Willie Forrest, pastor of Springhill Pope Missionary Baptist Church in Pope, Mississippi, stands accused of sexually molesting several children on his church’s property.
Willie Forrest is pastor of Springhill Pope Missionary Baptist in Panola County.
Church members tell us they are shocked by the allegations. They say they haven’t heard any rumors or talk about sexual impropriety at the church.
“It’s very shocking,” said Minnie Doyle, church member.
Forrest has served as pastor at the church for 14 years.
“He had a great church,” said Doyle. “You’d never think anything like that was going on.”
Forrest is charged with three counts of molesting children under the age of 15.
District Attorney John Champion said the alleged crimes happened at the church and Forrest’s home in Coldwater where he was arrested Monday.
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Springhill Pope Missionary Baptist Church is on a hill in the main part of the community of Pope, which has a population of about 200 people.
The church is close to an elementary school.
“I don’t like it,” said Pope resident Caroline Reddick. “It is too close to the school, and how long has it been going on? How long has he been there? That’s what I’m saying. That’s very bad.”
Word of Forrest’s arrest has spread around Pope. One woman in a convenience store said she was shocked. She said she didn’t know the pastor personally but he would visit the store occasionally and he seemed nice.
“He seemed nice.” “He had a great church.” People are shocked when they hear that a local pastor — perhaps their pastor — is accused of sex crimes. It’s as if pastors are morally superior to everyone else, pillars of moral virtue. This naivety is what allows predatory preachers to commit heinous crimes, often for years. If the Black Collar Crime series teaches us anything, it is this: pastors are not, in any way, more or less moral than the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the world. Blind trust in church leaders by congregants and community members allows predators to cause incalculable harm to others. Until congregants start paying close attention to the behavior of church leaders, this kind of stuff will continue to happen. Forrest may be a “nice” man, a wonderful pastor of a “great” church, but according to news stories, he is also a sexual predator.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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.
John C. Sapp Jr. a youth leader at Maranatha Fellowship in Dover, Delaware, stands accused of sexually abusing two teen girls under his care.
A 34-year-old Hartly man has been indicted on 89 charges he was involved in sexual relationships with two teenage girls who were members of a church youth group he’d been leading for the past three years.
Word of the sexual liaison came to light when John C. Sapp Jr. contacted Maranatha Fellowship church’s lead pastor in February requesting to “immediately meet with him,” according to court documents. It was during this meeting, at Sapp’s house with his wife there, that the youth leader confessed to “inappropriately touching” a girl.
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Delaware State Police investigators questioned the girl Sapp had mentioned.
The girl told investigators that she and Sapp began a “secret relationship” in October 2017, when she was 15, according to court records.
The two would perform sexual acts, usually inside Sapp’s truck, but there were times the contact occurred at his house, church premises and even on a youth group camping trip, according to court records.
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The pastor told investigators that after the Feb. 13 meeting with Sapp, he became aware of an additional member of the youth group “who may have had similar relations” with Sapp.
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When investigators spoke to the second girl, court records state she told officers she and Sapp started a “secret sexual relationship” when she was 16. That relationship went from January 2019 to January of this year.
Like the other relationship, court documents said Sapp and the girl had their encounters in the man’s truck, sometimes at his or her house and at times in the parking lot of Delaware Technical Community College’s Dover Campus. These encounters occurred at least twice a month.
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Sapp has been indicted on multiple charges, including continuous sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of a child by a person of trust, fourth-degree rape with a victim under the age of 18 and unlawful sexual contact.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Occasionally, I am contacted by preachers accused of criminal behavior who have been featured in a Black Collar Crime post. They want me to know that they have been found innocent, were exonerated, or were found not guilty of the charges against them. Or, they want me to know the charges have been dismissed or reduced. Usually, they ask me to immediately remove the Black Collar Crime story about them. Over the past four years, I have removed a total of two stories. One story, which I recently removed from this site, had wildly conflicting statements from the alleged perpetrator and the victim. The pastor in question sent me several whiny, accusatory messages, saying that the post on this site was materially harming both him and his family. Personally, I wanted to tell this preacher to fuck off. I did tell him what I thought of his interaction with me. That said, it matters to me that the Black Collar Crime stories are factually accurate. I attempted several times to contact the alleged victim. Unfortunately, she chose not to respond to me. Thus, I thought it best to remove the story, even though I personally thought the pastor in question was an asshole.
