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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Counselor and Pastor Raymond Gaglardi Convicted of Sexual Assault, Facing More Charges

Bruce Gerencser 1 Comment
raymond gaglardi

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.

in 2023 Raymond Gaglardi, a former employee of Glad Tidings Church in Vancouver, British Columbia and Hillside Community Church in Coquitlam, was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to almost 13 years in prison. The sentence was reduced to half due to Galardi’s age, meaning he will only spend six and a half years in prison.

TriCity News reported:

A former pastor, therapist and counsellor who worked for churches in Coquitlam and Vancouver walked out of a court prisoner’s box today to be handcuffed and led to jail.

On Friday (Jan. 20), BC Supreme Court Justice Paul W. Riley imposed a sentence of 12 years and 11 months against Raymond Gaglardi; however, it was reduced by half under the totality principle due to his age, meaning Gaglardi will be behind bars for six years and six months.

Gaglardi, a diminutive man of 78 years old, showed no emotion as Riley took nearly 90 minutes to read out his reasons for judgment, or when the judge imposed the sentence.

His wife of 49 years, who sat behind the prisoner’s box, showed no expression as well.

But some victims present in court, and their spouses, brushed away tears after the decision. Several other victims — some dating back four decades — watched the hearing online.

Last year, following a trial, Riley convicted Gaglardi on 11 of the 25 offences before him. On the counts, each of the 11 victims experienced between one and three sexual assaults.

Riley recounted how Gaglardi befriended his victims at the Glad Tidings Church in Vancouver, its academy or summer camp, as well as at the Hillside Community Church in Coquitlam or at his counselling practice, located in the basement of his Coquitlam home.

The judge said Gaglardi “preyed” on adolescent boys or young men who came from troubled homes or were in need of help. They came to trust “Dr. Ray” for emotional support because he was part of the church and he told them he held a PhD in philosophy from Ohio Christian College, a post-secondary institution in the U.S. that was later declared to be fraudulent.

Gaglardi’s interactions with the boys and young men were “bizarre” and “opportunistic,” the judge told the New Westminster courtroom: In private, Gaglardi would check their bodies for venereal disease, touch their penises, use a pen-like instrument to examine their genitals, massage their prostate, provide pornographic material to masturbate or perform a coffee enema.

In another case in Coquitlam, Gaglardi did an anal swab with a Q-Tip to look at the feces.

And when the boys reported Gaglardi’s sexual conduct, they were often shunned from their broken families, who believed the church-going authority figure instead of their children.

The impact was long-lasting, the court heard, as many victims said Gaglardi’s actions led to shame, embarrassment and trauma that had a ripple effect on their future relationships.

In sentencing, Riley said he took into account Gaglardi’s age and his lack of criminal history, but he also noted Gaglardi’s abuse of position within the churches, his claim he was a trained doctor and therapist, and the duration of his crimes, which lasted from 1971 to 2017.

Besides his 155-month sentence in prison — cut to 78 months behind bars — Gaglardi will also be on a sex offender registry for 20 years and provide a DNA sample, Riley ordered.

In November 2024, Gaglardi was charged with three more counts of gross indecency and indecent assault.

Burnaby Now reports:

An 80-year-old former pastor and therapist who is serving a prison sentence for sex crimes against 11 young male clients has been charged with more offences in Vancouver and Burnaby in the 1970s.

Raymond Howard Gaglardi was sentenced in January 2023 to six-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault and sexual exploitation against victims between the ages of 10 and 30.

The offences were committed between 1971 and 1981, when Gaglardi was working at Glad Tidings Temple in Vancouver, and between 1993 and 2015, when he was associated with Hillside Community Church in Coquitlam, according to court documents.

A number of the offences were committed at Gaglardi’s Burnaby apartment.

His victims were between the ages of 10 and 30.

“In each case, Mr. Gaglardi touched the victim in a sexual manner, in circumstances where the victim did not consent, consented on false pretenses, or consented based on Mr. Gaglardi’s exploitation of a trust relationship,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Riley said in his sentencing ruling in the case.

On Nov. 13, Gaglardi was charged with three more counts each of gross indecency and indecent assault (charges that no longer exist in the Criminal Code of Canada) against three different alleged victims in 1970, 1973 and 1974, according to the Vancouver provincial court registry.

He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on the new charges Wednesday.

