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Category: Black Collar Crime

Black Collar Crime: IFB Church Volunteer Donald Chambers Accused of Sexual Assault

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donald chambers

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.

Donald Chambers, a volunteer at Beacon Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, stands accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. The alleged assault took place at Raleigh Baptist Academy — a ministry of Beacon Baptist. Beacon Baptist is an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation.

WRAL reports:

A volunteer at a Raleigh church was in court Thursday on charges of sexual assault involving a child.

According to an arrest warrant, Donald Dean Chambers, 64, of 4031 Buck Road in Clarksville, Tenn., inappropriately touched a 12-year-old girl Tuesday.

Chambers was arrested at Beacon Baptist Church, where he volunteered, and charged with assault on a female and sexual battery.

According to a 911 call, the girl was at soccer practice at Raleigh Christian Academy, which shares a property with Beacon Baptist, at the time of the incident.

“I’m not really sure why he was at the soccer practice, but he actually touched on her breast on the outside of her clothes,” the woman told a 911 dispatcher.

The 911 caller said the victim reported the incident to the school and was told by school officials that Chambers would be barred from being on campus during school hours and would not be allowed to attend school functions alone.

“Beacon Baptist Church does not cover up abuse, and we have a zero tolerance for child abuse in our ministry. We carefully interview and screen our employees and volunteers,” the church’s pastor said in a statement released to WRAL.

….

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Missionaries Jim and Paige Nachtigal Sentenced on Child Abuse Charges

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jim and paige nachtigal

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.

Two former Evangelical missionaries to Peru, Jim and Paige Nachtigal, have been convicted of child abuse charges and sentenced to thirty-two months in prison. Jim Nachtigal was, for ten years, the CEO of the Kansas Christian Home in Newton, Kansas. His wife was a missionary for World Outreach Ministries at the time the abuse allegations surfaced.

Amy Renee Leiker, a reporter for The Wichita Eagle writes:

It’s been more than two years since North Newton Police Chief Randy Jordan removed three Peruvian orphans from a tidy home in a tidy neighborhood in his town.

He still gets choked up when he talks about the signs of abuse he saw.

Sitting on the witness stand in a Harvey County courtroom on Thursday morning, he paused to wipe away tears when a prosecutor asked him to describe the children’s injuries.

On the day he took them away from their adoptive parents, Jim and Paige Nachtigal, two of the children – a boy and a girl who were both 11 – looked so thin he was confident they’d been starved. The third, 15, had managed to escape the brunt of the abuse.

The boy had a knot on his elbow, he noticed. The younger girl was limping because her leg had been broken. Both talked of being beaten with a cane and a wooden spoon when they didn’t do the pushups, sit ups and jumping jacks that had been dolled out for punishment quite right. The bruises and welts on their bodies corroborated the account.

Jordan’s testimony came just a few hours before Harvey County District Judge Joe Dickinson ordered Jim and Paige Nachtigal to serve 32 months in prison over their treatment of the children. Known in the local religious community for their involvement at church and their missionary work abroad, the couple was convicted of several counts of child abuse last summer.

Initially they pleaded not guilty. But in August they entered an Alford plea, which allows a person to be convicted of a crime and take advantage of any deal that’s being offered by prosecutors without admitting guilt. The state agreed to drop several other felony charges in exchange, Yoder said at the time.

The Nachtigals’ defense attorneys, Kevin Loeffler and Brent Boyer, asked that they be placed on probation. Neither has prior convictions, are not a danger to society and could receive treatment in the community, their attorneys argued.

Prior to his arrest, Jim Nachtigal served as the chief executive officer at Kansas Christian Home in Newton for 10 years. His wife a missionary at World Outreach Ministries when the abuse surfaced.

….

Jordan, the North Newton police chief, launched an investigation into the children’s welfare in February 2016 after the 11-year-old boy ran away from his home, 401 E. 24th St. in North Newton, for the second time. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper who was part of a team searching for the boy found him wandering barefoot in a field. The boy told the trooper he feared returning home because he hadn’t done his homework and that was a sin.

What Jordan discovered next – that the kids had been given little or no food, beaten and isolated – eventually led to the Nachtigals’ arrests and criminal charges.

Later medical examinations of the 11-year-olds by pediatrician Kerri Weeks, who specializes in abuse cases, revealed what she said in court was the “extremely severe” nature of the abuse.

