Time again for the Black Collar Crime Blotter. Did you think that preachers sexually assaulting children was a thing of the past? You can see by the date stamp at the end of each entry that all of these cases are pretty damn recent. And keep in mind, this is just a one-month snapshot of the reverends, pastors, preachers and priests that are acting up globally. And you have to know that not every crime goes reported. I mean, you're a six-year-old child already brainwashed into the faith and the holy father sticks his hands down your pants. You going to run to the New York Times? I don't think so.
I acknowledge that there are other crimes committed by non-church members every month too. But aren't these people in positions of power in the local churches supposed to have even higher morals than us great unwashed?
Black Collar Crime Blotter
Arrested / Charged
Torace D. Weaver, 37, Dayton, OH: Murder,
involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault,
reckless homicide, obstructing official business
and 2 counts of endangering children. Weaver,
pastor of King of Glory Church, is charged with
the November 2015 death of 2-year-old Stanley
Thomas, who was his foster child. The death
was ruled a homicide in March due to blunt
force trauma.
First responders were called to the church
on a report of a toddler not breathing. Weaver
allegedly said he had fallen from a table. Injuries
included bruises, scars and a large burn,
according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s
Office.
Yvonne Letne, who lives across the street
from the church, said she knows the family well.
“I knew there was more to what they were telling
us.” Source: Daily News, 8-27-16
Kenneth Adkins, 56, St. Simons Island,
GA: Child molestation and aggravated child molestation.
Adkins, pastor of Greater Dimensions
Christian Fellowship, which has 3 campuses,
is charged with alleged incidents in 2010. On
his Twitter account, he calls himself an author,
pastor and business coach who “has become
one of the most Respected Black Conservative
Voices in America.”
Adkins controversially tweeted after the
Pulse nightclub shootings in June that gays got
“what they deserve” in Orlando, FL. Source:
Brunswick News, 8-26-16
Steven Jesmer, 37, Manchester, NH: Witness
tampering and 3 counts of felonious sexual
assault. Jesmer, pastor of The Dialogue
Church, is accused of assaults on a 13-year-old
girl in June in his church office.
Dawn Jesmer, his wife, told police he admitted
skin-to-skin contact with the girl, an affidavit
said. They have 2 daughters in grade school.
Source: Union Leader, 8-24-16
Derrick R. Trump, 28, Nokesville, VA: Indecent
liberties by a custodian. Trump, director
of youth ministries at Greenwich Presbyterian
Church, is accused of inappropriate contact with
a 16-year-old girl at his home and at the church.
He faces similar charges in another county. The
church fired him in June. Source: WRC News,
8-19-16
Jordan D. Baird, 25, Warrenton, VA: 2
counts of indecent liberties by a custodian.
Baird, youth pastor at Life Church in Manassas,
is charged with sexually touching “on numerous
occasions” a 16-year-old girl at the church between
January and September 2015. His father
is senior pastor. Source: WUSA, 8-19-16
Kari Khalid, Saharanpur, India: Assault
against decency. Khalid, imam at a local
mosque, is accused of inappropriate touching of
a 7-year-old girl at the mosque and biting her
on the face when she resisted. He fled after the
girl’s family filed a complaint. Source: Times of
India, 8-9-16
Christopher Santos, 31, Buckeye, AZ:
Voyeurism and surreptitious recording. Santos,
a youth pastor at Grace Fellowship Church, is
accused of putting his cellphone camera under
the door of a Bealls Outlet’s changing room and
recording a 15-year-old girl who was only wearing
underwear.
The girl’s mother allegedly saw Santos
bending over with his phone. She confronted
him and her daughter grabbed the phone.
