Menu Close

Category: Black Collar Crime

Black Collar Crime: Methodist Pastor Jim Irwin Arrested on Drug and Prostitution Charges

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

pastor jim irwin

Jim Irwin, a United Methodist pastor and the director of Care and Share Ministries in Plymouth, Indiana, was arrested and charged with various drug and prostitution crimes.

WNDU-16 reports:

A Michiana pastor was arrested Wednesday after a prostitution sting.

Police arrested 68-year-old Jim Irwin at his Plymouth home on Charles Street.

Court documents reveal that 3 informants helped police put the Plymouth pastor in jail. He’s facing 5 separate charges, 3 of which are felonies.

Dealing in Schedule I, II, or III controlled substances, Level 6 felony; Dealing a substance represented to be controlled substances, Level 6 felony;  Promoting Prostitution, Level 5 felony; Patronizing a Prostitute, Class A misdemeanor; and Patronizing a Prostitute, Class A misdemeanor.

According to the affidavit for probable cause:

On 8/3/2017 Informant A asked Irwin “what do I have to do to get a room?” Irwin responds “just lay there in front of me naked.”

On 8/9/2017 Informant B was given $50 from Irwin to give to an undercover officer for a controlled substance. He said “That’s your $50, it’s not mine, you’re buying, I know nothing about it.”

On 8/17/17 Informant C was given “two white oval pills later identified as a schedule II narcotic drug as a payment for a sexual act to occur the following week.”

Professional acquaintances were shocked to hear about this arrest happening to a man they believed was a highly respected individual.

….

Sources tell NewsCenter 16 that Irwin is the director of Care and Share Ministries in Marshall County. The non-profit was started in 2004 to help provide emergency shelter to families when they are in crisis.

As of Thursday night, a sign reading ‘Care and Share office is closed due to illness’ is taped to the door of the Marshall County Care and Share. The organization is a client of United Way.

“It was shocking to learn the allegations,” said Jeff Houin, President of the Board of Directors for the United Way of Marshall County. Obviously our relationship is with Care and Share Marshall County Incorporated as our member agency, it’s not with any one individual.”

Irwin was in jail as of 9:10 p.m. on Wednesday, with a $60,000 cash bond.

The probable cause affidavit refers to multiple encounters between Irwin and various cooperating sources.

The charges filed against Irwin, now public record, are attached to this article.

According to a LinkedIn in Irwin’s name, he was also a pastor at Maple Grove United Methodist Church. NewsCenter16 contacted the Northern Indiana Superintendent who said Irwin was not a pastor at the South Bend church, but his wife was until just over a year ago.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Terry Dobbs Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for Sex Crimes

Bruce Gerencser 1 Comment

pastor terry dobbs

Terry Dobbs, pastor of Old Fashion United Baptist Church (no web presence) in Yorktown, Indiana was sentenced today to nine years in prison for sexually molesting a church girl he was counseling. The courtroom crowd was filled with Dobbs supporters who asked that their child molesting pastor be given probation. Dobbs’ wife blamed the victim and their son blamed the girl’s parents.

The Star Press reports:

The now-former pastor at a Yorktown church on Thursday was sentenced to nine years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old member of his congregation.

Terry Wayne Dobbs, now 54, in July pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor and child solicitation.

Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. imposed a 13-year sentence, with nine years executed and four years suspended.

During a hearing that exceeded two hours, Dobbs repeatedly said he could not explain or justify his actions.

I don’t know where this came from,” he said. “I’d give anything if I could tell you what happened.” [how about a stiff prick has no conscience]

Authorities said Dobbs, at the time pastor of Old Fashion United Baptist Church, had a sexual relationship with the girl after she began counseling with him about personal problems in July 2016.

He was arrested last December.

Deputy Prosecutor Doug Mawhorr said the teenager was the target of “an extreme example of grooming and manipulation.”

Mawhorr said the married pastor at one point got “down on bended knee” and proposed to his victim, giving her a ring and declaring her his “promise wife… so the sex could be legitimized.”

