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quote: The never-ending chronicle of church-related crime
Edwin Scherzer, an 80-year-old retired priest living in Louisville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four boys in the 1950s and 1960s. "One of the accusers says Scherzer choked and sexually abused him after instructing him to take off his clothes," reported WKYT News.
Leonard Robertson, pastor of Prepare the Way Community Church in Medina, Ohio, and father of 17 children, was "arrested for rape and gross sexual imposition for allegations involving two of his adopted children," reported WKYC News.
Eugene Ward Jr., pastor of Greater Love Missionary Full Gospel Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, was charged with domestic violence and aggravated menacing after police said Ward beat his wife. According to the Plain Dealer, Antoinette Sims-Ward told police Ward had choked her with a phone cord, and that her nightgown and panties were ripped off in the fight; Mrs. Ward ran to a neighbor's house, naked save for an overcoat. Ward is well known as an anti-gay marriage activist. According to a Plain Dealer article from 2004:
"If we allow same-sex marriage, it will be the beginning of the fall of the nation," said Bishop Eugene Ward Jr. of Greater Love Missionary Full Gospel Baptist Church. "It's important to the future of humanity."... "It's not that I say it's wrong. It's that the Bible says it's wrong," Ward said of same-sex marriage. "I'm a firm believer if we're going to save our society, I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden coming in and attacking Cleveland. But I'm concerned about the enemy that is already within."
Dennis "Tony" Montoya, assistant minister at Word of Grace Church in Mesa, Arizona, pleaded guilty to molesting an 8-year-old girl 13 years ago, when Montoya was 15.
Timothy Paul Rowell, youth director at Main Street Baptist Church in Kernersville, N.C., pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties and statutory sexual offense in a case involving two teenage girls.
Warren Jeffs, the "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who has been indicted on two counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor for marrying a 16-year-old girl to a much older married man, "comes and goes with impunity" from the 1,700-acre Yearn for Zion Ranch near Waco, Texas, said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.
In the last few years, as many as 100 people have filed sex-abuse lawsuits accusing more than a dozen priests and volunteers of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus-- the Jesuit order in Oregon, reported the Oregonian.
Jerald Schara, pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Marxville, Wisconsin, was arrested on child pornography charges.
Kerry Von Smith, pastor of Howard General Baptist Church in Quitman, Arkansas, was arrested on charges of leaving the scene of an accident that left one man dead. "The attorney representing Smith says his position as a pastor only strengthens his case," reported KATV News.
Talbert L. Gwynn, pastor of Wilmington (Delaware) Church of Christ, pleaded guilty to groping two male church members, reported the Williminton News Journal:
According to police, Gwynn grabbed a 14-year-old boy’s genitals in February, when the boy was staying at Gwynn’s house. That same month, Gwynn grabbed a 25-year-old man, who was at his house for Bible study, kissed him on the lips and then hugged him, police said. As the man pulled away, Gwynn placed his hands under the man’s shirt, then grabbed his buttocks.
Gregory Fladeland, minister at Covenant United Methodist Church in Lancaster County, Penns., was sentenced to 3½ to 7 years in prison after he was found guilty on one count each of criminal attempt at rape, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and simple assault, reported the Intelligencer-Journal:
According to a report filed by Millersville police Sgt. Howard R. Bauman, a woman with whom Fladeland had a previous relationship told police she woke to find him in her bedroom in the early morning hours of Aug. 22, 2004... "Greg Fladeland took his clothes off and proceeded to force (the woman) to have sex with him," the report states. "(The woman) stated that she tried to force him away, but Greg was too strong." Fladeland pulled down the woman's pajama bottoms and ripped off her top, Bauman says in the report. "(The woman) was fighting Greg and bit him on the right shoulder," Bauman's report states. "Greg Fladeland then said, 'Oh, this is how you want it.' Greg Fladeland then struck (the woman) in the head two to three times with an open fist." Fladeland ultimately was unable to complete the sexual act, according to Bauman's report.
James Michael Holthus, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lake Crystal and St. John Lutheran Church in Rapidan, Minnesota, was arrested on charges of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct after a man said that when he was about 14 Holthus took him on trips, showed him pornography, bought him boxer shorts, asked him to pose for photos -- and had sex with him, including once at the church parsonage on Christmas Eve, reported the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
The complaint, signed by Blue Earth County Sheriff's Capt. Will Purvis, said Holthus admitted to fondling the boy but denied giving him oral sex. The complaint said Holthus admitted there were times when he groped the boy while he was sleeping and, "for some reason, that made me feel" as if "this kid is all mine."
The pastor's supporters packed the courtroom for Holthus' arraignment and have started a legal defense fund.