Source: KPNX, 8-9-16
Olawale Olabinwonu, 35, Igbogbo, Nigeria:
Attempting to sell a stolen vehicle. Olabinwonu,
an administrative officer at Cherubim and
Seraphim Church, was arrested while allegedly
trying to sell a 2015 Nissan Sentra, which had
been stolen at gunpoint at a hotel. The car was
advertised for sale online, which led police to
the suspect. Source: Punch, 8-8-16
James C. Parkhurst, 56, Beaverton, OR:
Production of child pornography, stemming
from a federal warrant in Denver. Parkhurst, a
Kentucky native, is executive director of camp
and retreat ministry programs for the Oregon-Idaho
Conference of the United Methodist
Church. When he was hired in April 2015, the
conference said in a statement that “He enjoys
spoiling his twin nephews on annual trips to our
national parks in the West.” Source: Portland
Patch, 8-5-16
James B. Briley, 54, Greenville, SC: Criminal
sexual conduct. Briley, campus pastor at
Summit Church, allegedly fondled a 12-year-old
girl’s breasts and buttocks July 31 at his home.
Shauna Galloway-Williams, executive director
of the Julie Valentine Center, which advocates
for sexual assault victims, told a reporter
Briley called the center’s hotline to detail his
alleged crime. She said he indicated during the
call that others had urged him to report it. In her 20-year career, no one had ever called to report
their own crime, she said. Source: WYFF,
8-5-16
Colin Skeele, 30, Florham Park, NJ: Enticement
of a minor to engage in criminal sexual
activity, distribution of child pornography and 2
counts of production of child pornography. He
also faces state charges for allegedly having
sex with an underage ambulance corps volunteer
and viewing child pornography. Skeele
taught at Catholic schools in 2009-10 and 2012.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of Paterson
verified he worked at Our Lady of Mount Carmel
School in Boonton and St. Vincent DePaul
School in Stirling.
It’s alleged Skeele became Facebook friends
in 2011 with a boy he met while working at a
summer camp for boys in Hardwick and offered
him money for sexually explicit photos.
Prosecutors
also alleged that in 2012, he communicated
with people in the Philippines to produce
live sex shows. Skeele allegedly requested specific
sexual acts by girls and boys as young as
3. Source: CBS New York, 8-5-16
David W. Farren, 41, Texarkana, TX:
2nd-degree sexual assault, violation of mandatory
reporting requirements and 3 counts of
1st-degree sexual assault. Farren’s alleged
misconduct with a girl who belonged to Anchor
Church, where he is youth pastor, occurred at a
residence when she was 16 and 17 years old.
Prosecutor Connie Mitchell said Farren has
also headed youth groups at 3 Baptist churches.
Source: txktoday.com, 8-3-16
Jose Figueroa Irizarry, 55, Trujillo Alto,
Puerto Rico: 39 counts of fraud and illegal appropriation
of public funds. Irizarry, pastor of City
of Refuge Inc., also works at Banco Santander,
where he allegedly conducted a scheme from
2012-15 in which he transferred $97,868 to personal
accounts. Source: El Nuevo Día, 8-3-16
Dillon J. Russell, 33, Russellville, AR:
Robbery and theft of property. Russell, senior
pastor at Free Will Baptist Church, is accused
of robbing a Walmart Neighborhood Market at
2:30 a.m. An employee told police that a white male
bought a pack of gum, grabbed the money as
the cash register opened and fled, damaging
the automatic doors. Video showed him leaving
in a vehicle. Source: River Valley Leader, 8-2-16
Eliezer Berland, 79, chief rabbi of the
Breslov Hasidic community in Israel, was
charged in Jerusalem with aggravated assault,
indecent acts and indecent acts against a minor
while abusing a position of trust. He allegedly
carried out sexual acts against several women
and a 15-year-old girl.
According to the indictment, he enlisted 2
followers in 2012 to attack a person making allegations
and then fled. He was arrested in Amsterdam
last year but escaped. He was extradited
from S. Africa in July and has been denied
bail. Source: Haaretz, 8-2-16
Gerald Heard, 64, Carencro, LA: Molestation
of a juvenile. Heard, pastor at Temple Baptist
Church since 1997, is charged with inappropriate
touching of 2 family members “when they
were very young” in 1995-96, according to Iberia
Parish Sheriff’s Office records. The arrest came
a week after a complaint was lodged. It’s unclear
where the incidents allegedly happened.