….

Dobbs’ wife testified there was “blame to be shared” by her husband and his victim.

The pastor’s son suggested the victim’s parents should not have allowed her to meet with his father alone.

Daley recommended his client – who suffers from chronic health problems stemming from a head injury – should receive a seven-year suspended sentence.

At one point, Daley asked those in the packed courtroom to stand if they supported his client.

All of the people on one side of of the courtroom stood. With the exception of one person, those on the other side – including members of Dobb’s former church – remained seated.

Dobbs said he spent almost “every waking hour… trying to figure out” how he could have behaved in such a fashion.

“I threw (his career in the ministry) away and I don’t know why,” he said. “It will haunt me everywhere I go.”

Cannon called the former minister’s actions “tremendously disturbing.”

“Your actions, however you justify them, render your words meaningless,” the judge told Dobbs. “You undertook a pattern of grooming with the victim to satisfy your prurient desires.”

The Muncie man will be required to register with local authorities as a sex offender for 10 years upon his release from prison.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Rose Amadasun Gets Probation for Beating Church Children With a Belt and Wires

Bruce Gerencser 11 Comments

rose amadasun

Rose Amadasun, pastor of Shine Forth Evangelistic Ministry (no web presence) in London, England, received probation for beating church children with a belt and wires.

The Croydon Guardian reports:

A South Norwood pastor who would blindfold children before hitting them with belts and wires has avoided jail.

Rose Amadasun, 49, of Beauchamp Road, was sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months at Croydon Crown Court on August 9.

She had admitted five counts of child cruelty at a previous hearing.

On Saturday, August 2, 2015 police were called by the manager of South Norwood Leisure Centre stating that two members of the public had informed her they had witnessed the female leader of a church group hitting children with a belt.

Officers spoke to the members of the public who stated they had seen a group of children being assaulted by a woman with a belt and shouting “Jesus” as she did so.

An investigation by detectives from the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command revealed that Amadasun had been abusing children she came into contact with through her work for a number of years.

As well as blindfolding the children and beating them, she was found to also shake them when they made a noise and force them to fast for a number of days at a time.

….

Detective Constable Giles Weeden, the investigating officer, said: “This was a complex enquiry that was often met with resistance as the congregation closed ranks to protect their religious leader.

…..

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Lonny Remmers Begins Serving One Year Prison Sentence for Fraud

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

pastor lonny remmers

Lonny Remmers, pastor of Heart of Worship Community Church in Corona, California, reported to prison today to begin serving a year-and-a-day sentence for defrauding an Ohio developer.

Brian Rokos, a reporter for The Press Enterprise, reports:

His last-minute bid to remain free for a few more weeks denied, Corona pastor Lonny Remmers on Tuesday, Aug. 22, reported to prison in Lompoc to begin serving his year-and-a-day sentence for his role in swindling $2 million from an Ohio developer.

Remmers in August 2016 pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was ordered to pay $95,000 restitution. Two others made pleas as well.

The day before he was due to turn himself in to the federal prison, Remmers, 59, filed a motion to delay that, writing that he had to care for his wife, Lisa, who Remmers said was bedridden with shingles, severe bronchitis and vertigo.

“It would be a great help to his wife, and would put defendant Remmers at ease if he could stay at home and take care of her for the next two to three weeks before he has to report to Lompoc,” Remmers wrote in the federal filing.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey J. Helmick denied the request without comment.

Remmers, Robert Milam and Mark O. Wittenmyer solicited $2 million from an Ohio developer as seed money for an investment fund but instead used the money for their own purposes. They had promised Larry Dillin a substantial return on his investment and said the plan was backed by assets in a different, multi-million fund that actually had no assets.

Remmers is head of the Heart of Worship Community Church, which has about two dozen members, many of them recovering drug addicts or others who sought refuge with Remmers from their troubled lives.

….