The children, she testified, both had calloused hands and cracked feet from excessive exercise and wearing ill-fitting or no shoes, open and sometimes “weeping” sores on their buttocks from spankings, 2-inch long welts consistent with cane whippings and malnourishment so severe that their bones were wasting away.

The starvation had gotten so bad that when the children did get to eat, their bodies “didn’t know what to do” with the food, she testified.

….

The Nachtigals adopted all three children from a region of Peru where they had previously done missionary work. The older girl was adopted through an agency around 2012. The younger girl and the boy were adopted together about a year later. Jordan has previously said that the Department for Children and Families received around a dozen reports from people voicing concern about the Nachtigals treatment of their adoptive children – some coming as early as 2014 – but none were forwarded to his department for investigation.

School staff were among those who contacted DCF after they noticed the boy would bring only a peanut butter sandwich for lunch and would beg for his teacher not to make him go home on Fridays.

….

jim and paige nachtigal 2

Black Collar Crime: Wives of Australian Pastors Talk About Their Abusive Husbands

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giving spouse abusers a second chance

Late last year, ABC-Australia published a report detailing the stories of pastors’  wives who had been abused by their husbands. Written by Julia Baird and Hayley Gleeson, the report is eye-opening, depressing, necessary, and heartbreaking. The wives of pastors featured in the report often suffered years of abuse; suffering in silence lest they besmirch the church and their husband. And when they sought help from the church, they were often ignored. What follows is an excerpt from the report titled, Raped, Tracked, Humiliated: Clergy Wives Speak Out About Domestic Violence:

It’s not easy divorcing a priest, let alone a violent one.

Jane has taken up smoking since she separated, wears more make-up and listens to music at full volume — all of which would have intensely irritated her ex-husband.

Rebellion has many guises; some self-destructive, others artless and unaffected.

On a cool Spring afternoon in Sydney’s outer suburbs, she stands in her kitchen, turning up the volume to the song, Praying, Kesha’s paean to staring down — and surpassing — abusive men, and says, over and over, as her feet slide in rhythm on the floor, “This is my song! It’s mine. This song is everything.”

You brought the flames and you put me through hell
I had to learn how to fight for myself
And we both know all the truth I could tell
I’ll just say this: I wish you farewell

Days spent dancing are rare for Jane, though. Some weeks she drops her children to school then crawls back into bed, spent.

She is on the single parent pension and regularly goes days without food. But, just recently, she told 7.30 and ABC News, she has found her voice. And, like other women who have spoken out about abuse in a sudden recent spate of global assault allegations, she is determined.

When she speaks of her faith in God, her face shines. When she speaks of the violence she experienced at the hands of her husband, a senior Anglican priest who worked in a series of parishes across Australia, she trembles.

And when she speaks of the response of the church to her plight, her jaw sets in anger.

Every night of her 20-year marriage, Jane’s husband would wake her up several times for sex. If she objected, he would wait until she fell asleep again.

“He was very sexually abusive from the start,” she said.

“He would watch pornography, drink heavily, and come to bed. I would wake up with him touching me, inside me and I’d say to him, ‘Stop I’m pregnant’ or ‘I’m really tired’ and he would just wait until I fell back to sleep and continue. He knew how much it upset me.

“If I said ‘no’ during sex or ‘no I don’t want to do that’, he would get angry and sulk. And so it was better for me to give in than to have to put up with that.

“Or he would get angry with the kids, so if I gave him sex he wouldn’t get angry. Therefore the kids wouldn’t cop the abuse.

The young mother became sleep deprived and exhausted. Finally, she decided she could not continue to cater to her husband’s needs at the expense of her own health.

“I actually went to him one night and I said ‘I need a break from our sexual relationship … and we need to work on our marriage’. He said: ‘I’m here for you, you have my support’, and then he proceeded to rape me.

“He took what he wanted. And I think he knew in his mind it was one of the last times that he could have me.”

Jane was devastated by the assault. She became deeply depressed, stopped eating and had a breakdown: “I was very unwell for about a year, I really struggled with everything.”

Her husband even confessed his sins to a member of the church hierarchy, who told Jane that, if it was true, she should report him to police. But, Jane says, the clergy member did not offer her any support.

A year later, she left her husband for good.

….

Jane is part of a private online support group of Anglican clergy wives in New South Wales who were abused by their husbands.

They message each other or speak most days, providing a sympathetic ear or suggesting new counsellors when things are desperate.