Heard was World Missionary Support Services president from 2009-12. Temple Baptist
also operated a home-school program. Source:
KATC, 7-28-16
Felix D. Broussard, 50, Breaux Bridge,
LA: 500 counts of possessing child pornography.
Broussard is pastor at St. Bernard Catholic
Church and oversees St. Bernard School. A
repair shop reportedly discovered porn images
when Broussard brought his personal computer
in for service.
Former Bishop Michael Jarrell, who retired
in February, acknowledged in 2004 that the
Diocese of Lafayette and its insurers had paid
out $26 million in settlements to victims of 15
priests. He refused requests in 2014 by a victims
group to release the names of the abusers.
Source: Acadiana Advocate, 7-27-16
Luckner Lorient, 78, Brooklyn, NY:
2nd-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent
homicide, 2nd-degree reckless endangerment,
3rd-degree assault and endangering the welfare
of a child. Lorient, pastor of Eglise Baptist
Church, was arrested in Miami, FL, after being
on the run for a year. Charges stem from a 2014
fire in which a man died and 14 others were
injured in an apartment building Lorient owns.
The church is on the ground floor.
Two months
before the fire, Lorient was cited by the city with
3 violations for subdividing the basement and 2
upper floors. One tenant had 21 people living
in a subdivided apartment. Luckner, a native
Haitian, lied about rectifying the violations, prosecutors
said. Source: WPIX/NY Daily News,
7-27-16
Pleaded / Convicted
Philip Temple, 66, London: Pleaded guilty
to 7 counts of sexual abuse committed in the
1970s after pleading guilty to 20 similar charges
in April. Victims were 12 boys and a girl who
lived at homes for children where he was a social
worker.
After he was ordained as a Catholic priest in
1987, he served at Christ the King Monastery in
Cockfosters. He also admitted lying under oath
in April during trials in 1998 and 1999, when he
was acquitted of charges of child sex abuse
involving a boy from the church. Source: BBC,
8-10-16
Hien Minh Nguyen, 56, San Jose, CA:
Pleaded guilty to 4 counts of tax evasion. Nguyen,
a Catholic priest, has been on leave since
2013 and still faces trial on bank fraud charges.
The indictment alleges he had parishioners
write checks to the Vietnamese Catholic Center
but instead diverted donations to his personal
bank account. Source: Mercury News, 8-9-16
Jonas J. Moses Jr., 62, Brimley, MI: Guilty
by jury of 7 counts of criminal sexual conduct
involving teens as young as 13 from Anishinabe
Baptist Church in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario,
where Moses was pastor. His first trial in June
ended in a hung jury.
Another prominent church member, Steven
E. Alexander, 52, Sault Ste. Marie, was sentenced
to 45 to 70 years in prison in January after
pleading guilty to 3 counts of criminal sexual
conduct involving a 14-year old girl.
The victim’s mother said Alexander played
the role of a good Christian family man to fool
everyone but characterized him as “straight
from Satan.” During the investigation, authorities
pursued leads which led to Moses’ arrest.
Source: Evening News, 8-8-16
Granville Gibson, 80, Darlington, England:
Guilty by jury of 2 counts of indecent assault
and acquitted of 5 other charges. He was
accused of “sinister and deliberate” abuse in the
1970s and 1980s of 2 men ages 18 and 26 while
he was vicar at St. Claire’s Anglican Church in
Newton Aycliffe. The Church of England issued
an “unreserved apology” to the victims. Source:
BBC, 8-4-16
Sentenced
Dell I. Godkin, 48, Willis, TX: Life in prison
with no parole possible until 2046 after being
found guilty by jury of aggravated sexual assault
of a child. Godkin, a volunteer youth pastor at
an unidentified church, still faces sexual assault
charges involving an alleged victim in another
county.