Readers may remember Remmers from a 2012 story detailing his use of pliers to pinch the nipple of a teenage boy as punishment for sexually assaulting his sister. Rokos reported:

In his latest case, Remmers, pastor of a Corona church with 15-20 members, is accused of assaulting a 13-year-old boy whose mother brought him to Remmers to be straightened out.

Remmers was charged in April with assault with a deadly weapon and inflicting corporal injury on a child.

Authorities say that as head of the Heart of Worship Community Church, he directed two men living at one of the church’s group homes — Darryll D. Jeter Jr. and Nicholas J. Craig — to scare the boy.

Jeter, 28, and Craig, 22, both are charged with assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, making criminal threats, inflicting corporal injury on a child and assault. Authorities say that on March 18, the two men took the boy to Barstow, forced him to dig a grave, hit him with a shovel and threw dirt on him. Jeter and Craig returned the boy to Remmers, who then assaulted the boy’s nipples with pliers, authorities say.

….

Remmers was sentenced to two-years in prison for his crime. And, as sure as the sun comes up in the morning, numerous Christians thought Remmers should have received a pat on the back, not prison, for “helping” the boy:

For one, people who had avoided speaking out during the case that began in March 2012 decided to speak publicly Friday, and they didn’t leave anything out as they tried to persuade Fields to give Remmers probation instead of prison.

The victim in the case and his mother – she moved in with Remmers after his arrest on charges that originally included kidnapping – spoke on the pastor’s behalf Friday.

The boy, now 16, said Remmers “is the best father I have ever known. He means the world to me. He doesn’t deserve any of this. He’s done more to help me in my life than anyone else I’ve ever known. I love this man.”

The boy’s mother, who is not being identified because it could identify the boy, spoke next. She said Remmers pleaded guilty so the boy wouldn’t have to testify about molesting his younger sister. But then she told the court what her son did to her daughter.

She said the incident should have been taken care of in “the family” and not involved police. Remmers taught her son that when it comes to rape, “No means no.”

She claimed that the plea deal was made because of a lack of evidence. Fields interrupted her, reminding her that Remmers voluntarily pleaded guilty.

“Respectfully, you seem to be ignoring that,” Fields said.

Remmers said he pleaded guilty to inflicting corporal injury on a child and assault with a deadly non-firearm weapon so the boy would not have to testify. But Remmers then made public for the first time a contention that the boy had been molested as a 3-year-old, being “passed around like a party favor.”

Remmers said the boy does not fear him.

“The day that this supposed incident went down, the young man came up to me and said ‘Grandpa, thank you for saving my life.’ Not ‘Why did you do this to me?’”

Several church members told Fields that Remmers’ counsel kept their marriages intact. Others said Remmers saved their lives, giving them hope and a place to live and be loved after they had been molested by various relatives or acquaintances. Others said that Remmers, who was ordained in the late 1990s – after serving a contempt of court sentence – is an outstanding pastor.

“I have never been closer to Jesus than I am now because of Pastor Lonny,” said Robert Guzeman, who said he has known Remmers 30 years. “I love you, Pastor.”

Church member Ryan Parks said he was a partier and drinker until he met Remmers, and that the pastor helped him with his marriage. “When I was introduced to the Lord by this man, everything changed for me.”

But two parents of church members said Remmers broke families apart and forbade parents from contacting their loved ones. Jim Forbes said he hadn’t seen his grandchildren for years until he walked past them in the court room.

….

 

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor David Pugh Accused of Sex Crimes

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

busted

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 Pugh, pastor of First Assembly of God in Phillipsburg, Kansas has been charged with child sex crimes ranging from “indecent liberties with a child to sexual exploitation of a child.”

KCWH-12 reports:

A former Phillipsburg pastor is charged with child sex crimes.

Pastor David Pugh resigned from Phillipsburg’s First Assembly of God Church in May.

Prosecutors say the crimes for which he’s accused happened between November 2016 and March 2017. These charges range from indecent liberties with a child to sexual exploitation of a child.