October 31 - November 6, 2005
Robert A. Nelson, organist at Immanuel St. James Episcopal Church in Derby, Conn., pleaded guilty to having sex with a 10-year-old girl, one of three girls he admitted to sexually assaulting, reported the Connecticut Post:
According to court documents released in December, the girl was 10 years old when she first met Nelson, then an organist at Immanuel St. James Episcopal Church in Derby. Nelson would take her and other young girls to his Naugatuck apartment, where he would ply them with wine coolers and pay them to watch pornographic movies, pose naked for pictures, and photograph him masturbating, the records stated. One of the girls described having sexual intercourse with Nelson about 20 times.
Roy Burton, pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Fairborn, Ohio, was charged with importuning and attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, after he allegedly used an internet chat room to make arrangements to meet someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl, but who in reality was an undercover police officer.
John Edward Johnson, listed as a "Reverend" in court papers, was charged with felony embezzlement and obtaining money by false pretenses in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Johnson is accused of stealing a $14,090 lottery prize from a homeless dementia patient.
Johnny Lewis Jr., minister at Whitesville [Georgia] Full Gospel Baptist Church, was charged with first degree forgery, for allegedly passing a forged check in the name of the church. It was the second time Lewis had been charged with forgery over the past year.
Victor Icenogle, pastor of Promise Land Church in San Antonio, Texas who was known to parishoners as "Apostle Alex," was found guilty on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, a 10-year-old girl.
Randy Radic, pastor of First Congregational Church in Ripon, California, was arrested on embezzlement and forgery charges related to what police say was a scheme to sell the church without permission of the church's board of directors, through forged documents. Radic is accused of diverting $400,000 of the sale into his personal banking accounts. Police recovered more than $350,000 in cash as well as a 2006 BMW valued at more than $100,000.
Jim Whittington, a minister who was the "on-air presence" for Fountain of Life Ministries, a North Carolina church, was ordered to pay $848,532 to the estate of Valeria Lust, a wheelchair-bound woman from whom Whittington had been convicted of stealing the money.
Bruce MacArthur, a priest who had repeatedly raped a Wisconsin girl over a seven-year period, told investigators that he had raped so many girls he couldn't remember them all. MacArthur, according to transcripts of the interviews with investigators published by KLTM News, went on to say that church officials were aware of the rapes but instead of notifying authorities transferred him to six different churches in a ten year period. He continued to rape girls throughout the period, he said.
Scott E. Nash, youth minister at Trinity Episcopal Church in Tilton, New Hampshire, had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors, in which he would plead guilty to second-degree assault in response to charges that he digitally penetrated a 4-year-old girl. The deal would have meant that Nash would not have to register as a sex offender. The judge in the case, however, rejected the deal, and Nash is to face trial.
Danny O. Hill, a Baptist minister in Gibson City, Illinois, was sentenced to four years in prison, the minimum sentence, for sexually assaulting a teenage girl numerous times over a six-year period. "[The victim] said one of the assaults occurred when she was sedated while recovering from injuries suffered in a traffic wreck," reported the Pantagraph. Hill might have faced a 15-year prison term, but prosecutors asked for the minimum sentence " because of Hill's lack of a criminal record, his work as a Baptist minister and his work in other fields."
Dustin Beck, a youth pastor and high school teacher in Marcola, Oregon, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two female students.
James Poole, a retired priest who has already been accused of raping or sexually assaulting three girls in rural Alaska, was accused of exposing himself to and sexually abusing a fourth girl, then seven years old.
Our first three items consist of fall-out from the Philadelphia grand jury report:
Vincent M. Walsh, who the Philadelphia grand jury report accused of covering up sexual abuse by priests in his position as Cardinal John Krol's assistant chancellor, resigned as pastor of Presentation Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. According to the grand jury report, "Walsh 'sat silently' while parents praised a priest for befriending their sons without alerting them to the priest's known sadomasochistic behavior, and later heard complaints about the priest and failed to alert the parish pastor," reported the Associated Press.
Samuel E. Shoemaker, another priest named in the grand jury report, was confronted by 400 parishoners at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Shoemaker served as chancellor under former Cardinals Anthony Bevilacqua and John Krol, and was responsible for keeping 63 known abusers in the ministry, according to the grand jury report. One parishoner held a sign reading "Justice = Prison," reported the Morning Call. "You must go," a man told Shoemaker, with applause lasting 30 seconds following his remarks. "If you can't stand up against these actions as a leader, then I can't have you as our leader," said a woman.
James M. Iannarella, one of 63 priests named in the grand jury report, nonetheless continued to work as assistant vice president in Drexel University's Office of Government and Community Relations until the Philadelphia Daily News disclosed his employment status:
Iannarella allegedly molested a 17-year-old female parishioner in 1999 at St. Joseph Church in Aston, Delaware County, where he was parochial vicar, according to the report... In his Drexel post, Iannarella served as liaison to the Miss Philadelphia Organization's beauty pageant last year, where he mingled with dozens of teenage stunners.
