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Category: Black Collar Crime

Black Collar Crime: Pastor Ralph Stair Under Investigation, Accused of Fondling Pre-Teen Girl During Church Service

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ralph stair

Ralph Stair, pastor of The Overcomer Ministry in Walterboro, South Carolina, is under investigation after a video surfaced showing him fondling a pre-teen girl’s breasts during a church service. A second girl has come forward claiming Stairs sexually molested her. Stairs was arrested in 2002 on charges of “sexual assault for improperly touching two young female church members.” The charges were reduced to assault and battery and Stair was given two thirty-day sentences,  Overcomer Ministry’s website calls Stair “The Voice of  the Last Day Prophet of God.”

Harve Jacobs, a reporter for Channel 5 News, writes:

A Lowcountry preacher is under investigation after a video surfaced that allegedly shows him touching an underage girl during a church service.

The Colleton County Sheriff’s Office and State Law Enforcement Division are investigating the Rev. Ralph Stair.

The investigation into Stair began on Oct. 2 after the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a video that came from a woman with a relative who is reportedly a member of Stair’s Overcomer Ministry in Canadys.

A man who narrates the video says he used to belong to the church.

“He is a master manipulator and although he calls it a church, as a former member let me assure you that it is a cult,” the narrator says.

The narrator says the video is a collection of clips from church services between July 1 and Oct. 1 of this year. The video appears to depict the 84-year old Stair telling a girl to get up and come to him.

“I’m gonna touch your, uh, what do you call them?” he says. The girl whispers something into his ear. “I never heard them called that anymore. I call them breasts. Lady has a problem with breasts.”

In another part of the video, Stair calls up another girl.

“How old are you hon?” he asks her. “Twelve, getting right close to it now.”

Then Stair tells her to come back up.

“Come here, I’ll show you, just look, look here,” he says.

Stair has the 12-year-old face the audience. In the video, Stair places his hand between her breasts.

“Growing up,” he says.

The video shows Stair cupping the 12-year-old’s right breast. Then she goes back to her seat.

“I’m gonna touch those things till nobody else can touch ’em,” he says.

In 2002, Stair was arrested on charges of sexual assault for improperly touching two young female church members.

 

Stair eventually agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges of assault and battery and was given two 30-day sentences with credit for time already spent in jail.

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Access to Stair’s compound is blocked by a gate. When contacted for a comment on these latest accusations, an employee of Overcomer Ministry said Stair was not available.

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The sheriff’s office has watched the video along with a second video in which a 16-year-old girl claims she was molested by Stair when she belonged to the church.

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Update

On December 18, 2017, ABC-4 reported:

A Colleton County pastor has been arrested on multiple charges, including three counts of 1st degree criminal sexual conduct, and one count of 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Ralph G. Stair, 84, the leader of Colleton County-based Overcomer Ministry, is in jail at the Colleton County Detention Center after his arrest shortly before 8 a.m. Monday, according to CCSO spokesman, Lt. Tyger Benton.

Deputies arrested Stair after serving warrants on eight charges, which are as follows:

  • 3 counts – 1st degree Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC)
  • 1 count – Assault with intent to commit 1st degree criminal sexual conduct
  • 1 count – 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor
  • 1 count – Kidnapping
  • 1 count – 1st degree burglary
  • 1 count – 2nd degree assault

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Rodney McManus Arrested on Charges of Unlawful Sexual Conduct With a Minor

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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.

Rodney McManus, pastor of NewLife Outreach Church in East Palestine, Ohio was arrested Tuesday on charges of attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor

WKBN-27 reports:

A local pastor of a church and business owner is accused of having inappropriate contact with a girl under the age of 16.

Police confirmed that Rodney McManus, 49, of Alice Street, was arrested Tuesday on charges of attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

Police say McManus touched the girl inappropriately on multiple occasions between January 2014 and August 2017.

The girl was under 16 and older than 13 when the incidents occurred.

McManus met up with the girl at the Coffee Stop, which he co-owned and used for youth activities for teens and where he held services for the NewLife Outreach Church.

McManus appeared in court on Thursday where bond was set at $25,000. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 19.

The NewLife Outreach Church and Coffee Stop have closed.

Update

WFMJ reports:

An East Palestine church pastor accused of sexual contact with an underage girl was back in court.

Rodney McManus, 49, who remains jailed on a $25,000 cash bond, was handcuffed and dressed in jail orange as he walked into the courtroom of Columbiana County Municipal Court Judge Mark Frost.

