The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
In 2019, Anthony Brooks, pastor of Jesus House of Believers Worship Center in Florence, Kentucky, was indicted on five counts of first-degree child sexual abuse.
Brooks’ church bio page states:
Pastor Anthony is the Senior Pastor of JHOB-WC Ministries located in the Cincinnati OH / Lawrenceburg, IN. area. Pastor Anthony began ministering in the year of 1998 to lost souls in the Jackson,Ms. area. While ministering in Mississippi, it was the year of 1999 when God gave Pastor Anthony a vision with purpose and passion. That vision is Jesus House Of Believers Ministries inc. (JHOB-WC) for a city and area that he himself had only passed though once.
God used Pastor Anthony behind the scenes to minister the restoring message of God’s love, forgiveness and grace to all man and to lead the lost to salvation though Jesus Christ. Ministering to lost souls remains the passion of Pastor Anthony today.
Shortly after Pastor Anthony began ministering to lost souls in the Jackson Ms. area, God relocated Pastor Anthony to Dallas TX. to serve in the area of inner city outreach, specializing in family & Drug counseling where he still specialize. He is also specializing in intercessory prayer leadership and training, church leadership, pastoral leadership, and church planting. He also served in many areas of ministry, such as outreach ministry , music ministry and youth ministry just to name a few. The love and passion of ministering to lost souls allowed Pastor Anthony to serve, work and learn from some awesome men of God. From the year of 1998 to 2014 Pastor Anthony held many leadership positions in ministry while the vision of JHOB-WC ministry was still his life purpose, passion, and promise. On Feb 9, 2010, God spoke on His promise and vision (for Pastor Anthony to write down the vision) along with a date to birth the ministry of JHOB-WC in the very city where he and his Wife Co- pastor Kimberly Brooks and three kids are ministering this very day…
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Brooks was released on a $5,000 cash bond. That’s right $5,000. The judge who released Brooks on such a low bail ought to ashamed of himself. Nothing says, “we don’t take sexual abuse seriously,” as letting alleged abusers out of jail without making them post substantial bail. I suspect Brooks got the “preacher’s discount.” Some members of law enforcement and the judiciary have a hard time believing men of God could do such things. However, as the Black Collar Crime series makes clear, clergymen can and do take sexual advantage of children and adults. They should be afforded the same harsh treatment as the rest of us when accused of serious sexual crimes against children. Brooks is certainly innocent until proven guilty, but prosecutors don’t bring such cases before grand juries without credible evidence that a crime has been committed. And if Brooks did indeed commit these crimes, it is certainly possible that this victim was not his first. And that’s why alleged abusers should be given high enough bail to keep them behind bars until law enforcement can see if there are other victims.
In January 2020, Brooks was sentenced to two 3-year prison terms to be served consecutively.
A Florence pastor will spend six years in prison for sexually abusing an underage girl.
Anthony Brooks was the lead pastor at Jesus House of Believers Worship Center in Florence.
Investigators say the alleged abuse happened over the last three years, approximately. The alleged abuse happened at a home within Boone County limits but not in the city of Florence, according to deputies. They have no evidence suggesting any crimes were committed on the church property.
Brooks was indicted by a grand jury in February and arrested in mid-March.
WLWT sat down exclusively with Brooks’ wife while the case worked its way through the court. She told us her husband was “totally innocent” and the victim was “manipulating the system.”
“We know that my husband is an innocent man. We know that, as a taxpayer of the county, I thought for sure you’re supposed to uphold the law for me and to help me, not to send an innocent man to jail,” said Brooks’ wife, Stephanie.
Initially, Brooks was indicted on five counts of sexual abuse. He agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge.
According to a comment on the original post about Brooks, he died earlier this year. I was unable to find any online verification of this claim.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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https://www.barnesmortuaryservice.com/obituary/anthony-brooks-sr
I am not sure if this is the same Anthony Brooks who was convicted of Sexual Abuse, but he has the same birthday as the Pastor who was convicted in Boone County, Kentucky. Also, I believe the Boone county Kentucky pastor was originally from Mississippi.
Interesting that co-pastor wife, whose eyes have been opened to Jesus-vision, sees via that glorious vision that supporting her husband, standing by him, means in practical terms denying that he is an abuser/criminal and insisting on his innocence.
Let me ask you Christians this: Would it not serve Christ better (if Christ stands for truth and justice, for love) to assist her preacher husband by acknowledging the truth that he abused on multiple occasions and that he is guilty and needs to be responsible and accountable for his actions, not once but on many occasions? Would admitting and seeking justice for his victims not be the Christian route? Apparently not. To co-pastor wife, support means baldly lying and dismissing reality. Quite a ministry being practiced there in backward Ohio, was it? Backward Ohio, land of the Trumpers. What a backward state, to free such a criminal on 5000 dollars in bond! My sympathies and support to the victim(s) who are so unimportant to the judge. And thank goodness the man finally ended up being properly charged so he at least cannot simply continue to live the charade…. well, that’s probably wishful thinking on my part.
http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=72613
the link is to a criticism that H.L. Mencken made about the Anglo-Saxon part of the United States population. He made reference to a study by two social scientists who did a study of the residents of southeastern Ohio. Admittedly The area where Anthony Brooks committed his crimes is closer to southwestern Ohio than southeastern Ohio, but the criticisms might still be valid. There is also the chance that this pastor Anthony Brooks may no longer be alive. There was an obituary for one Anthony Brooks at Barnes mortuary somewhere( I think close to Jackson Mississippi) where the decedent shared the same birthdate of December 11, 1970 as the convicted sexual offender pastor by the name of Anthony Brooks of the city of Florence Kentucky. That city is located in Boone County Kentucky. the northern border of Boone County Kentucky is the southern bank of the Ohio river. Just across the river is the state of Ohio. The two social scientists H.L. Mencken cited wrote a book entitled Six Thousand Country Churches. The book was published around 1920 and I believe one author was Gifford Pinchot. The comment by Mencken is in the book A Mencken Chrestomathy.
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/crime/crime-and-courts/2019/07/01/nky-man-accused-child-sex-abuse-kept-lyft-job-months/1605387001/ I know this is a little late but failing to properly screen people obviously isn’t limited to churches. It seems that this Anthony Brooks was also working on the side as a Lyft driver while also pastoring a church. He was employed by Lyft despite the sexual abuse allegations levelled against him. When the sexual abuse allegations became known to Lyft, they terminated this Anthony Brooks from their company. On second thought, the Lyft company did a better job of expelling him from employment than some churches do with pastors accused of sexual misconduct.