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 Blaylock, a youth volunteer at a Methodist church in Universal City, Texas, stands accused of sexually molesting a thirteen-year-old girl. Fox-29 reports that Blaylock told the girl’s mother he planned to give her daughter tennis lessons. Instead, Blaylock allegedly took the girl to Crescent Bend Nature Park and sexually assaulted her. The girl provided investigators a description of a mole near Blaylock’s genitalia.
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.
Jackie “Jack” Woodburn, assistant pastor of Colonial Woods Missionary Church in Port Huron, Michigan, stands accused of enticing teen girls to commit online sex acts. Woodburn, now retired, also directed the church’s Christian counseling center. The Detroit News reports that authorities have identified over fifty victims:
Among the more than 50 victims whom authorities identified was a 13-year-old Texas girl who recalled chatting with someone she met online in 2016 using the handle “JD Walker” and claiming to be a teenager, the document said. He requested sexually explicit photos and asked her to perform similar acts on a web camera, she told officials in an interview.
Identifying Woodburn through his IP address and internet provider, investigators executed a search warrant in February at the 63-year-old’s St. Clair County home. Woodburn said he used the JD name on the website and sought teen girls there, the court filing claims.
One of the two computers that law enforcement seized from his residence revealed at least 70,000 Skype chat messages between “jd windwalker” and others — most appearing to be with minors, including the Texas teen, an FBI special agent wrote.
During an exchange recorded late on April 25, 2016, “jd” ordered the girl to expose and touch herself, the affidavit showed. When a storm cut electricity at Woodburn’s house, she apparently left.
“I’m really bummed out that we lost power….YOU are so very very beautiful and sexy….when you be home tomorrow after you home from school?????” he wrote, according to the message log agents obtained.
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.
Jerry Gross and his son Jason stand accused of bilking the state out of $150,000 in unemployment benefits. The Citizen Times reports that both men are expected to plead guilty to wire fraud charges. The Gross’s are members of Word of Faith Fellowship Church in Spindale, North Carolina. Authorities are investigating other church members in what could be a scheme cooked up by church founder Jane Whaley to “help” congregants continued to pay their mandated tithes.
Former congregant Randy Fields had told the AP that his construction company faced potential ruin around 2008 because of the cratering economy, so he pleaded with church leaders to reduce the amount of money he was required to tithe every week.
To his shock, Fields said church founder Jane Whaley proposed a plan that would allow him to continue contributing at least 10 percent of his income to the Word of Faith Fellowship while helping his company survive: He would file fraudulent unemployment claims on behalf of his employees. She called it, he said, “God’s plan.”
The unemployment allegations were uncovered as part of the AP’s ongoing investigation into Word of Faith, which has about 750 congregants in rural North Carolina and a total of nearly 2,000 members in its branches in Brazil and Ghana and its affiliations in Sweden, Scotland and other countries.
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Over the years, church leaders have owned and operated more than two dozen businesses.
Those stories led to investigations in the U.S. and Brazil.
As for the alleged unemployment scheme, interviews with former followers, along with documents reviewed by the AP, indicated at least six companies owned by leaders were involved with filing fraudulent unemployment claims between 2008 and 2013. Most of those businesses’ employees are congregants, the AP found.
The AP reviewed individual checking account records that showed unemployment benefits deposited by the state, along with income tax records summarizing how much money some of the former followers interviewed received annually in such payments.
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The church, of course, denies all of the allegations, stating that the AP articles are meant to incite hate crimes against Word of Faith Fellowship Church.
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.
Last year, three Toledo, Ohio Evangelical pastors were arrested and charged with child sex trafficking. Cordell Jenkins, pastor of Abundant Life Ministries in Toledo, Anthony Haynes, pastor of Greater Life Christian Center in Toledo, and Kenneth Butler, pastor of Kingdom Encounter Family Worship Center in Detroit, all face federal charges that could land them in prison for life. Yesterday, Butler pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seventeen and a half years in prison. It is expected that Haynes and Jenkins will also plead guilty.