Elsewhere:
The trial of William Crotts and Thomas Grabinski, who are accused of taking more than $550 million from more than 11,000 investors in the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, will likely continue for five more months and cost millions of dollars as prosecutors and defendants battle with competing tax experts, accountants and outside attorneys, reported the Arizona Republic:
William Crotts and Thomas Grabinski each face three counts of fraud, 27 counts of theft and two counts of illegally conducting an enterprise in the wake of the foundation's 1999 bankruptcy... Five other BFA employees or associates already have pleaded guilty to related felony charges in exchange for their testimony against Crotts and Grabinski. A sixth is too ill to go to trial.
John Powell, a priest and retired Loyola University professor, was the subject of two lawsuits settled by the Society of Jesus in Chicago. The suits alleged that Powell had sexually abused seven women in the 1960s and early 1970s. A third suit was also settled. That suit alleged that Wilton Skeffington, a priest and teacher at Loyola Academy who has since died, had sexually abused a male student at the school. Terms of the settlements were not published.
Jason R. Dolan, pastor at SS. Peter & Paul Byzantine Catholic Church in Portage and St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church in South Fork, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
Clarence Heis, pastor of St. Michael Parish in Mechanicsburg, Ohio and Immaculate Conception in North Lewisburg, Ohio, was placed on on indefinite administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati after he was arrested for public indecency and resisting arrest at the Huffman Dam Five Rivers MetroPark in Bath Township. "According to a report from park rangers," reported the Dayton Daily News, "Heis was arrested Wednesday with two other men when a ranger, acting as a decoy, observed the men engaged in lewd acts."
Jason Anthony Russell, a Lexington, Kentucky man, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering Joseph Pilger, a priest who in 1995 had pleaded guilty to sexually molesting four boys at St. Francis Borgia Roman Catholic Church in Sturgis, Kentucky. Pilger's guily plea was part of a deal with prosecutors that gave Pilger no jail time. Russell, who claims to have been abused as a youngster, "has said he decided to kill [Pilger] after the retired priest offered $5,000 to have sex with Russell's then-6-year-old son," reported the Associated Press. "Russell also claims that he had twice walked in on the retired priest masturbating with photos of Russell's son and catalog clippings of other children." Russell had pleaded guilty to the murder with the understanding that he would be sentenced to life in prison instead of facing the death penalty, but Fayette Circuit Judge Gary Payne imposed the lesser sentence after receiving a letter from one of Pilger's victims, who wrote that Russell had "done a society a favor" by killing a "pedophile monster that preyed upon innocent little boys while in a position of authority and calling him self a man of God."
Roman Kramek, a priest from Poland visiting Sacred Heart Church in New Britain, Conn., was deported back to Poland after completing a nin-month prison term for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl during a counseling session. Kramek told the victim the attack was a "counseling technique" to show her that "sex with a man can be pleasurable."
Judith Lynn Anderson, the business manager at First United Methodist Church of Waukesha, Wisconsin, was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing $253,000 in church funds.
Alan Webster, minister and headmaster at Huntsville [Alabama] Christian Academy, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to possession and manufacture of child pornography. Webster had hundreds of pornographic images on his computer, and had taken nude photos of one of his students.
Mohammad Bolton, youth minister with the Church of Harvest International in Jonesboro, Georgia, was arrested for trying to arrange a sexual encounter with someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl, but who in reality an undercover police officer. Police claimed Bolton had sent the "girl" an obscene photo of himselve over the internet, and asked to sneak into her house. "I do it all the time. It is easy," he reported said.
Ron Durham, pastor of Abundant Life Church in Bangor, Maine, was arrested in Georgia on charges of embezzling more than $100,000 from the church.
Narciso Mendoza, pastor at Word Of Faith Church in San Antonio, Texas, spent four days in jail after disrupting a city council meeting. Mendoza supports Proposition 2, reported KSAT-TV, and wanted to know where the council stood on the issue. He spoke his alloted time, but refused to leave the podium. He then refused to sit down and instead "threw himself on the floor," according to a San Antonio Police Department report.
Ranson Parris, a "bishop" of the New Hope Metropolitan Community Church and Christian Center in Jefferson, West Virginia, was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender. "[West Virginia State] Trooper [Brian] Morris says Parris was convicted of a sex crime with a minor in California," reported the State Journal. "Parris did register as a sex offender in Florida but gave a Roanoke, Virginia address.The 63 year old man has a long rap sheet that spans several states and includes sixteen aliases, said Morris."
John Schwartz, a priest who is the target of a lawsuit by a man who says Schwartz sexually abused him when he was a student at the Jesuit High School in Beaverton, Orgon, was the subject of a publicity campaign by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) outside St. Anselm's Catholic Church in Ross, California, where Schwartz had been re-assigned. St. Anselm's School is around the corner from the church.
Joseph Herp, a priest who had been accused of sexual abuse in four lawsuits in 2002 and 2003, was dismissed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky, reported the Associated Press:
The Vatican also ordered Robert Dollinger, J. Irvin Mouser and Edwin Scherzer to live in prayer and penance. They are not allowed to perform any public ministry, present themselves as priests or have unsupervised contact with minors. The Vatican uses that option in cases of "health problems or advanced age," according to the archdiocese's report.