We do not know if Pugh’s position as pastor had anything to do with what prosecutors say happened. Police arrested Pugh earlier this month. He has since bonded out of jail.

On Wednesday, Eyewitness News did get a hold of Pugh briefly over the phone. Pugh said he did not want to comment at this time

Black Collar Crime: Is there a Connection Between Sexual Abuse by Clergy and Drug Addiction?

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

child sex abuse

What follows is an excerpt from an article that suggests that being abused by clergy often leads to substance abuse and addiction. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

Stephen Huba, a reporter for Trib Live, writes:

A group of Catholic lay people and clergy is calling on Greensburg Bishop Edward C. Malesic and other church hierarchs to acknowledge that the clergy sexual abuse scandal is feeding the opioid epidemic.

“He’s got to take some responsibility,” said Tom Venditti, founder of Faithful Catholics Against Pedophilia.

Venditti of Bolivar said he founded FCAP earlier this year to help victims of clergy sexual abuse and encourage them to stay in the Catholic Church.

….

Venditti said he wanted to address “Malesic’s failure to acknowledge clerical sexual abuse as a doorway to heroin abuse and death.”

“We’re here specifically because one of the things you’re not going to hear tonight … is that the majority of victims of clergy sexual abuse become addicts, whether it’s to alcohol or heroin or other hard drugs,” he said.

Venditti said he supports Malesic’s push to involve the Catholic Church in solutions to the opioid epidemic but that more is needed. He said bishops should call on priests accused of sexual abuse to repent and resign.

“These men are not going to get to heaven if they don’t repent,” he said.

Malesic did not respond to Venditti’s claims, but diocesan spokesman Jerry Zufelt said, “The diocese is doing everything it can to protect its children, young adults and vulnerable adults from the evils of abuse.”

About FCAP, Zufelt said, “We support anybody who is working to help abuse survivors.”

Venditti cited two recent cases — one involving a retired priest in the Diocese of Greensburg and one involving a priest in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown — as proof that the problem of clergy sexual abuse is still not being handled effectively.

He alleged that a recent overdose victim in Johnstown had been sexually abused by Brother Stephen Baker, a Franciscan friar accused of abusing students at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown from 1992 to 2001. Three Franciscan superiors were indicted in 2016 in connection with the case.

Baker was found dead of apparent suicide at the St. Bernardine Monastery in Hollidaysburg on Jan. 26, 2013, days after the announcement of a multimillion-dollar settlement with his accusers. He was first accused of sexual abuse in 1988, but his superiors never reported allegations to police.

“All of the victims of clergy sexual abuse that I’ve dealt with are either suicidal or addicted to drugs or alcohol — every single one of them,” Venditti said.

….

 

Black Collar Crime: Pentecostal Pastor Jose Bernal Accused of Sexually Assaulting Children

Bruce Gerencser 1 Comment

pastor jose bernal

Jose Bernal, pastor of Tabernaculo De Vida Pentecostal Church in Fort Worth, Texas, stands accused of sexually abusing two girls.

The Star-Telegram reports:

Police arrested a man Wednesday on suspicion of sexually abusing two girls when he was a preacher at a Fort Worth church.

Hurst police reported that officers executed two felony arrest warrants on Jose Francisco Bernal, 52, at his residence in the 7200 block of Deville Drive in North Richland Hills. Bernal was in the Hurst Jail on Wednesday facing two counts of continuous sexual assault of a child. Bail was set at $50,000 for each charge, police said.

Two adult females made outcries of numerous sexual abuse incidents that occurred when they were both juveniles living in Hurst between 2007 and 2013, police said.

Investigators concluded that Bernal met the girls while he was their pastor at the Tabernaculo De Vida Pentecostal Church on West Dickson Street in Fort Worth.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor David Volmer Convicted of Sex Crimes and Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

david volmer

David Volmer, pastor of ACTS Christian Church in Perth, Australia, pleaded guilty in 2015 to various sex crimes perpetrated against a 13-year-old girl.