McManus was the pastor of the New Life Outreach Church in East Palestine and ran the local services out of The Coffee Stop that he owned until it abruptly closed in September.

McManus agreed to waive a preliminary hearing that was supposed to be held and would have allowed the alleged victim in the case to testify.

Instead, the case will head to the Columbiana County Grand Jury.

Assistant Columbiana County Prosecutor Alec Beech also told the judge there was a “typo” in the original criminal complaint that alleged this was an “attempted” act of unlawful sexual contact with a girl under the age of 16.

The judge agreed to remove the word “attempted” which makes the crime a more serious felony.

According to the criminal complaint, McManus became involved with a juvenile between the ages of 13 and 16 in 2013, and the alleged behavior went on for several years.

McManus is accused of touching the girl’s genital area and placed her hand on his genitals.

The judge made it clear that if McManus is able to make bond, he is to have no contact with the alleged victim in this case.

McManus was sentence to three years in prison for his crimes.

Black Collar Crime: School Teacher Accused of Using Christianity to Seduce Teen Student

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Joe Petrey, a former teacher at Brookwood High School in Snellville,Georgia, stands accused of using Christianity to seduce a female student. This led to the two having sex at the married teacher’s home and hotels.

Jennifer Smith, a writer for the Daily Mail, reports:

A former high school student who claims she had a relationship with her married teacher has come forward to publicly shame the man as an adult.

Abigail Weissenbach, now 21, was 17 when she says she and Joe Brad Petrey had sex at his home and in hotels in Bessemer, Alabama.

They ate lunch and breakfast together in his classroom at Brookwood High School and he fondled her under a blanket during classes when other students were watching movies, she claimed.

Their illicit relationship was exposed in 2015 when hundreds of photographs of the pair together were posted on social media.

Petrey, who was 28 at the time and is now 30, was charged with child sex offences but the case against him was dismissed when Abigail decided not to cooperate with authorities in February.

Since then, she has had a change of heart and is airing her allegations in a federal lawsuit against him and the school, which she says knew about the alleged abuse but did nothing to stop it.

The woman spoke to ABC’s 33/40 to explain how she was brainwashed by Petrey into thinking she was to blame for the relationship.

‘I was going through a hard time and it was really nice to feel like I had someone who was in my corner that really really cared.

‘It was an unhealthy, abusive relationship I was in and what he did to me was wrong,” said Weissenbach.

‘Looking back now I feel very embarrassed and stupid that I believed everything he said and went along with it,’ she added.

In her lawsuit, she alleges that other staff at the school were aware of their relationship but did nothing to stop it.

‘They knew but they didn’t take any action. If he was investigated, seemingly nothing happened because I sat in his classroom behind his desk everyday.

‘I didn’t even have my own desk. And to tell me you don’t notice a student skipping lunch to eat lunch with their teacher, spending in the mornings, sitting with him or being alone in his classroom, to not take action.’

She said Petrey used religion to coax her into their affair and once said that God had told him to tell her she was beautiful in a dream.

‘He kind of coached me in Christianity and talked to me a lot about that and would ask me to sit behind his desk and it really just grew from there really quickly and it turned into something before I really knew it was going down that path.’

Over the course of a year, they had sex at his home when his wife was not there and in hotels when she was in town, the lawsuit alleges.

He took her out for meals to a local Olive Garden restaurant and took photographs together which he saved onto a hard drive, she claims.

In 2014, her dance teachers contacted the school board to say they were concerned about the relationship after hearing her talk about her ‘boyfriend’ who she called ‘Brad’.

The school board said it was investigating their claims but Petrey returned to teach the following year.

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Black Collar Crime: Methodist Pastor Reid Buchanan Charged with Sexually Abusing Two Girls

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Reid Buchanan, a pastor at St. Luke United Methodist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, has been charged with sexually abusing two teen girls who are family members.

The Lexington Herald Leader reports:

A former associate pastor of a large Lexington church has been charged with sexual abuse of two teens, according to media reports.

Reid Buchanan, who worked at St. Luke United Methodist Church from July 2016 until August of this year, was arrested Wednesday by Lexington police. Two minors accused Buchanan, 63, of touching them inappropriately multiple times, starting when they were younger, according to WKYT, the Herald-Leader’s reporting partner.

The abuse of the youngest victim allegedly began two years ago, according to WKYT. She didn’t come forward until a recent incident.

Abuse of the other victim began many years prior with the latest incident in April, according to the report.