What stunned them when they first met for dinner were two things. First, how many of them there were, and how common and continuing this problem seemed to be.

Second were the similarities in their experiences: after committing their lives to supporting their husband’s ministry, each had been forced to leave after decades of emotional, financial and sexual abuse which had left them depressed, fearful and, for some, suicidal.

Several had been part of Moore Theological College in Sydney — the training seminary of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney — when their husbands studied to be priests. All had mixed experiences with the church after disclosing their abuse: some clergy had supported them and pleaded their cases, while others ignored them.

All had disappointing or bruising experiences with a senior church leader when they asked for help.

It has been a year since they found each other, a year spent submitting police reports, talking for hours, struggling to pay bills and seeing psychologists. And they now also share a common anger.

They claim to have been silenced, their abuse covered up and their experiences ignored by a hierarchy that, they say, continues to see domestic violence as a peripheral female problem.

Several months ago, an investigation by 7.30 and ABC News revealed women in Christian communities were being told to endure or forgive domestic violence, and stay in abusive relationships, often due to misappropriation of Bible verses on submission.

Since then, hundreds of women — a number of whom were clergy wives from different denominations across Australia — have contacted us to tell their stories.

Many did so out of frustration that some church leaders had responded to reports of domestic violence with denial, demanding urgent response.

In recent weeks, the national and Sydney Anglican churches have formally apologised to survivors of domestic violence in their ranks, and even confessed some clergy were perpetrators.

The problem is this: the Australian church knew this was happening decades ago — that it was not just rogue parishioners who were abusing their spouses, but its leaders, too. And very little has been done to fix it.

….

You can read the entire report here.

Black Collar Crime: Rabbi Aryeh Goodman Accused of Having Sex with a 17-Year-Old Prostitute

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rabbi aryeh goodman

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.

Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, who runs a Jewish community center out of his home, was arrested last month on allegations he engaged in child prostitution.

The New York Post reports:

A New Jersey rabbi has been busted alongside two others on charges of human trafficking and child prostitution, according to authorities.

Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 35, was one of some 30 men who allegedly paid to have sex with a 17-year-old girl in an East Brunswick hotel, says the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Bronx residents Gabriella Colon, 18, and Richard Ortiz, 23, were also arrested for selling the teen’s services to the bevy of creeps from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2, 2018.

Goodman, who runs a Jewish community center out of his East Brunswick home, was slapped with one count of engaging in prostitution with a child and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. Though he bills the center as part of Chabad, prosecutors and a rep said Goodman is in no way affiliated with the organization.

He turned himself in on Feb. 6, prosecutors said.

Colon and Ortiz were hit with various charges, including human trafficking, conspiracy to commit human trafficking, promoting prostitution of a child, conspiracy to promote prostitution of a child, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal restraint.

The duo were also charged with the manufacturing, distribution of and possession of child pornography.

….

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Andy Harris Arrested for Methamphetamine Possession

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pastor andy harris

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.

Andy Harris, pastor of Central Assembly of God (also known as Church of the Cross) in Haughton, Louisiana, was arrested last week for the possession of methamphetamine.

Bossier Now reports:

A former Bossier Parish pastor admitted to authorities that he had meth in his Bossier City home — and was arrested.

Bossier Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested Andy C. Harris, 56, of the 2400 block of Benton Road in Bossier City, charging him with possession of Schedule II controlled dangerous substance (methamphetamine) and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Harris was former senior pastor of the Central Assembly of God Church, also known as the Church of the Cross, in Haughton, according to published reports as well as web listings and social media.

During an investigation, Bossier Sheriff’s Detectives learned of possible drug activity at his residence. Harris cooperated with detectives, admitted he was in possession of methamphetamine, and consented to a search of his residence to retrieve the drugs.

Upon arrival at the residence, detectives found approximately 3.4 grams of suspected meth, along with a smoking device and snorting device.

Harris was arrested Wednesday evening and booked into the Bossier Maximum Security Facility with a bond of $5,000.

The Shreveport Times adds:

A letter from former senior pastor Andy Harris chronicling the difficult time he and his family faced in recent years was read aloud during Sunday service at The Church of The Cross in Haughton.

The service came days after Harris was arrested after admitting to Bossier Parish Sheriff’s deputies that he had meth in his Bossier City home. The church service was broadcasted live on Facebook. A copy of the service is still on the church’s page.