In an August 10, 2015 story, Daniel Piotrowski, a reporter for the Daily Mail, wrote:

A teenage girl allegedly abused by a shocking paedophile ring of eight men including her own father was drugged with amyl nitrate and raped by an evangelical preacher.

David Volmer, 41, a married father of two and the South African-born pastor of the ACTS Christian Church in Perth, pleaded guilty to 12 charges relating to the 13-year-old girl’s abuse last month.

Among the offences were three counts each of sexually penetrating a child, indecently dealing with a child under 13 and indecently dealing with a child aged over 13 and under 16.

Court documents obtained by Daily Mail Australia show Mr Volmer also pleaded guilty to three counts of administering amyl nitrate – a ‘stupefying vapour’ – with intent to sexually penetrate and indecently deal with the girl.

….

The drug amyl nitrate is sometimes used a sex aid as it relaxes involuntary muscles, according to an Australian Drug Foundation fact sheet.

WA Police announced last month that seven other men, including the unnamed father, had been arrested as part of the ring, who face 503 charges in total.

Daily Mail Australia has also obtained a copy of a semi-autobiographical book Mr Volmer published in 2012, titled The God Standard: Breaking Through The Ordinary.

In the book, Mr Volmer doles out spiritual advice and reflects upon his own spiritual ‘journey’ and an ’emptiness… burning in the depths of my heart’.

He was candid about his marriage difficulties on his path to accepting his ‘God Standard’ and how his relationship with his wife, who he said he viewed at one point as a ‘Christian extremist’, in fact led him to God.

‘The standards she adopted from God meant that I would not be able to listen to the latest music because of its sexual references or its raunchy music videos.

‘Her standard (the God Standard) meant the men’s magazines I had with the semi-naked women on the cover would need to go.

‘It was clear to me that she had taken things way too far and was what I would label a “Christian extremist.

‘Our marriage went through severe difficulty, but my wife continued to pray for me for over five years.’

Mr Volmer said God used his wife as a ‘conduit’ to ‘open my eyes’ and he was terrified she was right – and feared Satan was ‘using’ his thoughts.

‘The void inside me grew bigger each day, and I continued to lash out at my wife.

‘Pride had grabbed such a hold on my life that I could not get myself to confess that what she had was better than what I had.

‘Even worse was that I was terrified of the consequences if she was right! To admit that she was right would mean to admit that I was on my way to hell.

‘Satan used that thought to keep me captured in fear, but the Holy Spirit continued to draw me closer and closer each day.’

In one passage, Mr Volmer also lamented that ‘in a world where sexual immorality has become a way of life through meaningless sexual encounters, homosexuality, and much more, the word of God has been completely abandoned.’

….

In a November 5, 2015 article, Piotrowski wrote:

A court has heard horrific details of how a ‘deviant’ Christian pastor and father-of-two drugged and rubbed his genitals on a teenage girl as she laid naked, blindfolded and in tears on a bed – as her father is alleged to have watched on.

David Volmer, 41, from Perth’s northern suburbs, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to 12 offences against a minor including sexual penetration of a child, and stupefying with intent to commit an indictable offence.

In a statement of facts read by the prosecution and not disputed by Volmer, the West Australian District Court heard the pastor’s crimes against the girl – who was aged 12 and 13 at the time – occurred after the victim’s father replied to an advertisement Volmer put on Craiglist promoting his ‘sexual massage services’.

The prosecution said Volmer first met the father and his daughter at a park in Perth’s north in February of March 2014.

In admissions to police, Volmer said as soon as he saw the victim he knew in his heart she was younger than 16, despite the father’s assurances to the contrary.

The court heard days later, Volmer booked a hotel room in the Perth CBD, which both the victim and her father attended.

Volmer and the girl stripped naked and he indecently dealt and assaulted her, rubbing his naked body and genitals against her, according to the prosecution.

