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 2022, Leroy Lane Jr., pastor of Straight Gate Pentecostal Power Church in Benton Harbor, Michigan, was arrested and charged with sexually abusing a church teenager.
Leroy Lane Jr. preached at the former Straight Gate Pentecostal Power Church. Multiple allegations have been made against Lane, accusing him of preying on and inappropriately touching teenage girls from his church.
Back in September 2021, Lane was accused of inappropriately touching a 13-year-old girl who was interviewed by investigators about the allegations.
According to documents obtained by 16 News Now, the girl was helping Lane prepare for a Super Bowl party at his home. She told investigators she was in his basement when he asked her to come sit with him on a reclining chair. She proceeded to sit on the arm of the chair.
He then asked her to sit on his lap, but she did not want to. That’s when he allegedly grabbed her, picked her up and put her on his lap. The victim then says Lane began to touch her thigh and rub her leg from her knee to the upper thigh.
The victim told investigators she yelled for her sister to come downstairs because she was concerned that Lane would touch a private part.
The victim also told investigators that Lane rubbed her backside while she was standing near a table of food later that same day.
Meanwhile, an older teen who is considered an adult in the court claims she was sexually assaulted by Lane in 2018.
The victim told investigators that Lane was helping her while she was going through a tough time financially, and even helped her obtain an apartment. She says Lane required her to give him a spare key to the apartment in case she lost hers.
She claims she was sexually attacked multiple times while she was sleeping after Lane would enter the apartment unannounced. She also told investigators that Lane had a handgun in his possession during these assaults.
Lane is denying the assault allegations and claims the incidents with the older teen were consensual.
After being ousted from Straight Gate, Lane now preaches at Rhema Word Ministries on Napier Avenue.
Leroy Lane Jr. has been a pastor in Benton Harbor for over twenty years, and preached at Straight Gate Pentecostal Power Church– the congregation on Pipestone Street– now re-named New Birth Apostolic Church after cutting all ties with Pastor Lane when several allegations were made against him preying on teenage girls from his church.
Lane refused to say anything after his hearing on multiple criminal sexual conduct charges was postponed Tuesday at the Berrien County Courthouse.
According to court documents obtained by ABC57, Pastor Lane paid for an apartment for a teenage girl at this church whose family was struggling financially, and in 2018, he allegedly entered the apartment twice– without her knowledge– and sexually assaulting her, one time telling her that he wanted to do that for years after having intercourse with her, and another time he told her he came in to “tuck her in for the night,” before another assault.
Lane is also accused of inappropriately touching a thirteen-year old girl in 2020– picking her up against her will and putting her on his lap, then touching her inner thigh and backside.
Police began investigating Lane Jr. after the thirteen-year old came forward, though he denies the assaults and has claimed that any prior sexual encounters were consensual.
But Deacon Curtis Sherrod, who worked at Straight Gate Pentecostal with Pastor Lane for sixteen years, called him a predator.
“He utilized and weaponized the pulpit in order to keep people silent and to pump fear into people instead of giving them the ability to be free as they should be,” said Sherrod.
He added that two of the victims are people close to him– and said that Lane has harmed far more than just the two girls.
“There are victims that are, from what I understand, that cannot be found, that I watched grow up in the church, that he took advantage of,” he said. “There are two, that while they may not be counted in the case as victims, two of them are my nieces, and as a family we were able to clearly see that he was plotting to head in the direction of grooming them in some way.”
After being ousted from Straight Gate, Lane now preaches at Rhema Word Ministries on Napier Avenue.
I knocked on the church doors to see if anyone there knew of the allegations, though no one answered.
“He just continues to propagate,” Sherrod said. “I would like to see that no one deal with or have the experience of what me and my peers, who were a tight-knit spiritual family at Straight Gate Pentecostal Power, I don’t want to see anyone go through that.”
Sherrod added that others need to come forward to prevent any other girls from becoming a victim.