“Dear members and friends of The Church of The Cross, the past 21 and a half years has been a journey of faith and victory,” Harris began in his letter to the congregation. “It was our honor to serve you as pastor over the past two decades. Sheryl (his wife) and I have made life-long friends and seen miracles happen for many of you as you were saved, healed and filled with the Holy Spirit. We have loved and felt loved by you all.”

Harris described in his letter that the past few years was like being in a “pressure cooker” with sickness, betrayals, family struggles and the daily challenges of ministry wearing down on the former pastor.

“A few months ago, in a time of weakness, I attempted to ease the pain in the wrong way,” he wrote. “I have sinned and I have asked the Lord to forgive me. I have asked my family to forgive me. And I am asking you all — all of you — to forgive me.”

Harris confirmed his resignation from the church and asked for the congregation to pray for his family.

“Pray all of the good the Lord has done through us will outshine the bad the devil has done to us,” he wrote. “Sheryl and I love you very much.

….

Harris’ church bio page states:

Pastor Andy Harris began his ministry at Central Assembly of God on September 25, 1996.  Born in Prescott, Arkansas, Brother Harris is a native of Bossier City, and a graduate of Bossier High School.  His parents Chubby & Jamie Harris were a prominent Bossier City builder and schoolteacher, respectively.   He earned a B. S. in Pastoral Ministries and Evangelism at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas.  He also completed a ministerial internship at his home church, Broadmoor Assembly of God, in Shreveport, Louisiana, under the leadership of Pastor Don R. Logan.  His postgraduate studies were received at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

While attending college, our Pastor married Miss Sheryl Lynn Thompson of Hurst, Texas, on October 17, 1981.  They served as Youth Pastor and Administrative Assistant at Calvary Temple, in Irving, Texas, with Pastor J. Don George.  It was there that Pastor Harris was ordained to the ministry on April 10, 1985.

The Harrises were involved in ministry in Baton Rouge for 2 1/2 years, and then served as Pastor of Kings Corner Assembly of God in Sarepta, Louisiana, for 8 1/2 years, before coming to Central Assembly of God.  In addition to his pastoral duties, Brother Harris has served as a district presbyter, executive presbyter, or general presbyter of the Assemblies of God for more than 20 years.

The Harrises have two lovely daughters:******, and a beautiful granddaughter, ******.

Under the leadership of Pastor Harris, Central Assembly of God has grown from a church of 39 members to a congregation of more than 800 believers.

Harris is best known — at least until his arrest for methamphetamine possession —  for erecting a one-hundred and ninety-nine foot metal cross on church property. Raw Story reports:

“It was under Harris’ administration that the 199-foot-tall cross was erected on church property,” ArkLaTex reported. “The cross – which in the United States is only shorter than one in Corpus Christi, Texas (210′) and St. Augustine, Florida (208′), was not without controversy.

The planned cross violated zoning restrictions, which the church appealed to the Bossier Parish Police Jury.

“The common man on the street is going to be looking at who’s for the cross and who’s not, and we all understand the ramifications,” Pastor Harris warned.

The church was subsequently granted a zoning exemption from local authorities.

The Bossier Press reports:

There are better days ahead for The Church of the Cross in Haughton.

The pastoral team and congregation have been dealt a heavy blow with the resignation of senior pastor Andy Harris following his arrest on March 7. Harris, who admitted to authorities that he had meth in his home, had led the church as senior pastor for more then two decades.

The news was absolutely devastating.

“My heart is broken,” church secretary/treasurer Doyle Dempsey said. “We’re experiencing all manners of emotions. I’ve been through them all in a matter of days.”

Dempsey, who has known Harris for 18 years, considers him a spiritual mentor and friend. Through all the doubts and uncertainty right now, there’s one thing he’s still sure of.

“My faith is unshaken,” Dempsey said. “The word of God that has been taught from this pulpit is our guide to moving forward.”

Dempsey read aloud a letter from Harris during the March 11 morning service, which was streamed live and is posted to The Church of the Cross Facebook page. In it, Harris describes living in a “pressure cooker” situation through recent years and how it finally took its toll on him.

“A few months ago, in a time of weakness, I attempted to ease the pain in the wrong way,” Harris wrote. “I have sinned and I have asked the Lord to forgive me, I’ve asked my family to forgive me and I’m asking all of you to forgive me.”

He also asked the congregation for prayers.