When the victim started to cry, Volmer stopped what he was doing and the girl was chastised by her father, the court heard.

….

n February 2015, Volmer contacted the father again using the messaging app Kik, the court heard.

He came to the father’s home and fondled the victim as she lay blindfolded to the bed in the home’s master bedroom, before progressing to further sex acts.

Weeks later, he attended the home again, with her father sitting in the corner with a blindfold on. He twice sexually penetrated the girl, the court heard.

On all three occasions, Volmer drugged the girl with amyl nitrate, a drug commonly used as a sex aid which he obtained from a sex shop.

The victim told child protection officers in April 2015 the substance, which she was made to sniff out of a brown bottle, left her feeling ‘woozy and lightheaded’.

After the last incident, Volmer felt guilty and told the victim’s father they should hand themselves in to police, the court heard.

The prosecution said the victim’s father told Volmer he was ‘making a fuss about nothing’.

The priest, then a pastor at the ACTS Christian Church in Carramar and chief executive of Prison Fellowship Western Australia, broke off all contact.

He made full admissions to the offences when he was interviewed by police on June 18 and pleaded guilty to all charges shortly afterwards.

Defence counsel Nick Scerri said Volmer had tried to find the words to say sorry, but felt they were ’empty and powerless’ and could not undo what he did.

‘He wants to say it (sorry) over and over again, shout it from the rooftops,’ he told reporters outside court.

Mr Scerri said Volmer accepted the consequences and hoped the community would forgive him one day.

Judge Herron said it must have been a ‘frustrating and distressing’ experience for the ‘vulnerable and defenceless’ girl.

He added that the ‘degrading and humiliating’ acts were committed for Volmer’s own sexual gratification.

….

Black Collar Crime; Evangelical Nikolay Kalka Says I’m a Pastor, I Would Never Sexually Molest a Child

Bruce Gerencser 3 Comments

nikolay kalka

Nikolay Kalka, a Pentecostal pastor, is on trial for sexually assaulting a girl in a swimming pool.

Cory Shaffer, a reporter for Cleveland.com, reports:

75-year-old Ukrainian-born pastor testified Tuesday that he did not grope a 10-year-old girl and hold her head under water at the Middleburg Heights Recreation Center pool.

Nikolay Kalka, of Parma Heights, carried his oxygen mask and tank to the stand and told jurors through a translator that the girl and her friend splashed him, so he grabbed her and held her head beneath the stream of a gushing fountain for nearly a full minute to teach the pair a lesson.

“I was doing it out of love because I wanted to show them what it was like to splash at people,” Kalka said through the translator.

He did not, he insisted, grope the girl.

“It couldn’t have even come to my mind to do such a thing,” he said. “I live my life a certain way. I’ve been a pastor.”

Prosecutors on Tuesday presented their entire case against Kalka, who faces more than a decade in prison if he is convicted of gross sexual imposition and kidnapping charges that say he touched the girl with a sexual motivation.

….

The girl and her friend, who each have turned 11 since the March 11 incident, testified that Kalka grabbed and squeezed the girl’s breast and vagina as she struggled to free herself from his grasp.

Grainy surveillance video of the incident showed the encounter, and that the friend grabbed the girl’s arm and tried to pull her free as Kalka continued to hold onto her.

“I was feeling really uncomfortable and unsafe, and really scared,” the girl told jurors after she broke down in tears earlier on the stand.

Kalka’s version of the story — that he had been fed up with the girls splashing him and his denial that he ever touched the girl’s vagina and breast — seemed to contradict his lawyer’s theory in opening statements.

Marein told jurors Tuesday morning that Kalka “probably did” touch the girl’s private parts. The video, which Marein said “speaks for itself,” clearly shows Kalka grabbing the girl and her struggling to get away. But Marein painted the encounter as “horseplay.”

“Could it have happened? Of course it could have,” Marein said. “Am I hear to say that she is a liar? No. I’m here to suggest to you that this was done without any sexual purpose whatsoever, that this was blown incredibly out of proportion and that this is completely inconsistent with the life that this man has led.”