The girl, who is related to Godkin, testified
abuse started when she was 13 and continued
until just before her 17th birthday, when they
“made a deal” that he would stop if she would
not tell anyone.
“He would say lots of things about God being
OK with it,” said prosecutor Monica Cooper,
adding he used bible verses about men’s and
women’s roles to justify it. Source: Morning
News, 8-17-16
Allen D. Miles, 58, Little Rock, AR: 13
years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy
to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity
theft. Miles, an evangelical pastor formerly living
in Ohio, was part of a scam which netted $4.8
million in federal tax refunds. Miles personally
netted more than $240,000 since the scheme
was launched in 2010, investigators said.
Miles’ role was to get other pastors to collect
personal information from low-income
church members, which was used to file phony
tax returns. Prosecutor Carole Rendon said
Miles “took advantage of their religious faith and
their faith in the government to enrich himself.”
Source: Canton Repository, 8-15-16
John Farrell, 73, and Paul Kelly, 64, former
teachers at St. Ninian’s School in Falkland,
Scotland, were sentenced to 5 and 10 years
in prison, respectively, for indecent assaults on
students in the 1970s and 1980s at the school,
which was run by the Catholic Congregation of
Christian Brothers. Source: Plymouth Herald,
8-12-16
Roy D. Pruett, 63, Gadsden, AL: 20 years
in prison after pleading guilty to 3 counts of sexual
abuse of a child less than 12 years old and
2 counts of 1st-degree sodomy. Pruett was arrested
for incidents in 2011-14 with 4 boys while
he was activities director at Eagle Rock Boys
Ranch, a faith-based facility for “at risk” youth.
Eagle Rock touts “Respect For God’s Creation”
on its website and says, “We will go the
extra mile with our children even when they may
not deserve it. We will seek to issue mercy in
the same measure as Christ gives mercy to us.”
Pruett was accused of taking boys from the
ranch overnight to the house he shared with his
elderly mother. Source: WAAY, 8-12-16
Christopher Williams, 22, Sellersburg,
IN: 180 days’ home incarceration after pleading
guilty to 3 counts of criminal recklessness. Williams,
a staff member at Well of Grace Boarding
School, operated by Crossroads Baptist
Church, and pastor Jerry Harris, 48, both negotiated
plea deals in which charges of battery
and neglect were dropped. Harris pleaded guilty
in May to criminal recklessness and received a
similar sentence.
Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said the men didn’t
mean to hurt the children they had punished
for things like wetting the bed. “Our investigation
simply revealed that these were troubled
youths, that [Williams] was trying to help them
the best way that he knew how but ultimately he
went too far and paddled them too hard.”
The school is closed. Source: Jeffersonville
News & Tribune, 8-9-16
Jonathan Bailey, 35, New Orleans: 10
years in prison after pleading guilty to obstruction
of justice, 5 counts of molestation of a juvenile
and 6 counts of indecent behavior with a
juvenile. Bailey, a youth pastor at First Baptist
Church, wept while the 15-year-old victim’s father
spoke in support of a plea agreement so
she wouldn’t have to testify.
Judge Robin Pittman called the plea deal “a
hard pill for me to swallow” but said he accepted
the family’s wishes. Source: The Advocate,
8-8-16
Chad Calhoun, 33, Longview, TX: 11 years
and 3 months in prison and 10 years’ probation
after jury convictions of receiving and possessing
child pornography. Testimony showed that
pornography was available on a peer-to-peer
computer network from Calhoun’s home and
from Lake Highlands Baptist Church in Sulphur
Springs, where he was senior pastor. A laptop
had hundreds of explicit videos of minors.
Source: Houston Chronicle, 8-4-16
Earl Simone, 75, Huber Heights, OH: 5
years in prison with no early release for stealing
$1.92 million from St. Peter Catholic Church,
where he was pastor for 23 years. Full restitution
was also ordered after he pleaded guilty to
1st-degree aggravated theft.