Robert Ascolese, priest at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Washington Borough, New Jersey, took a temporary leave of absence while a financial audit of the parish is conducted in response to parishoners' concerns about church finances.
William M. Naughton, pastor of Resurrection Church in Randolph, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to stealing $360,000 from the church, reported the Daily Record:
Naughton, who was ordered by the Diocese of Paterson to step down as the church pastor in 2001, told the judge today that he set up a charity account in the church's name and used its proceeds for his own benefit, withdrawing $360,000 over more than five years. Naughton did not disclose to the judge how he spent the money but, outside court, his attorney said a major portion was spent to help a man named Harold Reid, with whom Naughton decades ago had a brief sexual relationship. The pair remained friends over the years, and Naughton repeatedly assisted Reid when he asked for help, Gilbreth said.
Joan Marie Sladky, a Spanish teacher at a private Baptist school in Redwood City, California, was sentenced to six months in jail for having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student.
Nicholas V. Cudemo, a Philadelphia-area priest who had been defrocked because he had molested dozens of girls, peformed a baptism at Christ The King Church in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Explained the Philadelphia Daily News:
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Cudemo maintained sexual relationships with girls from the Catholic schools where he taught, molested a fifth grader in the confessional, invoked God to seduce and shame his victims, and once took an 11-year-old he raped for an abortion, according to the grand-jury report released last month by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
The Fitzgerald Center, a treatment center in Jemez Springs, N.M. operated by the Servants of the Paraclete, which served thousands of priests, brothers and other religious people battling addiction, depression and sexual problems, including some priests who have become infamous locally and nationally for molesting young boys and girls, had destroyed background information on its charges before it closed in 1995. The information might have been used by litigants in the chuch abuse scandals.
Dana Brashear, youth group leader at Crossroads Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Florida who had been convicted on two counts of lewd/lascivious battery for having sex with a 12-year-old boy, has been sued by the victim's family. Also named in the suit was the church itself and the Lee County School Board, which allegedly did not report the victim's repeated absences from school while in Brashear's company. Brasher, said the suit, molested his victim under "the pretext of Bible study."
Damion Armond Rutues, youth pastor at Learning of the Lord Revival Ministry in Des Moines, Iowa, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for molesting three girls between the ages of 8 and 11 in his apartment and his church office. Rutues' mother is the pastor of the church.
"An allegation of sexual misconduct against Monsignor Peter Cheplic that Archdiocese investigators deemed 'credible' was referred to county prosecutors, an Archdiocese spokesman said yesterday," reported the New Jersey Journal. "The investigation, concluded by the Archdiocese Response Team in April 2003, was of a March 2002 allegation by Martin Kansky that Cheplic had sexually molested him at a house at the Shore in 1978, when Kansky was 18 and Cheplic was pastor of St. Matthew's Church in Ridgefield."
Richard L. McCaffrey, a priest in Fairbanks, Alaska who has been removed from his duties while church officials investigate abuse allegations, has been accused by a second women of sexual misconduct. "The lawsuit alleges McCaffrey molested the first plaintiff in Tununak, a Western Alaska village, between 1978 and 1979, and the second plaintiff in Hooper Bay in 1980 and 1981," reported the Associated Press. "Both Yupik Eskimo villages are more than 600 miles southwest of the diocese, which serves 47 parishes throughout the Interior, the North Slope and the west coast of Alaska."
Lloyd D. Jones, youth pastor at Calvary Church in Naperville, Illinois, pleaded guilty to two aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges, admitting he made a male sophomore high school student perform a sex act on him while they were at Jones' apartment last year, and that he inappropriately touched a second 17-year-old he brought to his Naperville apartment in 2000.
Keith Vazquez and his wife, Rene Christou-Vazquez, the founders Dyvine Faith Breakthrough Church in Rosedale, Maryland and of Dynamic Women Weight Loss and Exercise Center in Dundalk, Maryland, were sentenced on tax charges. "Between 1996 and 1999, the Vazquezes left income unreported, submitted false information or failed to file tax returns altogether for some years, according to a February press release from the U.S. Department of Justice," reported the Dundalk (Md.) Eagle. The tax charges were related to operation of the weight loss center. "Calling the centers 'a safe haven for women,' Keith Vazquez said they provide support groups and crisis counseling in addition to Bible study groups. He and his wife still own the Dynamic Women centers in Dundalk, Golden Ring, Towson and Fallston. They called their tax troubles a transforming time, one that led them to a life of service to others."
Alberto Bondy, pastor at St. Anne Catholic Church in Warren, Michigan, has been accused of choking and slapping a fellow priest two years ago after a wedding at his previous church in Center Line, and of hitting a 16-year-old boy with a duffel bag in August after accusing the teen of "joyriding" on a lawnmower in front of St. Anne's.
Larry Davis, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Cold Spring (Kentucky) who had earlier pleaded guilty to defrauding a bank and the federal government after $700,000 went missing from the church, resigned his post.