Recently, someone contacted me about the Darrell Scheepers case. In April 2018, Scheepers, pastor of New Life Christian Church in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, was accused of sexual assault. According to the person who wrote to me, Scheepers has been found not guilty and the case was dismissed. Here’s part of what he had to say:
Just wanted to provide an update on the news item you posted regarding Pastor Darrell Scheepers and the sexual assault charge against him. I am not sure what your motivation was for sure in reposting that article and it doesn’t really matter. Just in the interest of fairness to Darrell Scheepers since you decided to spread his humiliation to the winds you should know that after two years of enduring the justice system he was found not guilty and the case was dismissed. People have been known to lie when they want to destroy someone and women are people just saying. Atheist or whatever we profess to be we have a responsibility to each other to do no harm.
I responded:
All I do is re-post news articles, maybe with a bit of context/comment. If you have a link to a news story/church statement/court disposition that reflects Scheepers was found not guilty and the case dismissed (which are two different things), please send it to me, and, if warranted, I will add it to this story. You should know that a number of preachers have written to tell me that they were not guilty or their charges were dismissed, only for me to find out they were lying. I no longer trust people I don’t know, especially so-called men of God. I want these reports to accurately reflect the facts. The goal of the Black Collar Crime Series is to shine a light on the grossly underreported sex crimes and other crimes perpetrated by Evangelical pastors and church leaders. Almost 700 cases and counting. Men found not guilty or had their cases dismissed? Three.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Bruce Gerencser
The letter writer, as of this date, has provided no information that shows Scheepers has been found not guilty and the case was dismissed. Again, which is it? Was Scheepers found not guilty? Or was the case dismissed? Either way, this doesn’t mean Scheepers didn’t do that which he is accused of. Being found not guilty means a jury didn’t believe the evidence was sufficient to convict someone. Having a case dismissed usually means that the judge, for any of a number of possible reasons, found that the case should not go forward. I will leave it to the lawyers who frequent this site to add further nuance to the words such as innocent, exonerated, not guilty, or charges dismissed. (My editor, who is also a lawyer, suggested this website for an explanation of the legal difference between the words innocent and not guilty.)
Several days ago, another person left the following comment about Scheepers, saying he had been exonerated and found not guilty.
Pastor Scheepers was exonerated last week. I trust this will be given equal publication time to the original charge so that people will know he is not guilty of the crime. He and his fault have gone through a great ordeal and the public can not be left to believe he is guilty of the crime.
Regardless, when verifiable information is provided, I will gladly add it to the story in question. As of today, a news search on Darrell Scheepers returns zero stories beyond the 2018 story. The letter writer assures me that this information exists, but it has not yet been made publicly available. I have no reason to believe this man is lying, BUT I cannot and will not take his word for it.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Glen Uselmann, formerly a youth pastor at Calvary Gospel Church in Madison, Wisconsin, stands accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a church girl. Uselmann later married his victim. Calvary Gospel is affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church International.
Glen Uselmann, of Columbus, is charged with second degree sexual assault of a child and sexual assault of a child under 13, according to a criminal complaint from Madison Police filed in Dane County court on July 15. Uselmann’s initial appearance in court is scheduled for Aug. 6.
The charges come after a Cap Times story in August 2019 detailed how men at Calvary Gospel Church in Madison, a United Pentecostal International congregation, allegedly groomed and molested girls at the church, who were often pressured to later marry their abusers.
Rebecca Martin Byrd was one of those women and agreed to speak with a Cap Times reporter and be named in this story. She married Uselmann following years of abuse, starting when she was 12, she said. They divorced in 2006. Seeing charges filed in her case has been validating, she said.
“I lost my childhood… when you suffer abuse for years and years it’s almost like you don’t realize what is happening,” she said. “You get so accustomed to being treated that way and so accustomed to having no control in your life. In a way you suppress your own needs and your own feelings. When someone said, ‘Yes, this was wrong,’ that is very validating for me.”