“If we sit silent, he’ll only do it again,” he said. “He’s proven that. If someone actually stands up and says something—and it’s not just me—but someone has to do something. And if it’s me, so be it.”
A Benton Harbor pastor pleaded guilty to lesser charges following accusations that he was preying on young members of his congregation, according to prosecutors.
Leroy Lane pleaded no contest to assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon.
These are reduced counts from his criminal sexual conduct charges.
Lane appeared in court on June 12, 2023, and was sentenced to five years of probation. He must register as a sex offender for 15 years, stay off social media, stay away from children, and serve 960 hours of community service.
Benton Harbor Pastor Leroy Lane Jr. will not serve any jail time for sexually abusing a teenage girl who was a member of his church at the time.
He was also accused of sexually abusing other young women while he was the pastor of the Straight Gate Pentecostal Church in Benton Harbor.
Lane received a sentence of five years of probation, he must register as a sex offender for 15 years, stay off social media and stay away from children, and serve 960 hours of community service.
His victim, Jacqueline Prather, appeared in court today to face lane during his sentencing.
She was very disappointed with the sentence, but felt it was important to be there.
Lane’s victim was at the sentencing. She expressed disappointment with the judge’s sentence. Disappointment? How about outrage? Lane sexually molested a 13-year-old church girl and was accused of sexually molesting other minors. And he gets a slap on the wrist? This is a miscarriage of justice; yet another reminder that some judges do not take sexual assault seriously. What possible mitigating factors could lead to such an offensive, harmful sentence?
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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I wonder, Bruce, what you think about all of these crimes you report, in terms of what they say about faith, based on your decades of true devotion to Christianity. To me, they indicate that many people at some level recognize that organized religion is a house of cards in the sky, and you only live once and here is this opportunity tossed into my lap that I may never have again, and… It is sad, in the sense that there are better ways, I think, to help us negotiate the world and our own needs in it without hurting others, other than religion. The problem with belief/religion is that it presents as a kind of binary switch, which once turned off, invites everything disallowed when it is turned on. Both views are wrong.
The question for me is whether they were predators when they entered the ministry or became predators afterward. There’s no doubt that some men use the ministry as a guise to hide their evil desires. Others, however, seem to stumble into these things. The question, then, is why? There are few guardrails in the ministry. You have an incredible amount of power over people. You are loved and trusted by people both inside and outside of the church. Affairs are common. It’s the child sexual abuse I simply do not understand. Most pastors will at one time or the other have to deal with sexual temptation. I found that the best way for me to limit temptation was to have Polly in the room when I was counseling women. I had two instances in twenty-five years where women came on to me, In both cases, I quickly knew what was going on and quickly extricated myself. So, I can understand sexual temptation, but abusing children? I have no frame of reference.
The priest who sexually abused me died before I, or any of his other victims, spoke or wrote of our experiences. (It wouldn’t surprise me if other victims were too broken to speak their experiences, and others took their stories to their graves.) So whenever I read about a clergy member who suffers no consequence for abusing a child or anone else who trusted him/her, I feel betrayed all over again.
A lot of victims of sexual abuse do not speak of the incidents for years, even decades. Trauma expresses in a variety of ways.
@MJ, I am sorry that you suffered at the hands of a priest, someone you were taught to trust and respect. So many children are taught to trust and respect elders, especially clergy, teachers, coaches, and other authority figures. It’s actually a wonder that any younger victims do speak up having been trained otherwise.
It’s more than “disappointing” that this pastor only got a slap on the wrist. Back in a position of authority in a church, he is likely to strike again. Jesus doesn’t seem to give a sh!t.
