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.
Clyde Thomas, a retired Seventh Day Adventist Baptist pastor, stands accused of numerous child sex crimes. Astoundingly, Thomas was arrested for indecent exposure and taking nude photos of a female in 2012. Thomas continued in the ministry after this arrest.
News outlets in Catoosa County, Georgia, are reporting that 77-year-old Clyde Duane Thomas has been charged with inappropriately touching three underage girls. Thomas was jailed at the Catoosa County Jail, and is now out on bond.
Thomas was an Adventist pastor in Michigan and Texas, and retired from Florida.
“The mother told law enforcement that her eldest daughter told her about Thomas giving the girls ‘back rubs’ that then led to being touched in inappropriate areas, according to the affidavit. The family was supposed to go to a wedding that Thomas would be at, and the eldest daughter told her mother she didn’t want him to harm her younger siblings, according to the affidavit. The 3 victims were interviewed and the affidavit says a detective was able to obtain an arrest warrant against Thomas.”
Thomas was arrested on September 26th. He was charged with:
Grooming a minor x3
Child molestation x5
Aggravated sexual battery
Enticing a child for indecent purposes
A 2012 docket shows him as having been involved in an indecent exposure incident, taking nude pictures of a female in public—after which he appears to have continued his ministry.
Being charged is not the same as being found guilty. However, law enforcement does not make an arrest without credible evidence.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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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