James Laudwein, a semi-retired priest now working in Portland, Oregon, was accused of molesting a 14-year-old Yupik Eskimo girl when he worked at St. Mary's Boarding School in Western Alaska, in 1980.
Michael Stephen Baker, a Los Angeles priest who had reportedly admitted to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in 1986 that he had molested children from 1978 to 1985, was once again the target of a criminal investigation. "Mahony did not notify police but sent Baker to a residential facility that treated priests for sexual abuse problems," reported the Associated Press:
Afterward, he was assigned to a series of nine other parishes but barred from having one-on-one contact with minors - restrictions he violated three times, according to church personnel file summaries that the archdiocese released. Baker has been accused of molesting more than 20 children between 1974 and 1999, according to the archdiocese.
Paul Lebrun, associate pastor at Little Flower Catholic Church in South Bend, Ind., is on trial for child molestation charges in Mesa, Arizona.
Donald Durand, a retired priest who had served in parishes in Portland, Salem, Corvallis and Silverton, Oregon, and who is accused of molesting six boys, asserted his Fifth Amendment rights over 80 times during a court proceeding, reported the Associated Press. "Hundreds of accusations of sexual abuse have been made in the last few years against more than three dozen Oregon priests."
Anthony Ocloo, a Ghana priest and MBA student at Saint John's University in New York, was charged with sexual abuse and child endangerment charges for allegedly fondling a 16-year-old girl in the rectory of Saint Ephrem's in Dyker Heights.
Kenneth “Tripp” Atkinson, youth minister at First Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina, remains on paid leave from his post while awaiting a grand jury appearance on charges that he raped a 13-year-old girl while working at his previous job, at Pawleys Island Community Church. "Atkinson has worshipped at First Baptist since the allegation surfaced, said attorney and church spokesman Bryan Barnes," reported the South Carolina State. "'I understand he was very warmly greeted,' he said. 'Everybody I talked to at church has been very supportive of him.'"
October 9- 16, 2005
Ronald Lee Simpson, pastor of St. Matthews Missionary Baptist Church in St. Pauls, North Carolina, was charged with felony first-degree rape, felony first-degree sex offense of a child, felony statutory rape/sex offense of a child, felony attempted statutory rape of a child and felony indecent liberties with a child, after a paternity test confirmed Simpson was the father of a baby born to a 12-year-old girl. Also charged with raping the same girl was Simpson's 19-year-old stepson, Rodregous Wactor. As the Lumberton, North Carolina Robesonian reported:
The investigation began in the fall of 2004 when it was reported to the Department of Social Services that the girl was pregnant. She told authorities that she had had sex with Wactor, but a paternity test showed that he was not the father. The girl then said she also had sex with Simpson, according to [Detective Howard] Branch. A separate test confirmed that the 41-year-old minister is the father of the girl's 13-month-old child, Branch said. The child victim is now 14 years old. Her baby lives with her, Branch said.
Louis Beres, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon, was accused of sexually molesting three pre-teen female family members, and local police officials confirmed they were investigating. Beres declined to comment on the accusations, but posted a message on his website saying, "Even Christ refused to be called 'good.' Who am I to proclaim my righteousness?"
Reported the New York Times:
The confidential personnel files of 126 clergymen in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles accused of sexual misconduct with children provide a numbing chronicle of 75 years of the church's shame, revealing case after case in which the church was warned of abuse but failed to protect its parishioners.
In some cases, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his predecessors quietly shuffled the priests off to counseling and then to new assignments. In others, parents were offered counseling for their children and were urged to remain silent.
Throughout the files, cases of child molesting or rape are dealt with by indirection or euphemism, with references to questions of "moral fitness" or accusations of "boundary violations." For years, anonymous complaints of abuse were ignored and priests were given the benefit of every doubt.
John Misseldine, a Mormon missionary from Little Rock, Arkansas, was sentenced to five years' probation after he pleaded no contest to charges of coercion and attempted lewdness with a child under 14 - two sisters aged four and seven - at a church in Las Vegas. "Misseldine won't have to serve jail time, and charges will be dropped if he completes probation," reported KESQ TV.
David Noel, pastor of Bethanie Seventh-day Adventist Church in Port Charlotte, Florida, asked sheriff deputies to remove 16 congregants from the church, as the congregants refused to stop singing as he tried to begin his sermon. The singers were "protesting Noel's leadership and alleged misuse of insurance money for damage to the church caused by Hurricane Charley," reported the Miami Herald. Another congregant, "alleged that Noel struck his chest and twisted his left earlobe during an Oct. 1 meeting to elect new church board members."
Michael H. D'Amico, was removed from his position as priest at St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and permanently banned from the ministry, after officials at the Diocese of Camden substantiated allegations that D'Amico had molested a 13-year-old boy in 1964.