Kalka, a Pentecostal pastor in his home country, came to the U.S. in 1990 to escape religious persecution under the Communist regime of the Soviet Union. He formed a small neighborhood church after settling in Cleveland.

….

But Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Jennifer Driscoll repeatedly pointed to the video, which showed that the girls swam up to him and splashed him in the pool’s whirlpool section. He splashed them back.

The girls later approached Kalka near a fountain in the kiddie pool and start splashing him again. The lifeguard on duty that day, Nathaniel French, testified that the girls looked happy and he thought they were horsing around with Kalka, who he thought may have been their grandfather.

Then Kalka grabbed the girl.

He forced her head under the stream of the fountain. He held her there for nearly a minute. The friend, after failing to rip the girl free, went to summon French.

Kafka let the girl go, walked into the pool’s steam room and sauna, then to the locker room before a police officer at the rec center arrested him.

…..

Driscoll hammered Kalka on cross-examination. She asked if he felt her trying to get away.

“Yes, I could tell she was trying to get away, but I wanted her to get wet from the fountain,” Kalka said through the translator.

Driscoll, in a raised voice, asked if he would approve of a strange man grabbing his grandchild and holding them underwater against their will. When Kalka said he treated the girls as his own grandchildren, Driscoll asked if he ever held his own children against their will and groped them.

“Children when they see me, they just run to me,” a clearly flustered Kalka said.

Driscoll pointed out the girls were trying to run from him, not to him.

“No, they weren’t running away from me,” he replied. “I love them, they love me. And the little ones just run all over me and I have to listen to what they want.”

Update

Cleveland.com reports:

A Ukranian-born pastor who faced a potential life sentence for groping a 10-year-old girl at the Middleburg Heights Recreation Center pool this summer was instead sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday.

Dozens of 75-year-old Nikolay Kalka’s friends and family wailed after Judge Kathleen Ann Sutula sent the ailing man to prison for five years, and exchanged words with the judge over the sobs of Kalka’s wife and children.

“Twelve jurors found him guilty, not this court,” Sutula replied. “Watch the video. God saw.”

Kalka faced a potential mandatory life sentence with his first shot at parole in 10 years after a jury found him guilty last month of kidnapping the child with sexual motivation at the pool on May 11.

But Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office asked Judge Kathleen Ann Sutula to sentence him instead on two counts of gross sexual imposition, which carried a maximum of five years in prison each.

Sutula ran the counts concurrent to one another, “only out of mercy, not because I don’t think you deserve the full 10 years,” she said.

Kalka will also have to register as a sex offender every six months for the next 25 years.

….

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Youth Pastor David Thorne Pleads Guilty to Sex Crimes

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

david thorne

David Thorne, youth pastor at Goodyear Baptist Church in Picayune, Mississippi, pleaded guilty Monday to “one count of sexual battery and one count of touching a child for lustful purposes.”

The Sun Herald reports:

A former pastor at a Pearl River County church is facing jail time after pleading guilty to two sex crime charges in Hancock County.

The Sea Coast Echo reports that David Matthew Thorne, 35, of Picayune, on Monday pleaded guilty in Hancock County Circuit Court to one count of sexual battery and one count of touching a child for lustful purposes. He will be sentenced Sept. 25.

Thorne was arrested in March 2016 for molesting a 15-year-old girl in a church van while he was the youth pastor at Goodyear Baptist Church in Picayune.

He was also arrested on a charge of sexual battery, his third sex crime charge, in Pearl River County less than 24 hours after his arrest in Hancock County. The alleged crimes came under investigation after the child’s parents notified law enforcement officials.

Hancock County sheriff’s Chief Investigator Glenn Grannan told the Sun Herald the child was first abused Jan. 31, 2016, in Hancock County.

Thorne was relieved of his duties at Goodyear Baptist Church after his arrest.

Bruce Gerencser