Steve Angi, Archdiocese of Cincinnati chancellor,
read a statement in court calling Simone’s
theft a “betrayal” and said he not only
stole parish funds but also money “from special
collections for the nuns’ retirement, earthquake relief and other special causes.”
Simone also faces a civil suit filed by the
archdiocese, which alleges he actually stole
$4.1 million, but because bank records are retained
for just 7 years, the level of proof was
less than for the $1.92 million he was charged
with taking. Source: Dayton Daily News, 8-3-16
Donnie Ray Schultz, 45, Del City, OK:
27 years, 3 months in prison and $4,266 in
restitution to the victim’s father after pleading
guilty to sexual exploitation of a child. Schultz
admitted he started a sexual relationship with
the girl when she was 14 through a bible class
he taught at Calvary Christian Church. He was
also in a relationship with the girl’s mother at the
time, in 2014-15.
Schultz, a self-employed handyman, took
about 180 photos of his sex acts with the girl,
prosecutors said. They had sex at homes where
he would do repairs, in their own homes, at the
church and in a storage unit. Schultz was convicted
of rape in 1995 and was a registered sex
offender until 2013. Source: The Oklahoman,
8-3-16
Civil Lawsuits Filed
Lawrence McGovern, Stockton, CA, pastor
of Presentation Catholic Parish, is accused
in a suit of sending photos of his genitalia to
a man who maintained the parish’s swimming
pool. The plaintiff, a parishioner and married father
of 2, alleges he was fired after filing a police
report.
After getting the photos, the man told McGovern
he thought he was celibate and asked
why he sent them. McGovern allegedly responded
that “celibate means not married.” The
Diocese of Stockton has placed him on leave.
Source: New-Sentinel, 8-12-16
Verity Baptist Church, Sacramento, CA,
its pastor Roger Jimenez, Johnny Cervantes
III and about 100 unidentified parishioners
are being sued by Spenser Fritz, who alleges he
was assaulted outside a church service. Fritz,
who is gay, has been protesting at the strip-mall
church since June because of Jimenez’s comments
about the 49 murders at Pulse nightclub
in Florida.
In a sermon posted online, Jimenez said he
wished the shooter had killed more gay people.
“There’s no tragedy. I wish the government
would round them all up, put them up against
a firing wall, put a firing squad in front of them,
and blow their brains out.” Source: Sacramento
Bee, 8-12-16
Taj Patterson, 25, is suing the city of Brooklyn
and the New York Police Department and
individual officers for giving “favorable and
preferential treatment” to a Hasidic neighborhood
watch group (Shomrin) and for negligently
investigating his 2013 beating by group members.
Patterson, a gay African-American, alleges
influential Shomrim members placed calls to the
90th Precinct and that one of the men eventually
charged was even given a tour of the 19th
Precinct after the attack. The precinct was run
at the time by ex-NYPD Deputy Chief James
Grant, since indicted for conspiracy, bribery and
fraud for allegedly accepting payola from Jewish
businessmen. Source: NY Post, 8-9-16
Sik Chi-ding, 48, Honk Kong, a Buddhist
nun accused in 2015 of embezzling $1.3 million
from Ting Wai Monastery, is being sued by
monastery director Mary Jean Reimer. The suit
seeks an accounting of income and expenditures
since Sik became head nun in 2005 and
alleges she broke her vows by being married
twice, in 2006 and in 2012, to monks from mainland
China so they could legally immigrate to
Hong Kong. Source: EJI Insight, 8-8-16
The Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe,
NM, is being sued by “John Doe 63,” a former
parishioner at Our Lady of Assumption Parish
in Albuquerque who alleges he was molested
in 1975-77 by the priest, Arthur Perrault, now
thought to be living in Morocco. Perrault also
taught ethics at St. Pius X High School.