“Pray that God will heal us mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Pray that we can rest in body, soul and spirit. Pray that all of the good the Lord has done through us will outshine the bad that the devil has done to us,” Harris wrote. “ God has more great things in store for The Church of the Cross. I believe he is already preparing the next pastor who will be able to take you to the next level. Be faithful, be supportive, keep serving and somehow God will turn this around for all of our good.”

Harris is no longer in custody since posting bail the night of his arrest, according to law enforcement officials. Instead, he will be receiving “counseling and restoration” at Emerge Ministries in Akron, OH, according to a post on his personal Facebook page.

“I may be knocked down…but I am getting back up…I have definitely not been knocked out,” he wrote, thanking The Church of the Cross leaders and members for their loyal support.

….

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Youth Pastor Roshad Thomas Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Molesting Children

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roshad thomas

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.

Evangelical youth pastor Roshad Thomas was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of “eight counts of 2nd degree felony lewd and lascivious molestation with a victim over 12 under 18, one count of 2nd degree felony lewd or lascivious exhibition, and one count of 3rd degree felony of aggravated assault with the intent to commit a felony.” Roshad Thomas was a youth pastor at Calvary Chapel in Tallahassee, Florida. I was not able to verify if this Calvary Chapel in Tallahassee previously employed Thomas. I did find via the Wayback Machine that this church went through a lot of leadership churn over the past decade. At the end of this post, I’ve attached several screenshots of Thomas’s LinkedIn page.  I suspect that the aforementioned Calvary Chapel church was indeed where Thomas was a volunteer youth pastor.

You can read my previous post about Thomas here.

ABC-27 reports:

A former Tallahassee youth pastor accused of molesting at least 10 minors has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Roshad Thomas was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison followed by probation for the rest of his life.

He will also be required to register as a sexual predator.

Thomas took an open plea on eight counts of 2nd degree felony lewd and lascivious molestation with a victim over 12 under 18, one count of 2nd degree felony lewd or lascivious exhibition, and one count of 3rd degree felony of aggravated assault with the intent to commit a felony.

He was arrested in July 2017 on six counts of sex offense against a child. Thomas later picked up four additional charges when more victims came forward.

The victims’ ages ranged from 11 to 16 years old.

According to his LinkedIn page, Thomas served as a youth pastor at Calvary Chapel Tallahassee for more than 13 years.

….

In 2017, ABC-27 reported:

Shocking details are being revealed about a man who worked with local children.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office arrested 41-year-old Roshad Thomas on six counts of sex offense against a child.

Thomas is a former youth pastor at a Tallahassee church, who, until recently, was a contracted employee at Maclay School.

A school official tells WTXL Thomas is a former member of the Maclay School faculty. He taught Life Management in the Upper School during the 2016-2017 school year.

Although these allegations of abuse are just coming out, a victim who spoke with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office said it happened about a decade ago. The victim told detectives they’d been fondled by Thomas when they were 13 years old.

However, as detectives investigated, they found four more victims. Deputies say each one described sexual encounters with Thomas that happened from 2007-2014.

According to the affidavit, five victims reported on numerous instances that Thomas invited the victims to his apartment. At the time, the victims’ ages ranged from 13 to 16 years old.

According to the document, it was common that the victims would be invited back to Thomas’s apartment to “hang out”. Once there, the victims were fondled and touched inappropriately at Thomas’s apartment.

One victim described Thomas as their mentor, telling investigators that they looked up to him and even “worshiped” him.

When Thomas was interviewed he admitted to fondling all five victims above and below their clothing.

He told investigators that it was an attempt to connect intimately, but not sexually.

After speaking to detectives on Monday, he was taken to jail.

….

roshad thomas linkedin

roshad thomas linkedin 2

roshad thomas linkedin 3

In July 2017, Thomas posted the following to Instagram:

Sorry to those I haven’t had the chance to tell this face-to-face but this is my last week living in Tallahassee. I have accepted a job as Vice President of student programs for a nonprofit organization in Ft Lauderdale Florida. I chose to post this picture because this is my mom dropping me off in Tallahassee in 1993. I had no idea then how much God would use this city to change my life. (yes, that is a Miami shirt I am wearing.) Tallahassee is where I fell in love with Jesus, the NOLES, and all of you. This was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make but I know that our time on earth is limited. Whatever amount of time he chooses to give me here I want to spend being more and more like Jesus everyday and making maximum impact for the Gospel. Thanks for all the love and trust you have given me and I pray that I go on to do things that make you proud to say you know me. I won’t be a stranger. I will come back and visit often. I pray, with all my heart, that everyone reading this will be in heaven with me one day and we will hangout forever. Until then! In the words of one of my favorite songs. “I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back, no turning back.” I love you all so much!

