentially the
lowest bankruptcy compensation for victims in
the United States.”
Subtracting attorneys’ fees reduces the payment
to victims by one-third. The average per
victim nationwide in clergy sex abuse settlements
is about $300,000 compared to $45,000
for the Milwaukee settlement. Source: Source:
WITI, 8-4-15
Other
How gruesome photos claiming to show
the body of a murdered pedophile priest John
Geoghan ended up for sale on the website
“Serial Killers Ink” is under investigation by
the Massachusetts Dept. of Correction. SKI is
known as a “murderabilia” site.
The defrocked Catholic priest was convicted
of molesting over 100 children. He was sentenced
to life and was strangled and beaten to
death in his cell in Shirley, MA, at age 68 in 2003
by another inmate, Joseph Druce. In response
to a question on Facebook about the photos, allegedly
signed by Druce, SKI responded: “They
have been sold.” Source: WHDH, 8-8-15
Charles Goodman, 53, Gary, IN: Felony
reckless homicide and driving with a suspended
license. Goodman, driver of a St. Jude Deliverance
Center bus in a fatal crash near Indianapolis,
never had a valid driver’s license in Indiana.
The 15-person bus, headed to a church youth
convention in Ohio, did not have required federal
registration for an out-of-state trip, police
said.
A boy, 6, died in the crash, which “appears to
be a result of driver error,” State Police said but
did not elaborate. Goodman has numerous citations
and misdemeanor arrests in Illinois and Indiana,
including illegally transporting alcohol in
a vehicle, driving without valid registration and
driving with an uninsured motor vehicle, along
with a felony burglary conviction. Source: Chicago
Tribune, 7-29-15
By the way, this is just a small sampling of the cases printed this month. I kept only the more disgusting, egregious cases.
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