The suit contends church officials knew
Perrault was abusing boys and had been transferred
from Connecticut in 1965 due to misconduct
allegations. He later went to Canada and
disappeared in 1992. Source: New Mexican,
8-5-16
Civil Lawsuits Settled
The Catholic Diocese of Portland, ME,
settled a suit filed by 6 sexual abuse victims for
$1.2 million. They were molested from 1958-77
by James Vallely, a Bangor-area priest who
died at age 75 in 1997. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian
said he knows of 8 Vallely victims (7
men and 1 woman) who have come forward.
Documents show then-Bishop Daniel Feeney
was made aware of initial allegations in the
late 1950s, but instead of investigating, Feeney
transferred Vallely. Source: Press Herald, 8-15-16
St. George’s School, Middletown, RI,
agreed to an undisclosed but “very significant”
financial settlement with as many as 40 former
students who say they were victims of sexual
abuse during the 1970s and 1980s, with about
a dozen staff and student perpetrators involved. The Episcopal prep school, founded in 1896,
first admitted girls in 1972.
“Our spirits are renewed on our forward healing
journey,” survivor representative Anne Scott
said in a statement. A field hockey player during
her sophomore year in 1977, Scott alleges she
was raped by athletic trainer Alphonse Gibbs
in the locker room and told by school officials
not to report it. Scott alleges the rapes continued
for 2 years, starting when she was 14 and
he was 67. “I’ll never forget the sound of the lock
clicking.”
At least 20 other students allege abuse by
Gibbs, who was fired but allowed to move on
with no reports made to authorities or other educational
institutions. In fact, he was given a pension
and a letter of recommendation.
Choirmaster and music teacher Franklin
Coleman was also accused of predatory interest
in male students. He was forced out in 1988
but his departure was announced as a voluntary
resignation for health reasons. No reports were
made to police and Coleman received $10,000
and extended health insurance coverage. He
went on to become choirmaster at Tampa Prep
in Florida.
Attorney Carmen Durso alleged male and
female students were victimized and that girls
were routinely belittled and harassed by staff
members. One told Durso there was a school
event at which staff asked girls to dress like
Playboy bunnies. Source: Providence Journal/
Vanity Fair, 8-5-16
The Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford, CT,
will get $945,000 plus interest from Interstate
Fire & Casualty Insurance as reimbursement
for payments made to 4 victims of sexual abuse
by priests. U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton
found that Interstate breached its 1978 contract
by refusing to make the payments.
The company argued it wasn’t liable because
the archdiocese knew that 3 accused
priests were predators but did nothing to stop
them, which the archdiocese denied.
David Clohessy, executive director of the
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,
said churches bought policies to protect them
from paying large sums to settle abuse cases. “I
don’t think they bought these policies because
they anticipated a lot of heavy snowfall and a lot
of people slipping on the church steps and suing.
Bishops knew about predator priests more
than 50 years ago. Even back in the ’70s, they
knew they had a big problem on their hands.”
In 2005 the Archdiocese of Hartford paid
$22 million to 43 victims, about half of which
was covered by Interstate. “Insurance companies
are appalled at what they’ve seen by way
of the deliberate deception by bishops, and it
simply makes financial sense for them to fight,”
Clohessy said. Source: WNPR, 8-4-16
Diane Ryszewski, Marian High School
and the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston are
being sued by a 55-year-old woman who alleges
Ryszewski “engaged in continuous acts of
sex abuse and rape” in 1975-77 when the plaintiff
was a student at the Catholic high school in
Framingham, MA.
Staff members were aware that Ryszewski
lived with the student but “took no action to
protect [her] or to end the relationship,” the suit
claims.
Ryszewski, who know lives in N. Carolina,
was about 28 when the woman attended Marian
High. She taught physical and health education
and coached several girls sports teams.
The woman said her relationship with Ryszewski
started “probably 10 minutes into freshman
year.” She soon moved into Ryszewski’s home
due to family issues. “It’s not very hard to impress
a 14-year-old,” she said. “I felt very special,
but it was also kind of awkward.”
She dropped out of school after her sophomore
year in an effort to end the relationship.