Thomas was arrested a short time later.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastors Ken Engelking and Scott Nelson Accused Of Criminal Behavior

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pastor scott nelson
Pastor Scott Nelson

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.

Several women have come forward, alleging that Ken Engelking, executive pastor of Morningstar Community Church in Salem, Oregon, senior pastor Scott Nelson, and several other men committed crimes by either sexually assaulting them or not reporting alleged criminal behavior by church staff and members to legal authorities, choosing instead to cover-up the crimes. The following story is  sordid tale of sexual misconduct by so-called men of God and a church’s systematic cover-up of their crimes.

Lauren Hernandez and Capi Lynn, reporters for Statesman Journal, write:

“Sexual immorality” was the reason cited when longtime Pastor Ken Engelking resigned in January from Morning Star Community Church in Salem.

Four women had come forward the previous spring with allegations against Engelking, two other former church staff members and a member of an affiliated church.

In a 23-page annotated letter to the Morning Star board of directors, the women chronicled accusations of an abusive, adulterous relationship involving Engelking, and sexual assault and rape by three other men over more than 20 years, including as recently as 2010.

The church sought legal counsel, then hired a private investigator to look into the allegations. Nine months later, the board asked Engelking to resign.

Morning Star leaders declined to be interviewed for this story. In response to questions from the Statesman Journal, the board of directors provided a written statement detailing the allegations.

The statement offered an apology: “We are deeply sorry that anyone has ever experienced hurt, abuse, or felt unheard while under our care.”

….

The women’s letter describes a pattern of cover-up and patriarchal pressure inside the church started in 1982 and still led by Senior Pastor Scott Nelson.

In each case, the women said they were silenced by Nelson and other church leaders, pressured to not report what happened to them or do anything that could tarnish Morning Star’s image.

The church’s attorney said that “despite the view of some, these events are not part of a systemic culture or cover-up.”

One woman, in her 30s at the time, said she was told by a church leader that it was her fault she was raped because she had been flirting and wearing a tank top. A 15-year-old girl, when she confided to Engelking that she hadn’t told her parents about her assault, said he encouraged her to keep it secret.

The women say none were offered outside counseling or support after bringing forth the allegations.

Members of the clergy are mandatory child abuse reporters in Oregon. Any person younger than 18 is unable to give consent under Oregon law, so any sexual activity is considered abuse and must be reported.

But neither Engelking nor Nelson reported the incident involving the 15-year-old, not at the time it allegedly happened in 1994 or when it was detailed in the letter last year. There is no statute of limitations on reporting laws.

The women sent their letter in April 2017 to the five members of the all-male church board, including Keizer Police Sgt. Bob Trump and Marion County Commissioner Kevin Cameron.

Trump, as a police officer, is a mandatory reporter, but he did not report the abuse alleged in the letter. While Trump continues to serve on the board, Cameron told the Statesman Journal he resigned in May after the letter was received and the investigation launched.

The Statesman Journal found no reports of abuse filed by members of Morning Star or its board members with Salem Police or in Marion County court records.

Nelson, Engelking and Trump declined to comment.

The criminal statute of limitations has passed for all but one of the alleged assaults.

….

Engelking had been a pastor at Morning Star for 31 years when asked to resign.

Two other alleged perpetrators, including one accused of rape, were allowed to quietly leave the church without repercussions. One, a youth pastor, was later ousted from a second Salem church, which determined he was involved in an inappropriate relationship.

The fourth alleged perpetrator was a member of Mike Silva International, which sponsored a 2010 mission trip to Columbia that included Morning Star members. The alleged rape was referred by Morning Star to the Silva ministry because it headed the mission, according to the board’s statement.

Silva is a director on Morning Star’s board.

….

When Nelson announced Engelking’s resignation, he said church leadership took what it considered “appropriate action” in the mid-1990s when the first allegations were made.

But it was clear after the 2017 independent investigation and “after much prayer, fasting, tears and meetings with deep sorrow” that Engelking had to resign, Nelson told his congregation Jan. 14.