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As associate pastor at St. Luke United Methodist Church, he was director of missions and was involved in the planning of mission trips, said Cathy Bruce, director of communications for the Kentucky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, headquartered in Crestwood in Oldham County.

The allegations were brought to the attention of the church in late July, Bruce said, at which point Buchanan was immediately relieved of his duties and suspended.

She said there are no allegations of misconduct on church grounds or at a church event.

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Buchanan pleaded not guilty Thursday in court. He was ordered not to have contact with the teens, and a preliminary hearing was set for 8:30 a.m. Nov. 3

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Michael Cole Convicted of Sexually Abusing a Teenage Boy

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Michael Cole, worship pastor at The Worship Center Ministries in Dixon, Illinois, was convicted on charges of sexually abusing a teenage boy.

Kathleen Schultz, a reporter for SaukValley.com wrote:

A Dixon man charged with 25 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a teenage boy was sentenced to 6 months in jail and 8 years’ probation – 4 years on each of the two charges to which he pleaded.

The other 23 were dismissed per his plea agreement.

Michael J. Cole, 38, must serve the full 6 months; he is not being given day-for-day credit, but he was given credit for 9 days served. He also must pay $2,428.25 in fines and fees.

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The boy was 16 when the abuse began; Cole was 29 and the assistant pastor at his Dixon church.

Although Cole is being allowed to remain a worship leader at the Worship Center, 403 N. Ottawa Ave., while on probation, he may be in the presence of those younger than 18 only when other adults are present.

He cannot be a minister, counselor, or mentor, or hold any kind of leadership position over any children younger than 18.

His father, Bishop Michael F. Cole, is the Worship Center pastor.

Although his son has been preaching in his church recently – and in fact delivered a short, videotaped speech Sunday letting members of the congregation know about his upcoming jail term and thanking them for their support – his role in the church upon his release “has yet to be determined,” his father said Tuesday. He has no position at the church at present, other than being a worship leader, the bishop said.

Also under the terms of his probation:

Cole must register as a sex offender; cannot in general have any contact with a child younger than 18 unless supervised by an adult 21 or older; must complete any and all recommended sex offender evaluation and treatment; can have no contact with his victim or any of the victim’s immediate family; and cannot leave the state without the court’s permission.

He also cannot have any sexually explicit material; date or have a romantic relationship with anyone who has physical custody of a minor child; cannot live within 100 yards of a school, daycare, YMCA, YWCA, park, playground or any other place children congregate; and cannot place a personal classified ad, go to a bar, or have a firearm or any other dangerous weapon.

Cole, who was sentenced Wednesday, was arrested Sept. 14, 2015, after an investigation that began that August, when the boy reported being sexually abused in 2008 and 2009, when he was 16 and 17, and Cole was 29 and 30.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Youth Pastor Jared Thomas Stands Accused of Giving Teens Alcohol

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Jared Thomas, youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Ridge Manor, Florida, stands accused of giving teens alcohol and inappropriately touching a girl.

WFTS reports:

A Hernando County youth pastor is in trouble for giving alcohol to minors.

The church’s website says that Jared Thomas, has been the youth pastor here at the First Baptist Church in Ridge Manor since 2012. Though police reports say back on September 5th, he wasn’t acting very pastor-like.

The police report shows that after a high school volleyball match on September 5th, Thomas took his daughters to hang out with friends.

The report says Thomas stayed at the home and gave the girls alcohol and became very drunk himself. It goes on to say that he touched a girl inappropriately and was making obscene comments to that girl, then began chasing her. It also says he broke a window in the home after the girl locked him out.

“She was scared.” said Jason Sager. Sager says the girl was a player on the youth basketball team that Thomas coaches. Sager and his wife mentor the girl and says she texted him that night.

He said, “She was frightened, as she should be. There was an adult giving chase to her in a vehicle.”

Deputies arrested Thomas Sunday night.

Sager has now stepped in to coach the youth basketball team. “I’m a Christian myself and I do believe that judgment is up to God, but I do believe that Mr. Thomas needs to do a little soul searching.”

We reached out to the church and to Jared Thomas trying to get a statement about these charges but did not get a response.

Thomas’ bio on First Baptist’s website states:

Jared Thomas has been the Youth Pastor of Ridge Manor First Baptist Church since November of 2012. He is leading the Ridge Manor Student Ministry called UTURN Student Ministries with a focus on the passage of scripture Acts 1:9 Turn to God, give up sin and you will be forgiven. While being passionate about making disciples and seeing people reach their maximum potential in who they are in Jesus Christ, Pastor Jared and his Wife Josie came up with the ministry motto: “Changing Course and Making Turns in the Right Direction”.