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Byrd was one of 13 people the Cap Times interviewed for its 2019 story, four of whom said they were sexually assaulted and manipulated as children attending Calvary Gospel Church in the late 1980s and 1990s. Nine others, including parents, siblings of alleged victims, members who witnessed sexual misbehavior and one pastor who was in leadership at the time of many allegations, corroborated the abuse.
Byrd filed a report with Madison police last August hoping the case would fall within the state’s statute of limitations for sex crimes against children, but she wasn’t sure, she said. The Madison Police Department said Monday that the investigation is still open and could not comment on it.
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The criminal complaint outlines several interviews conducted by Madison Police Detective Bradley Ware over the last 11 months. It includes a statement from the church’s current bishop, John W. Grant, identified by his title and the initials “JWG” in the report. Grant led Calvary Gospel Church for 47 years. His son Roy Grant now leads the congregation.
According to the complaint, Ware asked Grant if Uselmann ever admitted to his sexual relationship with Byrd when she was a minor. Grant said Uselmann admitted they had had sex but “made it sound like it was only one time.”
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Byrd said she hopes the case sheds light on the church institution that enabled the abuse and helps others come forward to report it.
“I feel like this case isn’t just about this one man,” she said. “This case to me is about an institution that was corrupt and was abusive and belittling to women. I hope this case blows open the doors to a lot of other situations that went on in that group that shouldn’t have gone on.”
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.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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.
Logan Wesley III, an Evangelical pastor at Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ inTexarkana, Texas, was arrested in November 2019 on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14. The Texarkana Gazette reported at the time:
Logan Wesley III was taken into custody last month by Texarkana, Texas, police on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14. The offense is punishable by 25 to 99 years or life in prison and there is no parole from any sentence imposed.
Wesley, 56, allegedly began molesting the girl when she was 12 and continued to sexually abuse her for many years. The alleged victim, who is now 38, reported the alleged abuse to investigators in mid-November. The alleged victim reported that she was not believed when she made outcries about the abuse as a child because of Wesley’s status as a pastor.
The woman reported that she provided a recording of a phone call between her and Wesley to investigators. Wesley allegedly confessed to and apologized for the abuse on the call.
After his arrest, Wesley III was released on a $100,000 bond. In February 2020, the good pastor found himself in court again facing additional sexual assault charges. The Texarkana Gazette reports:
Logan Wesley III, 56, was arrested in November on a single felony charge involving one alleged victim. Earlier this month, a Bowie County grand jury returned three indictments involving three different girls which list a total of 18 felony counts.
Following his arrest in November, Logan posted a $100,000 bond. Bail on Wesley’s current charges totals $1.25 million.
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At a hearing Monday morning, Texarkana lawyer Josh Potter asked 202nd District Judge John Tidwell to lower the total to $100,000 and release Wesley on his existing bond.
“What I’ve decided to do, I’m going to leave the bonds where they are but I’m not going to make you wait for trial until Aug. 24,” Tidwell said. “I’m going to move your trial up to May 4.”
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp said she has identified 13 alleged victims of sexual abuse by Wesley “on both sides of the state line” whom she might call as witnesses at Wesley’s trial in May. Crisp said the 13 alleged victims include the three named in the Bowie County indictments and 10 others who allege they suffered sexual abuse by Wesley in other jurisdictions.
The court must conduct hearings outside the presence of the jury regarding any alleged victim she wishes to call as a witness in a trial concerning a different alleged victim. The court will determine if the potential testimony is admissible before it can be heard by a jury. Because of the number of such alleged victim witnesses in Wesley’s case, Crisp suggested scheduling those hearings in advance of the trial.
Wesley allegedly used his status as pastor of a Texarkana, Ark., church to sexually abuse young girls.
Wesley is charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14, three counts of sexual assault of a child under 17 and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact involving a single alleged victim.
Charges involving a second alleged victim include two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 and five counts of sexual assault of a child under 17. Charges involving a third alleged victim include a single count of sexual assault of a child under 17 and three counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact.
Wesley faces five to 99 years or life in prison if found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14. Sexual assault of a child under 17 and indecency with a child by sexual contact are both punishable by two to 20 years in prison.
Pastor, Father, Husband and Friend, Chosen to Empower men and women with the uncompromising Word of God…….If God can’t do it, IT CAN’T BE DONE!!
