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.
Jamie Flanery, a member of an unnamed Christian church in Arkansas, stands accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old church girl.
A Randolph County man was arrested after sheriff’s office investigators said he sexually assaulted a teen several years ago.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on February 28, 2023, the victim told the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office that when she was around 15-years-old, she was sexually assaulted and abused by Jamie Flanery.
A bench warrant said the incident happened around August 2012.
The victim stated that she and Flanery attended the same church and the abuse began with Flanery requesting sexually explicit photos of the victim.
The victim said several members of the church’s “youth group” were at Flanery’s house one night. When she went outside to get something, the victim said Flannery grabbed her and kissed her.
The victim then told deputies about another incident while she was leaving Flanery’s house late one night.
As she was driving, she said she received a text from Flanery asking her to pull over at a on Highway 62. The victim said after she pulled over, Flanery got into her car and began to sexually assault her.
The victim said she later texted Flanery’s wife and a Randolph County area pastor, Gary Moore, about the assault.
According to the affidavit, the sheriff’s office conducted an interview with Moore about the allegations.
Moore told investigators that Flanery initally had admitted to kissing the victim.
Moore said he later reached out to Flanery, again, telling him to “swear on the word of God” and asked him if he did what the victim accused him of doing.
According to the affidavit, Moore said Flanery then told him “yes I did, but I didn’t do anything to her that she didn’t ask or she wasn’t ok with.”
On June 6, a judge found probable cause to arrest Flanery.
He faces a felony charge of first-degree sexual assault.
What I want to know is whether Pastor Moore immediately called the police upon hearing about the alleged sexual assault. Further, this assault allegedly took place in 2012. Was Flanery active in one or more local churches since the assault? Lots of unanswered questions.
Update:
In 2004, Flanery’s father, Donald, was convicted of raping a child and sentenced to thirty-five years in prison. Donald Flanery was an Evangelical pastor.
The Associated Press reported at the time:
A former pastor was sentenced to 35 years in prison for raping a young girl who said the man had told her that God approved of their sexual relationship.
A jury convicted Donald Lee Flanery, 46, on Friday, and recommended the sentence that Circuit Judge Harold Irwin imposed later that day in Randolph County, in northeastern Arkansas.
Prosecutors said Flanery, of Ravenden Springs, assaulted the Maynard girl nearly three dozen times, beginning when she was 11 and ending when she was 13.
At the time of the incidents, Flanery was the pastor of a non-denominational church known as The Family of Christ. Documents filed in the case said the assaults occurred at the church, his residence behind the church and at a new home he was building.
The girl told investigators that Flanery had told her that God approved of a man having more than one woman, despite her age.
“It was biblical,″ she said.
She also told police that Flanery was a religious man “who would go through bouts of apology,″ according to investigators.
Sheriff Brent Earley said members of Flanery’s church protested the verdict and pointed fingers at prosecution witnesses.
“They stood up and approached the witnesses and some said, `You’re going to pay for this,″ Earley said. Deputies were summoned to help with security.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen 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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Bruce, I have the same questions. And this: How,’at this late date, can anyone claim that a 15-year-old “asked for it?”
Evangelical pastors, youth pastors, and volunteers either don’t learn or don’t care about how consent works or doesn’t, about who does and does not have the capacity to consent, and how power imbalances between two parties preclude valid consent. This can be taught, and ignoring these principles can be met with consequences. Too bad that doesn’t happen often in evangelicalism.