Francis Murphy, an Anchorage, Alaska priest, was named in a lawsuit filed by a man who said Murphy sexually molested him when he was 15 years old. "The Archdiocese of Anchorage has said that at least five other people have previously accused Murphy of abuse," reported the Associated Press. The lawsuit also named "the archbishops of Anchorage and Boston and the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle, Boston-based diocesan priests that the plaintiff asserts brokered Murphy's transfer to Alaska even though the group normally assigns priests to South American countries."
Ronald Bruckner, the retired pastor of Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was placed on "restricted status" by Archbishop Michael Sheehan after the Archdiocesan Permanent Review Board decided "there were credible allegations" of sexual abuse against Bruckner. "Bruckner, who is in his 70s, will not be allowed to wear a Roman collar, but Sheehan told the Albuquerque Journal that Bruckner still would receive his pension," reported the Associated Press. "A man in his 40s alleged in March that Bruckner had inappropriately touched him when he was a teenager alone at the priest's home."
John Anderson, a former priest at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, told investigators that he had voiced concerns about the behavior of fellow priest Ryan Erickson to the pair's bishop, Raphael Fliss of the Superior Diocese, and asked that either of the men be transfered so that Anderson would not have to work alongside Erickson. Erickson was transfered to Hurley, Wisconsin, and four months later killed himself. Last month, a judge ruled that Erickson had "almost certainly" murdered two men in order to silence their accusations of sexual abuse against him. According to the Associated Press:
According to a report by the Hudson Police Department, Anderson said Erickson's alcohol consumption worried him. Anderson remembered once when Erickson brought a cooler full of alcohol to a popular drinking spot, "Beer Can Island,'' in Hudson and partied the whole weekend. When Anderson voiced his concern to Erickson, Erickson responded, "I'm not a priest this weekend,'' the report said. Anderson also said he heard allegations that Erickson put firecrackers in the mouths of fish and watched them blow up, the report said.
In a bid to protect property from sexual molestation lawsuits, the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon had declared bankruptcy last year, and argued that individual parishes and their parishoners were the true owners of an estimated $500 million to $600 million in parish property. But in a counter-move, litigants have filed a rare defendant class action lawsuit, naming all but about 280 of the nearly 400,000 Roman Catholic parishioners in Western Oregon as defendants, reported the Oregonian. The 280 parishoners not included in the suit are those who have asserted that they have no ownership of parish property. Lawyers have said all those who specifically denied ownership of the property would be dropped from the suit.
Curtis Hudson, the youth pastor at First United Methodist Church in Jackson, Tenn. who in 2002 was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of "attempt to commit child rape" and "sexual battery by an authority figure," involving male youth under his care, was named in a lawsuit filed by two of his victims, reported the Jackson Sun:
To protect the identities of the victims, the plaintiffs are listed as John Doe I (now an adult) and John Doe II (still a minor) and Doe II's parents. The incidents involving Hudson occurred when Doe I was "approximately 14" and Doe II was "approximately 12," according to the suit... Court documents state that Hudson's "sexual abuse and rape (of the defendants)" occurred in various places, including the church classrooms, the youth area, various lodging houses at events sponsored by the church and at Hudson's home.
Activists with Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and leaders of the Inland Community Church in Chino, California faced off outside the church as SNAP members handed out leaflets detailing a lawsuit filed by six people claiming three youth counselors at the church had abused them, reported the Ontario Daily Bulletin:
SNAP members said church leaders followed them around the sidewalk near the church on Sunday, taking the leaflets out of congregants' hands and describing the contents as inaccurate. They also were told repeatedly by church members that the lawsuit had been dropped or dismissed - which Stephen Moran, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said is not true. "We have not dismissed this complaint. We have no intent to do so," Moran said.
Ignatius Kane, an 83-year-old Benedictine monk accused of sexually assaulting a prospective nun at St. Bernard's Abbey in Cullman, Alabama in 1970, was found mentally incompetent to stand trial because has incurable dementia. A woman claims Kane raped her in the abbey library during a spiritual retreat for women interested in becoming nuns.
Christopher Williams, a teacher and athletic director at Holy Spirit Episcopal School in Houston, Texas, was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison and lifetime probation for receipt and possession of child pornography. Police were investigating allegations Williams had molested male students at the school when they discovered over 1,000 child pornography images on his computer.
A lawyer who has filed 13 law suits charging five priests working with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont with child sexual abuse, told a judge he wants each case tried separately. As reported in the Rutland Herald:
The latest round of lawsuits comes three years after state Attorney General William Sorrell launched an investigation against almost a dozen recently practicing Vermont Catholic priests and 30 former clergymen. Sorrell hasn't charged anyone criminally because the claims found credible are too old to prosecute under the state's various statutes of limitations.
October 2 - 8, 2005
Darren L. Moore, a Sunday school teacher at a church in Norman, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of forcible sodomy and one count of indecent exhibition of obscene material to a minor, a 7-year-old boy. As reported the Norman Transcript:
The mother of the victim told the court, in a pre-sentence report, that her son didn't want to go to heaven because that's where Moore told him he was going and he wouldn't feel safe with Moore there.
The Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota settled on undisclosed terms a lawsuit filed by two women alleging that David A. Roney, a priest at the Church of St. Mary in Willmar, Minnesota, had molested them. Five other women alleging they were molsted by Roney still have claims against the diocese. Roney is now dead.
Nelson Lynn Wright, pastor at Lighthouse Community Church in Ravenna, Ohio, was arrested and charged with soliciting minors for sex on-line. Police said Wright thought he was exchanging e-mails with teenage girls, but was actually communicating with undercover police investigators.
Ronald Durham, pastor of Abundant Life Church in Bangor, Maine, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of stealing more than $100,000 from the church.
West (Philadelphia) Catholic High School officials have renamed a scholarship originally named in honor of Francis A. Giliberti, a former priest and chaplain at the school who was one of 63 priests identified as child molestors by the Philadelphia Grand Jury report. As reported the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The fund was a happy story about 17 years ago, when Giliberti bestowed it after winning a $1 million slots jackpot at the Trump Castle casino in Atlantic City... West Catholic officials were shocked to learn of Giliberti's long history of abusing boys, which the grand jury said included walking on boys as they masturbated.
William Schwartz, a priest accused of abusing 8th graders at St. Jude's Catholic school in Cedar Rapids, settled a lawsuit filed against him for an undisclosed amount. Three other suits against Schwartz remain. As reported in the Cedar Valley Courier:
According to the suit, Schwartz went to [the victim's] home, took him and a friend for a walk and, in a secluded area, "engaged in improper physical and sexual contact" with Ortmann. The suit also alleges Schwartz physically and verbally intimidated Ortmann from discussing the incident later that summer during a church retreat at Sacred Heart Church in Rockwell, where Schwartz was pastor. In an answer to the suit, Schwartz "admits that there was, on one occasion, a single act of sexual contact between the defendant and the plaintiff," but denied other allegations.
Richard James Trepinski, choir director at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Port Charlotte, Florida who had in 1993 been sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually molesting two children and was released on probation in 2001, was charged with violating the terms of his probation when he was found at Kid Star Park, an amusement park geared towards children.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis settled for an undisclosed amount a law suit that alleged Gilbert Gustafson, a priest at St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church, had molested a woman. As part of the settlement, the diocese agreed to apologize to the victim in writing. Gustafson had in 1982 pleaded guilty to criminal charges of abusing an altar boy at St. Mary's.
Larry Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church of Cold Spring (Ohio), pleaded guilty to stealing up to $730,000 from the church, as part of a plea agreement. Davis faced a maximum 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on a charge of falsifying a loan agreement, and faced other charges as well. "Prosecutors dropped three counts of income tax evasion and two counts of transferring stolen church money across state lines to buy a used Porsche 911 and minivan," reported the Cincinnati Enquirer. "Davis is [now] facing 24 to 30 months in prison and up to $199,000 in back taxes after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to one count each of falsifying a loan application and income tax evasion.
Tadeusz Ulman, a priest visiting Chicago from Poland, was charged with raping a woman whose family had allowed him to stay in their home.
Richard Colbert, a priest at Father Flanagan's Girls and Boys Town in Omaha, Neb., was accused in a law suit of sexually abusing a student at the home. As reported by the Associated Press:
The lawsuit claims Colbert developed "unhealthy, psychologically dependent relationships" with male students "to recruit them for sex." It also names Girls and Boys Town as a defendant, claiming it knew - or should have known - what Colbert was doing and should have better supervised him... the lawsuit claims Colbert also molested other unnamed students.
Robert Brooks, pastor of St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Leesburg, Virginia, pleaded no contest to felony child pornography charges after federal customs investigators allegedly found his name registered on a child pornography Web site in September 2003, reported the Associated Press.
Ronald S. Falotico, pastor of Queen of Angels in Buena Borough, Philadelphia, was removed from his post after police named him as their primary suspect in the theft of about $7,000 from a rectory safe.
Robert David Keith, pastor of the Warren Hill Missionary Baptist Church in North Little Rock, Arkansas, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of stealing $11,000 from the church, buying a Mercedes Benz in the church's name, and conning an insurance company into paying to repair the car after he wrecked it, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Keith has been a fugitive since August.
Lawrence Johnson Jr., a deacon at New Mickle Baptist Church in Camden, New Jersey, was indicted by a Camden County grand jury on charges that he molested five children under the age of 13, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Bennie Chapman, pastor of Holy Bethel Christian Church in Chicago who is charged with predatory criminal sexual assault for allegedly molesting a girl from 1997, when she was 11, through 2000, when she was 14, has been sued by the girl's family, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
John A. Oatis, pastor at Holy Jerusalem Church of God in Racine, Wisconsin, was was sentenced to four years in prison for raping a 15-year-old girl the church, reported the Racince Journal-Post. Although police used DNA evidence to connect Oatis to the girl's assault, he insisted throughtout both his jury trial and his sentencing hearing that he was innocent.