Wesley neglected to add “alleged pedophile.” Based on Wesley’s statement about God, I assume we can conclude that God was behind his sexual molestation of numerous girls.
On July 2,2020, Wesley was sentenced to five life sentences plus 220 years for 16 counts of child sexual abuse.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards, said the three victims named in Wesley’s indictments were not his only victims. Two other women testified they were abused by Wesley also, Crisp said.
The victims are now in their 30s but were molested by Wesley when they were children and teens. Wesley used his position as pastor of Trinity Temple of God in Christ Church in Texarkana, Ark., to prey on the victims.
Crisp said Wesley assaulted the girls at the church, in church vans, in his car, at local parks and at his home. Two other women testified during the trial that they were abused as children by Wesley in different jurisdictions, Crisp said.
“The jury, having heard evidence that Logan Wesley has been terrorizing and raping children since at least 1981, sentenced him to the maximum amount of prison time for each of the counts for which he was convicted,” Crisp said. “Wesley’s prolific and outrageous criminal behavior entirely justifies the sentence he received. The repeated violations of the criminal laws of the State of Texas caught up with Logan Wesley this week. Thankfully the 12 citizens of Bowie County who made up this jury showed this defendant the same amount of mercy he showed his victims, which was none.”
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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.
Law enforcement officers arrested a 41-year-old pastor in Georgia who is wanted in connection to several sexual assault cases in Portland.
The Portland Police Bureau said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office arrested Helio Ferreira on Dec. 3 in Valdosta, Ga., where he’s a pastor in the community.
Ferreira is charged with two counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, three counts of first-degree rape, one count of first-degree sexual assault, and one count of identity theft.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office says Ferreira is accused of sexually abusing three women in 2012, 2016, and 2018.
According to the indictment, Ferreira engaged in sexual intercourse with a victim who was incapable of consent either because of mental incapacitation or physical helplessness on or around Nov. 17, 2012.
On or around Sept. 18, 2016, Ferreira is accused of kidnapping a different woman and forcing her to engage in sexual intercourse and other sex crimes.
The indictment says on or about Sept. 7, 2018, Ferreira kidnapped a third woman and forced her to engage in sexual intercourse. It says he also committed identity theft involving the victim.
The indictment says Ferreira is a suspect in these three cases based on DNA evidence.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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.
Steven Tibbetts, pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Godfrey, Illinois, stands accused of distributing child pornography.
KMOV-4 reports:
Steven P. Tibbetts, 61, served as the head pastor at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Godfrey.
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Prosecutors say the investigation of Tibbetts began in August 2019 when the blogging and social network site, Tumblr, provided a cyber tip line report about one of its user accounts to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The account was searched by law enforcement and allegedly found to contain images and videos of nude minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
According to the complaint, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also received a tip from Twitter in February 2020 that one of its users had uploaded two images of suspected child pornography.
Investigators were allegedly able to trace the Tumblr and Twitter accounts back to Tibbetts’ home, where a federal search warrant was executed on June 18. A search of Tibbetts’ computer allegedly revealed the presence of additional child pornography images and videos. Agents then arrested Tibbetts at his home.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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.
Bramwell Retana, pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Oasis De Paz in Las Vegas, Nevada, was arrested on December 20, 2019 on sexual abuse charges. Since then, Retana has been charged with fifty-nine felony counts, including lewdness with a child younger than fourteen, first-degree kidnapping, child abuse, and luring a child with a computer to engage in a sexual act.
While investigating new claims that led to a third criminal case against a local pastor facing a growing list of sexual abuse allegations, Las Vegas police apparently discovered that the pastor sometimes left pornography up on his church computer, which he often allowed the children to use.
An adult church member who spoke to police in early January said she once witnessed a child using 44-year-old Bramwell Retana’s computer, which had “pornographic materials” on the screen, according to his most recent arrest report released Monday. Another churchgoer, asked by Retana to take a look at an issue on the computer, opened the internet browser and also found “numerous open pages of pornography.”
When he confronted Retana about the porn, according to the report, the pastor suggested that one of children had opened the pages.