Source: Boston Globe, 8-3-16
Legal Developments
A suit against the Catholic Diocese of Peoria
may proceed, an Illinois appeals court ruled.
The male plaintiff alleges he was molested by
now-deceased priest Norman Goodman of
Holy Family Catholic Church in Lincoln between
1991-94. A lower court had barred the suit due
to the statute of limitations, a ruling which was
overturned due to an exception in the law for
repressed memories. Source: WHOI, 8-26-16
Timothy Bariteau, 39, Brookings, SD, lost
his appeal of an 8-year prison sentence on a
3-2 vote by the South Dakota Supreme Court.
Bariteau, worship pastor at Morningside Abundant
Life Church, started grooming his victim
when she was in 6th grade in 2012, testimony
showed. He was convicted of a 2014 incident
in the music sound booth at the church when
he “pressed his groin and erect penis against
her buttocks” while both were clothed. A month
later, he sent her photos of him holding his erection
through his shorts.
His appeal was based on a phrase in the law
which defines sexual contact as “any touching,
not amounting to rape, whether or not through
clothing or other covering, of the breasts of a female
or the genitalia or anus of any person with
the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire
of either party.”
Bariteau argued he didn’t touch those body
parts, but prosecutors argued that the statute’s
language also includes the pastor’s penis. The
court majority agreed.
The dissenting opinion by Justice Steven
Zinter said the statute is faulty. “[T]he majority
has rewritten the statutory definition of sexual
contact.
These quoted words prohibit a defendant’s
‘touching of’ — not a defendant’s ‘touching with’
— the specified body parts.”
Bariteau will be eligible for parole after serving
4 years. When convicted he was married
with children. Source: Capital Journal, 8-10-16
“British citizen Andrew Charles Kingston
Soper should not be extradited because
offenses he has been charged with exceeded
the statute of limitations,” a court ruled in Pec,
Kosovo. It’s the second time a court there has
refused to extradite Soper, 73, who jumped bail
in 2011 after he was accused of molesting 5
Catholic school students in London in the 1970s
and 1980s. Soper was abbot of the Benedictine
monastery of Ealing Abbey. Source: b92.net,
8-9-16
Niranjan Bhat, 25, Nitte, India, a Hindu
priest accused of helping dispose of the body
of allegedly murdered businessman Bhaskar
Shetty, attempted suicide the day before he was
arrested by swallowing a pair of earrings and a
diamond-studded ring. Hospital X-rays showed
the items in his intestine. “It has to come out
naturally. We will have to wait till then. He is under
observation,” said a doctor who didn’t wish
to be named.
Police have charged Shetty’s wife and son
with his murder. The body hasn’t been found
and may have been burned. Source: The Hindu,
8-9-16
Camerius “Minister” Mills, 30, Edison,
GA, former pastor at St. Paul Baptist Church,
is no longer competent to stand trial on multiple
counts of molesting a teen girl, his attorney
Cada Carter asserts. Mill wants to change his
not guilty plea to not guilty by reason of mental
disease or defect.
“He was a pastor and he had befriended this
young lady in his congregation,” said sheriff’s
investigator Keith Cauthen. “He picked her up
under the pretenses of teaching her the piano.”
Carter said a mental evaluation showed Mills
has a long history of marginal social adjustment
and experiences high levels of self-doubt and
social anxiety. The evaluation also showed Mills
suffers from depression with psychotic features
and schizoaffective disorder, Carter said. “The
defendant at times has no comprehension of his
whereabouts.”
Court records allege Mills traveled from
Georgia to Henry County, AL, to have sex with
the girl between March 1 and August 2015.
Source: Dothan Eagle, 8-5-16
Yoshiyahu Pinto, 42, an Israeli Orthodox
rabbi, will not be pardoned, said Reuven Rivlin,
the president of Israel who rejected Pinto’s request.
Pinto has served 2 months of a 1-year
sentence for attempted bribery and obstruction
of justice.