September 25 - October 1, 2005
Robert L. Brennan, was removed from his position as chaplain to a retired nuns’ home because of the controversy caused after he was accused of molesting a total of more than 20 boys from four different parishes. Much of the controversy arose due to the Philadelphia Grand Jury Report, which documented that church officials knew of the abuse but covered it up by moving Brennan to multiple parishes.
Malcomb Kogut, music director at Saint Gabriel's Church in Rotterdam, New York, was sentenced to three years in prison for having oral sex with a 15-year-old choirboy. Said Kogut: "It was a blinded moment of temptation and weakness and I promise it will never happen again."
Sandra Beth Geisel, an English teacher at Christian Brothers Academy, a Catholic military training school in Albany, New York, was sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years probation for having sex with a 16-year-old student.
Stanley Luther Jones, once a minister at Albany (New York) Worship Center, Church of God in Christ, and now a preacher who "travels all over the Southeast visiting different churches and revivals," was charged with three counts of aggravated child molestation and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes. "Those three counts of aggravated child molestation, represent three different victims, that a three month investigation indicated that he had victimized for a very extended period of time," said a police spokesperson.
Douglas Eugene Parker, a preacher in Hernado, Mississippi, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually molesting two girls, aged 14 and 15. Parker was ministering the girls at the time.
John Turnbull, former pastor of St. Francis of Assisi parish in Centerville, Ohio, and currently a priest at Holy Family parish at Oldenburg, Indiana, was accused of sexually molesting a boy at a parochial school student at Streator, Ill., during the late 1970s.
Mary Help of Christians School in Tampa, Florida is the target of eight law suits accusing priests or teachers of child molestation. The latest two were filed this week. Reported the St. Petersburg Times:
One says the plaintiff enrolled in the school in 1980 for the sixth grade. On 20 or more occasions starting in September 1982, a music teacher sexually abused him, the suit says. Years after the music teacher left the school in 1984, he continued to have a sexual relationship with the plaintiff, the suit says. The second suit says the plaintiff enrolled in the school in 1989 in the sixth grade. After catching the boy urinating behind the school, a priest called him to the back of the altar and prayed while he fondled the boy, the suit says.
William Winston, one of the rare Catholic priests who is married (because he converted to Catholicism while he was a priest in the Episcopal Church), was indicted on two counts of aggravated assault by a grand jury in Morristown, New Jersey, which had heard testimony that Winston had thrown his wife to the floor in the church rectory and kicked her.
Stephen A. Fernandes, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church on Bedford, Mass., pleaded guilty to storing hundreds of images of child pornography on a computer and tricking a 16-year-old into filming himself performing a sex act.
Paul Smith, the former pastor of Miracle Baptist Mission of East Stuart and founder of a Treasure Coast prison ministry in Fort Pierce, Florida who is on trial for burglary and battery against his wife, told a court that the charge against him is part of a conspiracy between his wife and Fort Pierce Police Chief Eugene Savage, while Rose Smith denied having the affair. The charge involves an incident at a house where Rose Smith was staying. Paul Smith "fled the area after warrants were issued in 2004, but returned to Fort Pierce and was arrested in July 2005 outside a City Commission meeting, reported the Fort Pierce Tribune. "He faces four counts of aggravated stalking after being accused of contacting his wife several times against the terms of a domestic violence injunction."
Steven G. Smith, described as a "charismatic pastor of an Irving (Texas)nondenominational church" by the Dallas News, was convicted on sexual assault charges for having sex with three female members of his congregation:
"That was the way he treated the women in his church," prosecutors Josh Healy said during closing arguments. "He'd use the Bible. He'd use God's word to prey on these women." In each of the three cases described in the trial, female congregation members testified that Mr. Smith influenced them into having sex during private prayer and counseling sessions.
The trial of Gerald Robinson has been delayed so the defense attorneys can have more time to examine evidence. Robinson, a priest in Toledo, Ohio, is charged with the ritualistic murder of Margaret Ann Pahl, a nun who worked with Robinson at in a hosptial. The killing allegedly took place over the 1980 Easter weekend.
Robert Hermley, a priest convicted of indecent assault on two teenage boys in 1982, was reinstated to ministry the same year, admitted the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware. "Hermley was arrested in 1982 in Pennsylvania, while watching X-rated movies at a drive-in theater with two Philadelphia boys, ages 13 and 14. Nineteen pornographic magazines were found in the car," reported WPVI TV. As recently as 2002, Hermley was serving at the Little Sisters of the Poor retirement complex in Ogletown.
Ryan Erickson, a priest at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Hudson, Wisconsin, who later killed himself, most likely murdered two funeral home workers, said prosecutors. Erickson was under investigation for molesting a teenage boy at the church. Dan O'Connell, a funeral home worker, reportedly found out about the molestation and confronted Erickson. Soon after, O'Connell and his intern were shot dead inside the
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