Retana, who was arrested Dec. 20, remains held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center. The Metropolitan Police Department began investigating him last year after a girl told her parents that the pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Oasis De Paz had been sexually abusing her for more than a year.
The most recent criminal case against Retana, charging him with five felony counts of lewdness with a child younger than 14, was opened Jan. 15, after Metro detectives identified two more potential victims, bringing the total number of accusers to at least six.
Bramwell Rentana, 44, was originally arrested on child abuse and kidnapping charges concerning one alleged victim on December 20. Four more girls have since come forward to tell police in Las Vegas about twisted abusive roleplay said to have taken place at Rentana’s church, Iglesia Cristiana Oasis De Paz. According to police reports, Rentana took one girl who was ‘eight or nine years old’ and her friend to his home because he wanted to play a ‘role playing’ game where he acted like a dog or a horse. One detective wrote: ‘It should be noted, during Retana’s post-Miranda interview he explained he has a fetish and likes to be dominated and treated like a dog for sexual gratification.’
The parent of one victim spoke to her children after learning of Retana’s arrest. The children reportedly told their parent that ‘Rentana would play a game with them that they did not think was bad however, Rentana would tell them not to tell anyone,’ police wrote, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Days before Retana’s arrest, one parent overheard her daughter speaking with Retana’s wife on the phone. In police reports, Retana’s wife is referred to as ‘Gabby.’ ‘(Redacted alleged victim’s name) overheard Gabby say “sorry for talking to you that way, I thought you were trying to steal my husband.”‘
The girl later told investigators that Retana began abusing her over a year ago, when he ‘began kissing and licking her bare feet’ in his office while another child was in the room. She also said that the pastor once sent her a pornographic image. During a police interview, Retana’s wife said that she learned in May 2019 that her husband had kissed the girl and she knew they talked on the phone every day, but she never reported the incidents because she did not have proof.
Authorities say the abuse had been happening since 2016 and his alleged victims and their families believe there are more victims. One woman told investigators that she ‘believes they are afraid to come forward in fear of retaliation or immigration issues.’ An alleged victim said the abuse began when she was ‘six or seven’ years old. The four alleged victims that recently came forward said the abuse happened in Retana’s office at the church and at a home on the church’s property. One girl reportedly told police that Rentana had forced her into his office multiple times and once scratched her, leaving a scar.
Last Thursday, Rentana was indicted on four charges of lewdness with a child under 14.
A Las Vegas pastor accused of sexually abusing young girls is facing new felony counts in connection with alleged acts that date back almost 13 years.
Bramwell Retana, 44, who remains jailed on $800,000 bail, was indicted Thursday on four charges of lewdness with a child under 14. Prosecutors said the charges, linked to a ninth victim, stemmed from encounters Retana had with a girl between August 2007 and October 2008.
He now faces a total of 59 felony counts.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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.
Nathan Qualley, a newly appointed deacon at GracePoint Church in New Brighton, Minnesota, and a former teacher at Chisago Lakes Baptist School, now called Chisago Christian School, in Chisago City, stands accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl.
According to the criminal complaint, filed March 13, Qualley “groomed” and then sexually abused the girl, who had been sent to him for speech therapy.
Qualley was appointed as a deacon and a member of the church council at GracePoint Church in New Brighton in 2019, according to the church’s website from that year. That had been on hold pending the outcome of the case, but this week GracePoint Senior Pastor Jared Carlson said the church will appoint someone else to the position.
The church congregation has not been informed of the Qualley lawsuit, Carlson said. However, church leadership has been notified and were exercising oversight, he said.
“Everything has its appropriate response at its appropriate time,” said Carlson, noting that Qualley has the right to due process.
Qualley did not respond to several Star Tribune requests for comment. However, in the complaint, he denied inappropriately touching the girl.
Plaintiff Melissa Stewart, now 29, who contacted media with her story, said the abuse started when she was 10 years old in the fall of 2001.
She was receiving enunciation lessons after school from Qualley in a classroom where just the two met.
At the time, Qualley was one year out of high school, according to his profile in the career networking website LinkedIn, which shows no professional training in speech therapy.
According to the complaint, Qualley’s contact with Stewart started small, “such as him placing a hand on her knee in class or while they prayed, or holding hands with her while praying.”