The Burnaby NOW reached out to Coquitlam RCMP, which investigated the cases, for more information and was told a “full update” on the charges would be published later in the week.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Black Collar Crime: Mormon Prophet Samuel Bateman Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison for Sex Crimes Against Children

Bruce Gerencser 1 Comment
samuel bateman

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.

Samuel Bateman, a self-appointed “prophet” of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — a polygamist subset of the Mormon church, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and a conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Bateman was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

The United States Attorney’s Office: District of Arizona reports:

Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 48, of Colorado City, was sentenced yesterday by United States District Judge Susan M. Brnovich to 50 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release. On April 1, 2024, Bateman pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Transportation of a Minor for Criminal Sexual Activity and Conspiracy to Commit Kidnapping.  

“Protecting the most vulnerable is our highest calling as prosecutors,” said United States Attorney Gary Restaino. “Many thanks to our dedicated prosecutors and law enforcement colleagues for an expeditious investigation, and to our victim advocates for their focus on services and healing.”

“Every child should feel and be safe in their homes,” said FBI Phoenix Special Agent in Charge Jose A. Perez. “Today’s sentencing brings some closure to the victims with hopes they can confidently continue the long road to living normal lives with trusted and loving adults surrounding them. Protecting our most vulnerable populations, with children at the top of the list, is and will continue to be a high priority for the FBI and our partners.”

Bateman, who represented himself as a religious prophet, was the leader of a years-long child sexual abuse conspiracy that spanned several states and victimized at least 10 children. Beginning in 2019, Bateman amassed followers in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. In 2020 and 2021, Bateman’s followers gave their minor daughters and wards to him as child “brides” to sexually abuse. The victims were as young as nine years old. Through coercion and manipulation, Bateman regularly forced his victims to participate with him in individual and group sexual activities with adults and other children. He gave one of the victims to an adult male follower to be sexually abused, and on another occasion transmitted a live video stream of child sexual abuse to his followers. Bateman and others transported the victims between states to facilitate the sexual abuse, which continued until Bateman’s arrest on federal charges in September 2022.

Following Bateman’s arrest, his child victims were placed in the legal and physical custody of the Arizona Department of Child Safety. In November 2022, Bateman conspired with some of his followers to kidnap the victims from their custody placements. The conspirators succeeded in taking eight of the girls to California and then to Washington, where they were found by law enforcement and returned to Arizona.

Bateman was charged along with 11 of his adult followers, all of whom have also been convicted of charges related to the child sexual abuse conspiracy. Two of Bateman’s co-defendants were convicted at trial by a jury, and the others were convicted by guilty plea. Several other defendants have already been sentenced, and the remaining defendants will be sentenced in the coming months.

The Sacramento Bee adds:

Samuel Rappylee Bateman took 10 child “brides,” some as young as 9, and regularly raped them, court documents say. His followers, the girls’ fathers, allowed this abuse, according to prosecutors. Bateman grew a following in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska in 2019 by holding himself out as the new “prophet” of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamist subset of the Mormon church, according to court documents.

In 2012, FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs was sentenced to prison in connection with sexually abusing children, prosecutors said. Jeffs’ criminal case is the focus of the 2022 Netflix documentary “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey.” According to prosecutors, Bateman “controlled every aspect” of his child “brides’” lives and forced them into group sex acts with other adults and children.

After Bateman’s arrest in September 2022, he came up with a plan to have the girls kidnapped from Arizona Department of Child Safety custody, according to prosecutors. Eight of the girls were abducted by his co-conspirators before law enforcement rescued them, prosecutors said.

A judge has sentenced Bateman, 48, of Colorado City, Arizona, to 50 years in prison on charges of a conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and a conspiracy to commit kidnapping, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in a Dec. 10 news release. Colorado City, near the Utah border, is about a 370-mile drive northwest from Phoenix.

Bateman was expressionless in the courtroom when his minor victims and followers spoke at his sentencing on Dec. 9, The Arizona Republic reported. “Sam, you have no power over me,” one girl who was abused by Bateman said, according to the newspaper. ”I hope you feel the pain you caused me as you sit rotting in your cell.”

Bateman was a follower of Jeffs, who denounced him from prison, the Associated Press reported. Before growing his following, Bateman traveled to Canada In February 2019, when he tried to preach his ideas and wanted to marry his 13-year-old daughter, prosecutors said. Batement wanted to “have a baby with her,” according to the sentencing memorandum, which says his wife at the time “immediately divorced (him), obtained a restraining order against him, and protected her daughter.” Bateman went on to travel between Lincoln, Nebraska; Cedar City, Utah; Monument, Colorado; and Colorado City, Arizona, to grow his following and claim “wives,” according to his plea agreement. One man gave five of his minor daughters and a step-daughter to Bateman as “brides,” prosecutors said.