Jared was ordained into the gospel ministry by FBC of Ridge Manor and has taken on a more involved role at the Church assisting with Pastoral Care. Having grown up in the Church he has served in Ministry in some way shape or form his whole life.

Prior to arriving in Ridge Manor, he had served in a few different local ministries in the Tampa Bay area for many years; working in Student Ministry, Music Ministry and Recreation Ministry. Jared and his Wife Josie are also Nationally Recognized Recording Artist Known as “Beyond Skillz”.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor David Diehl Pleads Guilty to Sex Crime Charges

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Last November, David Diehl, pastor of Church on Fire in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was arrested and charged with ” child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime.”

MLive reports:

A pastor pleaded guilty to accosting a child for immoral purposes for an online conversation with an undercover officer posing as a man willing to prostitute his young daughters.

David Robert Diehl, 40, of Kentwood, was to stand trial Monday, Oct. 9, facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted of child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime.

He instead pleaded guilty to a four-year felony.

He will be sentenced Jan. 11 by Kent County Circuit Judge Dennis Leiber.

Diehl told investigators he worked full-time in a funeral home and was a pastor at Church on Fire in Grand Rapids.

State police detective Matthew McLanin had put a notice on Craigslist warning about a fictitious man named “Daddy Dave,” who was trying to prostitute his young daughters.

Diehl emailed the investigator for the phone number of the man. The detective sent his own number.

Police said Diehl admitted to texting “Daddy Dave” about his 11-year-old daughter and the possibility of meeting her for sex.

“Diehl admitted there was a strong possibility he would have met with Daddy Dave for the purpose of having sex with the 11-year-old girl if there was zero chance of Diehl being arrested by police or having to go to jail,” McLanin wrote in court documents.

Defense attorney Matthew Borgula has acknowledged that his client’s conversation with the investigator was “disgusting.” But Borgula said Diehl didn’t commit a crime, he only considered it.

Black Collar Crime: Another Toledo Evangelical Pastor, Kenneth Butler, Accused of Sex Trafficking

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pastor kenneth butler

Earlier this year, Toledo Evangelical pastors Cordell Jenkins and Anthony Haynes were accused of “knowingly recruiting, enticing, harboring, and transporting people they knew were younger than 18 years old to engage in commercial sex acts.” You can read about their arrests here.  Another Evangelical pastor, Kenneth Butler, has been arrested and charged with sex trafficking. Butler’s case is connected to Jenkins’ and Haynes’ cases. Butler is the pastor of Kingdom Encounter Family Worship Center in Toledo, Ohio.

ABC-13 reports:

A Toledo pastor arrested last night for sex trafficking waived his preliminary hearing in court Thursday.

Kenneth Howard Butler, 37, is in custody of the FBI following his arrest. He will have a detention hearing October 12.

Butler is a pastor at Kingdom Encounter Family Worship Center on Reynolds Road.

Butler’s arrest comes months after the arrest of two other local pastors, Cordell Jenkins and Anthony Haynes, who were also charged with sex crimes. Authorities confirm all three cases are connected.

According to federal court documents, a 15-year-old girl says she met Butler at Haynes church in Toledo. The girl says Butler talked the girl in the church parking lot, expressing interest in having sex with her. Court documents show another church member approached the pair, interrupting the conversation.

The girl says Butler drove her to work and to Butler’s church in Detroit, Mich. At the age of 16, the girl says Butler had sex with her. She says Butler placed money in the center console of his car for her.

Court documents explain that Haynes’ wife called Butler and recorded a conversation in which he admitted to having sex with the underage girl, saying he thought she was “close to” the age of 18. He also allegedly admitted to giving her money afterward. The documents also say Butler instructed the teenage girl to lie if questioned by the FBI.

Court documents further say Butler admitted to having sex with the minor girl. The document also shows Butler admitted to knowing the girl was a minor and giving her money on multiple occasions. He denied that the money was in exchange for sex.

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Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest Adam Prochaski Accused of Sexually Molesting Girls

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Adam Prochaski, former pastor of Holy Cross Church in Maspeth,Queens, New York, stands accused of molesting fifteen girls between 1973 and 1994.

Christopher Barca, a writer for the Queens Chronicle, reports:

More than a dozen women have come forward in recent weeks to accuse a former Maspeth priest of molesting them as children decades ago.