In a plea bargain, he admitted offering a
$100,000 bribe to police Brig. Gen. Efraim Bracha
in return for information Pinto wanted about
an investigation involving a nonprofit organization
he heads. Bracha committed suicide in July
2015. Source: Haaretz, 8-4-16
Mohammed Madad, 52, Noventa Vicentina,
Italy, imam at the Islamic Center, was
deported to his native Morocco on national security
grounds and banned from reentering Italy
for 15 years for allegedly giving anti-Western
sermons calling for violence. Madad is a father
of 4, including a daughter named Jihad. Source:
NDTV, 7-29-16
Fred J. Neulander, 74, Cherry Hill, NJ, former
senior rabbi at Congregation M’kor Shalom
now serving a life sentence for plotting the 1994
murder of his wife, has lost another legal appeal.
He won’t be eligible for parole until he’s 89.
Carol Neulander was bludgeoned to death
at home by 2 hit men, who much later implicated
her husband, who was allegedly having an affair
with a local radio personality. He didn’t go on
trial until 2002.
An appeals panel rejected each of Neulander’s
7 arguments that he was denied a fair
trial and errors were made in post-conviction
proceedings. Source: philly.com, 7-29-16
William J. Lynn, 65, Philadelphia, the first
senior Catholic Church official convicted in the
U.S. for failure to adequately supervise priests
accused of molesting children, must get a new
trial, ruled the Pennsylvania Supreme Court,
upholding a 2015 lower court ruling. An hour after
the ruling, after posting 10% of his $250,000
bail, Lynn walked out of Waymart State Correctional
Institution.
District Attorney Seth Williams then announced
he will retry Lynn on the same charge
of child endangerment. A tentative trial date of
May 1 was set.
To establish that Lynn was part of a
long-standing cover-up, prosecutors introduced
about 2 dozen of examples of clergy sex abuse,
some dating to the 1940s. But in ordering a new
trial, the Superior Court ruled that the “prior bad
acts” evidence tainted the jury. Source: Morning
Call, 7-29-16
Allegations
Howard W. “Howdy” White Jr., Bedford,
PA, a retired Episcopal pastor, is accused by a
former student at St. Paul’s School in Concord,
NH, of molesting him. White served as a chaplain
and teacher in 1967-71 at the school. He’s
also been implicated in sexual abuse claims by
students at St. George’s School in Middletown,
RI, where he later worked.
St. Paul’s rector Michael Hirschfeld said the
school has notified police about the allegation.
White has now been accused of sexual abuse
in at least 5 U.S. states and Nova Scotia over 4
decades but has never been criminally charged,
partially due to statutes of limitation. Source:
Providence Journal, 8-10-16
The godson of Australian Anglican priest
Peter Rushton, who was exposed by the
church as a pedophile in 2010 after dying in
2007, broke down on the witness stand before
the Royal Commission into Institutional Child
Sexual Abuse. Paul Gray, now in his 60s, testified
he was repeatedly raped at a boys home in
New South Wales.
Gray also told how he was first raped by
Rushton when he was 10. In the mid-1960s,
Rushton began taking him to St. Alban’s Home
for Boys, where he and other boys were anally
and orally raped by groups of men.
Rushton and his lover, Brother Jim Brown,
had infiltrated St. Alban’s, becoming board
members and taking boys home for weekends.
They also fostered orphans. Brown was imprisoned
in 2012.
Gray recalled another time Rushton took
him to a church camp, where there were about
5 men and another boy. He said he knew what
was going to happen so he ran. Two men
caught him, and while he was being raped he
heard the other boy screaming. Source: The
Guardian, 8-2-16
Removed / Resigned
Peter Zuni, 54, Kakuri, Nigeria, was removed
as pastor of Queen of Apostles Catholic Church
for affairs with women. One of the women’s allegations
spurred an investigation, said Ndagoso
Manoso, archbishop of Kaduna. “It is true that
he had affairs with 2 women and they both had
children by him,” Manoso said. Source: Daily
Post, 8-15-16
Email: blackcollar@ffrf.org
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