Wow !! What a damned miscarriage of justice THIS is !! The judge handling this case is irresponsible, and also, this psychopath is running around with fekkin guns !! He is a bloody THUG, who just happens to have a cushy job as a ( false) preacher !! But there could be a movement to petition for a new hearing, with a new judge. If enough people in Benton Harbor will express outrage over this legal fail. This guy is a menace to society,as well as a sexual predator. And yes, he WILL off and again, especially if if he NOW believes he’s invincible thanks to this heinous light sentence !! I suspect that the judge hearing that case is anti-child. I’ve seen similar wrist – slapping with other child abuse cases with real violent assaults,etc. Maybe a hue& cry can be raised about this ? 🤬😱💩 MJ, I feel bad that the priest who preyed on you didn’t see the underside of the prison ! That’s where these twisted sorts belong ! I take these cases personally, having to match wits with serial killers in my youth. You never forget what that feels like.
Good points, Obstacle Chick ! This has bothered me for many years, because when attending churches, as we moved a lot so we were always having to find new ones- I was getting very stressed out at the sight of children,even babies, getting beaten by their child- hating,Fundy parents. I have often demanded of Jesus that he’d stop this travesty,and it’s one of my reasons for not going to church anymore. It’s so triggering to see that. And absolutely, Jesus really needs to give a 💩💩💩💩.
https://www.homefacts.com/offenders/Michigan/Berrien-County/Benton-Harbor.html Don’t expect the residents of Benton Harbor , Michigan to rise up in righteous indignation against the lenient treatment of Leroy Lane, Jr. for his sexual offenses. From what this website states while the national average of registered sex offenders per 10,000 residents is 15.75 per 10,000, the ratio of registered sex offenders for Benton Harbor, Michigan is 330.27 per 10,000. https://www.safehome.org/data/registered-sex-offender-stats/ Also, Michigan has the dubious distinction of having the 4th highest number of registered sex offenders in a given state, as well as being number eight in the ratio of registered sex offenders per 100,000 population. Another reason Leroy Lane, Jr might have gotten off so lightly is his age. At 61 years of age and his being an African-American male in the state of Michigan, his life expectancy might not be all that long anyway. He could soon die of cancer, a heart attack, an enraged God hitting him with a bolt of lightning, and possibly falling into a river and being drowned by a pack of enraged river otters.
Brocken—I have never been to Benton Harbor but, from what I’ve heard and read, it seems much like Camden, NJ (a city I’m fairly familiar with): a city mired in abject poverty after its industry left.
Folks like Leroy Lane Jr. flourish in such places because residents, in their desperation, flock to churches like his his. And, if a pastor like him does (or is seen as doing) good things—or simply offers hope or is merely charismatic enough—some people will overlook his misdeeds.
Also, places like Benton Harbor end up with a lot of registered sexual offenders because they lack the resources that more affluent communities can use to keep out whatever they don’t want. Also, because sex offenders often can’t get jobs that pay decently (especially if they were teachers, social workers or others in the “helping professions”), they can’t afford to live in more affluent areas.
https://www.wndu.com/2023/09/20/new-trial-date-set-benton-township-pastor-facing-charges-criminal-sexual-conduct-case/ This article is not about Leroy Lane JR. This is about one Carlton Lynch, Jr. He is the pastor of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church. He is accused of fourth degree criminal sexual conduct. He is also accused of intimidation of a witness.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-civil-rights-leader-found-not-guilty.html It seems that Carlton Lynch jr. was acquitted of the charges against him. However Carlton Lynch jr. was earlier sentenced to 45 days in jail for contempt of court because of his yelling at his accuser, thereby violating a prior no-contact order against him.
https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=72706213845 I possibly have a negative view of that region of Michigan for a couple of reasons. Over thirty years ago I heard some man say some negative things about Benton Harbor, Michigan. He either used to live near there or visited there. Until a couple of months ago I would have ascribed my negative opinions of Southern Michigan or Southwestern Michigan to listening to that person who was in charge of the automotive department of an now closed store or Bruce Gerencser’s tales of being a student of Tom Malone’s bible college. However, thanks to listening to this sermon from Sermon Audio, I now can’t just blame the automotive manager or Bruce Gerencser for my having a negative opinion of Southern Michigan. After listening to this sermon, I realized that the area was overrun with unregenerate Irish Catholics who were drug abusers and foul mouthed. I’m being sarcastic.