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.
Daniel Ramos, a youth pastor at Victory Worship Center Church of God in Chicago, Illinois has been charged with possession or exhibition of child pornography, indecent solicitation and grooming. According to the Chicago Tribune, in August 2017 church leaders were made aware of allegations against Ramos and promptly reported them to law enforcement. Kudos to the church for reporting the alleged crimes.
David Poulson, a Catholic priest with the Diocese of Erie, stands accused of sexually abusing two boys over a period of many years. Worse yet, the Centre Daily News reports that the officials with the Diocese of Erie knew about Poulson’s predatory behavior since May 2010, but did not report it to law enforcement until September 2016.
According to the Centre Daily News:
the alleged assaults would usually occur on Sundays, after the boy served as an altar boy during mass. Poulson would then allegedly require the boy to make confession in the church, and confess to the assaults — to Poulson, who served as the priest receiving the boy’s confession.
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Diocese officials then interviewed Poulson, who admitted he owned the hunting cabin and took about 20 trips there — half of which were with young boys. He allegedly admitted he was attracted to young boys, and provided the names of the boys he took to the cabin. The diocese, in cooperation with the attorney general and grand jury investigation, then turned over the names of the boys to investigators.
In addition to the two boys from which the charges stem, the grand jury heard from nine others who recalled Poulson befriending them, flirting with them, joking and wrestling with them when they were minors. Poulson allegedly piled them with gifts, cash, dinners and alcohol. Prosecutors believe a sexual assault occurred in at least one of theses cases, but it was barred on the grounds of statute of limitations.
If these allegations are true, Poulson is one sick man. I hope authorities are looking into criminally prosecuting the Diocese employees who knew about Poulson’s abhorrent behavior and did nothing. They are every bit as culpable as he is.
McCarty’s church objected to my use of his photograph, so I have replaced it with this one.
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.
Dennis McCarty, pastor of Pyburn Street Church of Christ in Pocahontas, Arkansas, will soon face trial for allegedly keying a college student’s automobile. According to KARK, McCarty verbally objected to the college student parking in a handicapped parking space without a permit and then, following in the steps of Jesus, keyed her car.
Pyburn Street’s website states that the church is “lucky” to have McCarty as their pastor.
McCarty’s trial on criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, begins on July 3, 2018.
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.
William “Bill” Randall, pastor of St. Simon Baptist Church in Orange Park, Florida stands accused of sexually assaulting a church girl. News 4 reports that victim told investigators that Randall had been raping and molesting her since she began attending St. Simon Baptist in 2007. The girl also told investigators that the alleged assaults took place after Sunday worship services and during the week when she stopped by to do work at the church.
As is the custom among Evangelicals, some of Randall’s parishioners and ministerial colleagues are astonished by the accusations. According to News 4, Pernell Raggins, pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in New Augustine, Florida, said of Randall ” [he] has served the community well. I’m devastated by the news that you just shared with me, but all I have to say about this man of God is that he has done a lot for the Orange Park area.” In other words, this “man of God” has done a lot of good in the community and that should be considered when weighing the allegations against Randall. What, is there some sort of point system in Christianity that allows so-called men of God to get a pass on sex crimes if they have accumulated enough good works points?
Astoundingly, Randall was released on a $25,000 bond.
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.
David Buser, a deacon and Sunday school teacher at New Hope Freewill Baptist Church in Dover, Florida, stands accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting two minor girls. According to News Channel 8, “abuse of one of the victims had been going on for a decade, deputies claim. Records show that the most recent sexual assault happened two months ago.” According to WFTS News, both victims were first graders when the alleged abuse first occurred. Buser allegedly admitted committing the assaults in a phone conversation with one of the victims while law enforcement was recording the conversion.
Jose Luis Pizarro, pastor Iglesia de Dios Nuevo Amanecer in Mansfield, Texas (now closed) was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl and sentenced to fifty years in prison for his crimes. Pizzaro was also charged in 2016 with sexually assaulting a ten-year-old girl.