He also told them he took “full responsibility for the fact that situations were not properly addressed all those years ago.”

After releasing a formal statement to the Statesman Journal, Nelson followed up with the congregation on Feb. 25, saying: “We did fail in many ways in our follow up and in our care.

“We don’t control what people think about us, we simply put our eyes on Jesus and we continue doing ministry,” he said. “Yeah, we’ve blown it, we’ve missed it, we failed.”

Each of the four women told the Statesman Journal their lives were forever changed by the alleged assaults. They said their subsequent relationships have suffered and they continue to require therapy.

….

The youngest alleged victim said she was 15 years old when an adult pastor intern first touched her by rubbing her thigh while on a bus ride back from a 1994 church camping trip.

He pressured her to lie to her parents and meet privately with him on at least two occasions. During one outing, he pressed his body against hers while teaching her how to play miniature golf.

One night, he snuck into her home while her parents were out of town, slipping through a sliding glass door entrance to her room, she told the board.

She said he tried to convince her multiple times to lay in bed naked with him, side by side. He told her he wouldn’t do anything to her, and that she was safe with him.

He allegedly got on top of her while she laid in bed, still clothed, and mimicked intercourse without penetrating her.

After he climaxed and left the home, she said she “felt sick.” She remembers getting out of bed, washing her sheets and blankets, and taking a shower.

“I hate that night,” she told the Statesman Journal.

She didn’t immediately tell her parents. But after confiding in a church friend, the friend told her that Nelson handed over the “problem” to Engelking.

Soon after, she received a call from Engelking. She said he told her the pastor intern was moving to California. When Engelking asked if she planned to tell her parents of the assault, she replied “no.”

“He said that was ‘fine,’ that he had dealt with it and we could leave it all behind us now,” she said.

The youth pastor was “immediately dismissed” when the assault was disclosed to church officials, according to the board’s statement to the Statesman Journal. The church described the alleged assault as “criminal sexual contact with a minor.”

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pastor ken engelking
Pastor Ken Engelking

Please take the time to read the entire article here. Be prepared to weep over the injustice done to the victims. And then get angry, very angry over the fact none of these sexual predators or cover-up artists will be criminally prosecuted. I hope the victims will sue the church, forcing the congregation and its leaders to give an accounting of crimes and immoral behavior committed on their watch.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor John Elleson Running for Congress, Has a Sketchy Past

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john elleson
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 Elleson, an Evangelical pastor, is running in the Illinois Republican primary, hoping to win an opportunity to challenge U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in November’s general election. According to the following Chicago Tribune story, Elleson has a sketchy past.

Kim Janssen, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, writes:

Arlington Heights pastor John Elleson, who is making a bid for Congress, risked the ire of multimillionaire televangelist Joel Osteen by including Osteen in a recent TV ad without Osteen’s permission.

But Osteen isn’t the only fellow pastor Elleson has upset over the years, court records show.

Elleson — who’s running in the Republican primary to challenge U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in November’s general election — was ordered by a judge to complete 150 hours of community service and to return $49,000 in benefit payments he’d improperly collected after pleading “no contest” to a first degree theft charge in Hawaii in 2003, court records show.

Prosecutors alleged that Elleson and his wife, Suzanne Elleson, who pleaded “no contest” to second-degree theft, had lied about how they were feeding teenagers who attended a religious drug addiction rehabilitation service Elleson ran, so that they could illegally squeeze extra money out of taxpayers.

According to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the state probe of Elleson began after a teenage client alleged the Ellesons required him and other clients to apply for benefits, then turn over their benefits cards to Suzanne Elleson or face being kicked out of the program.

That wasn’t the end of Elleson’s problems tied to the rehab program. After the church that had hired him to run the program fired him for his “contentious and noncooperative spirit” and his “assumption of dictatorial authority over an assembly,” Elleson was sued by the church for continuing to use their “Teen Challenge” trademark without permission.

A judge found that Elleson had “willfully engaged in . . . deceptive trade practices,” ordered him to stop and told him to pay the church’s legal costs.

Elleson has fought with a neighboring church in Illinois, too. According to a 2010 lawsuit, Arlington Heights police were, on more than one occasion, called to intervene in a dispute Elleson’s Lakewood Chapel had with the Bethel Pentecostal Church of God.