Prominent attorney Mitchell Garabedian told the Chronicle in a Tuesday interview that 15 women claim that former Holy Cross Church pastor the Rev. Adam Prochaski sexually abused them at some point between 1973 and 1994.

“Father Prochaski was sexually abusing innocent children for more than two decades,” Garabedian said. “My clients are very courageous for coming forward.”

According to the Daily News, which broke the story, Prochaski was first assigned to Holy Cross in 1969. Garabedian said the abuse began four years later and occurred not just at the church, but at the parish’s now-defunct school and other locations.

“Sex abuse happened at school, in Holy Cross Church, in the rectory next door and in some of the children’s homes, as well as the father’s,” the attorney said. “In many cases, his abuse was open, notorious and in plain view.”

The ages of his alleged victims, many of them Polish immigrants, ranged from just 5 years old to 16, he added.

The allegations finally graduated from whispered rumors in 1990, when former Holy Cross teacher Linda Porcaro said seven of the priest’s alleged victims told her what had happened to them.

“So I immediately went to the principal at the time, but I was told that everyone knew about Father P. She laughed,” Porcaro said in a Tuesday interview. “I was supposed to forget about it because everyone knew.”

Porcaro left the school shortly afterwards, but kept in touch with the victims — who are now between 37 and 54 — over the years. In August, she said she saw an anonymous post on Facebook that advised anyone with with information about the priest’s past to call Garabedian.

The lawyer represented many of those sexually abused by priests in Boston a decade ago.

That scandal was famously unearthed by a team of Boston Globe investigative reporters and portrayed in the 2015 Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight,” with popular actor Stanley Tucci playing Garabedian.

“I called him and told him everything I knew, who the girls were and what they told me,” Porcaro said. “I’ve been trying to make this right for 30 years. As this all came out, women have started to contact me, even some from 10 years before I taught there.”

Thinking back to the days spent with Prochaski at the school and church, Porcaro said she noticed him multiple times standing at the bottom of staircases, staring up girls’ skirts as they ascended the stairs.

“He was 6-feet, 4-inches tall and not thin. He was intimidating to a little child,” she said. “He would also constantly take pictures. He had a hobby of photographing candidly anyone he could.”

The Diocese of Brooklyn told the Daily News that Prochaski left the priesthood in 1994, soon after the allegations were reported to the religious organization.

The NYPD and the District Attorney’s Office have launched investigations into the claims, and Garabedian said he is working on getting his clients enrolled in the diocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program — a fund for victims of sexual abuse committed by clergymembers.

“While no amount of money can heal the scars of abuse, we hope the program can help with the healing process and provide some element of closure,” diocesan spokeswoman Carolyn Erstad told the Daily News. “Our intention is to show solidarity with victims.”

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Black Collar Crime: Methodist Pastor Cheong “Alec” Park Facing Criminal Sexual Contact Charges

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Cheong “Alec” Park, pastor of Memorial United Methodist Church and West Grove United Methodist Church — both in Neptune, New Jersey — stands accused of criminal sexual contact.

USA today reports:

The social worker who surrendered his license amid allegations he fondled a client is also a pastor at Methodist churches in Neptune and Neptune City.

Officials with the United Methodist Church of Greater New Jersey confirmed that Cheong “Alec” Park of Neptune, whom Jersey City police arrested in August, is a pastor at Neptune City’s Memorial United Methodist Church and West Grove United Methodist Church in Neptune.

Park, 49, is facing a charge of criminal sexual contact after an incident with a female client in July, the Office of the Attorney General announced Friday. He surrendered his license to practice social work under a consent agreement with the state Board of Social Work Examiners.

“Allegations of this nature are serious. As United Methodists, we believe that disrespectful and abusive sexual expressions are not acceptable Christian behavior and are destructive to individuals and families,” Carolyn Conover, director of communication and development with the United Methodist Church of Greater New Jersey, wrote in a prepared statement.

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Park “had engaged in physical contact with the woman during prior sessions by hugging and massaging her face, neck and shoulders and upper chest, telling her it was ‘relaxation therapy,'” according to the Attorney General’s announcement. “During the session in question, after the victim had shared that she had difficulty setting boundaries, Park allegedly proceeded to massage her chest and breasts inside her bra.”

Under the terms of a consent order, Park is forbidden from doing social work, drug or alcohol counseling or mental health therapy or counseling, including “volunteer practice, life coaching, internet counseling” or any other form of practice, according to the Attorney General’s announcement.

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