But the contact advanced. Stewart stated that during one session, Qualley unzipped his pants and showed her his genitals.
During another session, Qualley had her touch his genitals, the complaint said.
On another occasion, Qualley inappropriately touched the girl under her dress, the complaint said.
During one of the last speech therapies with Qualley, a “Deacon Tim” opened the classroom door and saw Qualley holding her hands and sitting close, Stewart reported.
A Chisago County investigator contacted that deacon, Tim Montzka, “who immediately recalled the incident,” the complaint said.
Montzka told the investigator he was doing his rounds, checking rooms, and saw a door shut.
Looking through the window, he saw Qualley and Stewart “sitting nose to nose” and “appeared to be praying.” Opening the door, he saw that the two were holding hands, the complaint said.
Montzka told the investigator he was so upset by the incident that he “chased” the defendant out of the room and told Stewart’s mother what he saw.
The incident was never reported to police, said Stewart, nor did the school investigate it or interview her. She said she didn’t “recognize it as sexual abuse” until her early 20s.
Qualley denied showing his genitals to Stewart or touching her inappropriately, said the complaint. Qualley stated “that he may have had shorts on, and that maybe his fly had been down and he zipped it up.”
However Qualley said he and Stewart typically hugged when she came to class, and they may have held hands.
Stewart, now a student at Duke University School of Law, said she hadn’t planned to go public with the case.
But she did so after learning that Qualley was active in the church and had been named a deacon for a congregation that was uninformed about his past.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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.
Devin Waters, a youth worker at First Baptist Church in Texico, New Mexico, a deputy with Parmer County, Texas Sheriff’s Office, and owner of a Tae Kwon Do (TKD) studio in Bovina, Texas, was sentenced to life in federal prison after pleading guilty to transportation of minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
A former sheriff’s deputy who preyed on children at his church has been sentenced to life in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox.
Davin Seth Waters, 26, a former deputy with Parmer County, Texas Sheriff’s Office, was convicted in November 2019 for transportation of minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
“This life sentence confirms the important message that exploiting children in any form will not be tolerated,” said U.S. Attorney Nealy Cox. “While this sentence will not repair the pain and damage done to the victims, it will ensure that Mr. Waters will never have the opportunity to prey upon children of our community again.”
“Today’s life sentence demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to holding sexual predators accountable for their crimes and removes a dangerous threat from our community,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew J. DeSarno. “We will continue working with our partners to ensure that children are protected from abuse and exploitation.”
During a two hour sentencing on Thursday, the court heard how Mr. Waters lured minor victims into engaging in sex acts by leveraging positions of power and trust as a sheriff’s deputy, childcare volunteer, and Tae Kwon Do instructor. Many of Mr. Waters’ victims that he sexually abused were “afraid” of him because he was “big” and thought he might “hurt” them, according to court documents.
Authorities began investigating Mr. Waters following a report from a member at Frist Baptist Church Texico, New Mexico that a fellow member, identified as Mr. Waters, had sexually abused a child. Mr. Waters who served in the children’s ministry as a volunteer, admitted to unlawfully touching a minor 8-year-old child on multiple occasions while in his capacity as a volunteer at the church.
Mr. Waters resided in Farwell, Texas and owned Tae Kwon Do (TKD) studio in Bovina, Texas where he instructed many young students. Mr. Waters admitted that he engaged in illicit sexual conduct at his studio with a 13-year-old minor and a TKD student between the ages of 9 and 10-years-old.
According to court documents, Mr. Waters also drove two minors from New Mexico to the Farwell, Texas to spend the night. At his home, Mr. Waters preformed sexual acts on the 11-year-old and 10-year-old while also after giving the 10-year-old pills to induce unconsciousness.
Through the course of the investigation, agents determined that Mr. Waters sexually exploited and abused seven children in the greater Amarillo-area.
The FBI’s Dallas Field Office, the Texas Rangers, and Curry County, New Mexico Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Sean Taylor prosecuted the case. United States District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk handed down the sentence.
First Baptist Church of Texico was formerly affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. According to a 2019 news report, First Baptist plans to pull out of the SBC due to its unbiblical (non-Calvinistic) positions.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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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