Elleson sold Bethel half of his church, but after his plan to build a wall dividing the worship area into two was rejected by the village, he “repeatedly interrupted” Sunday services at Bethel by cutting off the electricity to the public address system, removing microphones from the podium during services, and by playing loud music and projection screen TVs during services, according to the lawsuit.

A Cook County jury sided with Bethel, ordering Elleson’s church to pay Bethel $257,600, plus costs.

….

He described “the Hawaii thing” as “an unfortunate time in our lives,” and said he would not have been charged under current law.

“Everybody who knows me, knows I am an open book,” he wrote. “I have nothing to hide. I have shared everything you mentioned, opening with the church I pastor, and anyone who listens to my recorded sermons.”

He added, “In every one of the things you mentioned, there are no rifts with any of the people today. In life you will have conflicts, but we have tried to bring peace to every situation when possible.”

Elleson wrote that he was “not aware of” a 1998 criminal damage conviction he holds in Cook County, according to court records, which indicate he plead guilty to the misdemeanor.

“I have a clean record,” he wrote.

Elleson is the pastor of Lakewood Chapel in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

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Black Collar Crime: IFB Bus Director Larry Winn Accused of Sexual Assault

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larry winn

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 week, I posted a story about Steven Winn, a youth worker at Open Door Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas, being arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a church girl. This week, Larry Winn, Steven’s father, has been arrested on sexual assault charges. The elder Winn was the bus director at Open Door, an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation.

Domingo Ramirez, Jr, a reporter for the Star-Telegram, writes:

A Mesquite church staff member accused of an inappropriate sexual relationship with an underage congregant may have additional victims, police say.

Larry Winn, 65, of Dallas, who coordinated a bus ministry for members of Open Door Baptist Church who needed a ride to and from worship, is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. He was arrested Thursday.

“Due to Winn’s level of access to children, investigators believe there may be additional victims,” police Lt. Brian Parrish said in a news release.

Days before Larry Winn was arrested, his son Steven Aaron Winn, 33, also a church volunteer, was arrested on a charge of sexually assaulting a different teenage girl at the church.

Larry Winn was arrested Thursday after police received a tip. He was free Tuesday after posting $25,000 bail.

While being interviewed by police, the girl made an outcry of sexual assault that authorities say occurred three years ago when she was 16.

Larry Winn has been on the church staff for several years, police said.

Steven Aaron Winn, of Crandall, worked with church youths, and he became the subject of an investigation Feb. 18, also based on a tip.

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In 2011, Open Door’s then-pastor Matt Jarrell was arrested and accused of raping a woman near Charleston, W.Va. Jarrell was later found hanging in his jail cell and could not be revived

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Worship Leader Ronnie Gorton Accused of Sexual Assault

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ronnie gorton

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.

Ronnie Gorton, worship leader (some reports say Gorton is the lead pastor) at Awakening Church in Atoka, Tennessee, stands accused of sexually assaulting several teenage boys.

The Covington Leader reports:

On Monday, former Awakening Church worship leader Ronnie Gorton was indicted on 47 counts of sexually assaulting teenagers.

Last month, Gorton, 39, was accused of sexually assaulting at least two minors. He was indicted for incidents involving three, however.

The nearly four dozen charges included five counts of aggravated sexual battery, 17 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child (Child Protection Act), 16 counts of statutory rape by an authority figure, two counts of exploitation of a minor by electronic means, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, two counts of purchasing alcohol for a child and one count of rape.

Tipton County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Billy Daugherty said one of the victim’s ages at the time of the abuse was the aggravating factor in the first set of sexual battery charges.

“The nature of these charges clearly indicate the victims, at some point, were under the age of 13. The age of consent in Tennessee is 18,” he said.

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In a 2014 interview, Gorton said:

I’d be completely lost without him [Jesus] man. Just knowing some of the things that I have dealt with in my life and some of the struggles I deal with, I can imagine the type of hell that I’d be living in today without Him. So it’s only by His grace by His mercy why I’m here today.

My title, pastor means nothing. I’m human, I’m a man. I struggle like everybody else and there’s no way I could overcome these struggles and be victorious in some of these areas of my life without Him. It’s only by the grace of God that we’re able to have this conversation today.

Local Memphis reports:

A local minister indicted on 47 counts of rape and sex assault with two boys is now out on bond.

Ronnie Gorton’s bond was reduced to $100,000 on Friday.

The senior pastor of the now closed Awakening Church in Munford made bond on Friday and was released Saturday under the condition he wear an ankle monitor.

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