None of the marriages were legally official, according to prosecutors. In the sentencing memo, prosecutors detailed how “the young victims were made to sleep naked every night, whether it was in bed with (Bateman) or on the floor around his bed.” “He would choose a couple of girls to sleep with him each night, which meant they had to have sex with him,” prosecutors wrote. Bateman controlled every part of the girls’ day, according to prosecutors, who said he made them sing to him each night, had them prepare his meals and his baths, and had them “confess minor infractions.”

The women and girls were traded “like property” with other men, the sentencing memo says. Bateman transported the girls through different states to “facilitate the sexual abuse,” which ended in September 2022, when he was arrested on a child endangerment charge, according to prosecutors. A few months later, Bateman schemed to kidnap the girls from their child custody placements in Arizona, resulting in eight of them being abducted to California, and then Washington, prosecutors said. The girls were brought back to Arizona by law enforcement, according to prosecutors.

Eleven of Bateman’s adult followers have been convicted in connection with the child sexual abuse ring, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Multiple followers of Bateman have been sentenced, according to prosecutors, who said a few others will be sentenced within the next several months. “The amount of harm you caused is nothing short of unmeasurable,” U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich told Bateman at his sentencing,

The Arizona Republic reported. A psychiatrist who evaluated Bateman determined he’s “mentally ill” and “delusional,” his legal counsel, Russo, wrote in a court filing. He asked the court to sentence Bateman to 20 years in prison. According to Russo, the psychiatrist suggested Bateman was indoctrinated into believing “criminal” behavior was normal during his upbringing. Bateman will serve his prison sentence until he’s 98, according to prosecutors. “You should not have the opportunity to be free and never have the opportunity to be around young women,” Brnovich told Bateman in court, according to the Associated Press.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Anthony Strickland Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison for Sexually Assaulting Young Girls

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments
pastor anthony strickland

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.

In December 2024, Anthony Strickland, pastor of Freedom Center in Bono, Arkansas (no web presence), pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual assault and was sentenced to ten years in prison.

In a previous case (June 2019), Strickland was charged with felony rape and second-degree battery.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported at the time:

Jonesboro police said a Memphis hospital contacted the department last week after a 43-year-old woman came in with several injuries. She told police that 53-year-old Anthony Lee Strickland had attacked her, the affidavit said.

She said Strickland was intoxicated, and she gave investigators a “detailed account” of him hitting her at least two times in the face before raping her, according to the affidavit.

Officials said officers found three guns in Strickland’s car seat when they arrested him during a Wednesday traffic stop.

Authorities charged the Jonesboro resident with felony rape and second-degree battery.

Strickland is a pastor at the Freedom Center, a congregation he started in 2003, according to police and business records filed with the Arkansas secretary of state.

Phone numbers and social media accounts listed under the church’s name appeared to be deactivated on Friday.

Strickland was free on a $125,000 bond that he posted Thursday evening, according to the Craighead County sheriff’s office.

A judge set a no-contact order with his alleged victim and required Strickland wear an ankle location monitor.

According to the Jonesboro Sun:

The rape charge was dropped in July 2019 by then-Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington, and Strickland pleaded guilty to second-degree domestic battery and was sentenced to 60 months of probation.

On October 8, 2021, KAIT-8 reported:

A former Craighead County pastor faces up to 60 years in prison following his arrest for rape.

Jonesboro police arrested 55-year-old Anthony Lee Strickland of Bono on Oct. 6 on suspicion of rape and second-degree sexual assault.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the two victims claimed Strickland sexually assaulted them at his home.

On Friday, Craighead County District Court Judge Tommy Fowler found probable cause to arrest Strickland and set his bond at $150,000. The judge also ordered he have no contact with the victims.

According to the Jonesboro Sun, Strickland has now been officially charged with rape:

A former pastor has been charged with rape and second-degree sexual assault in a case involving a then-11- to 13-year-old girl and her 11-year-old sister.

District Judge Tommy Fowler found probable cause to charge Anthony Lee Strickland, 55, of Bono on Friday. Fowler set Strickland’s bond at $150,000.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the older girl, now 18, told her parents that when she stayed over about five to seven years ago with Strickland, who was a friend of the parents for 20 years and pastor of their church, he watched a movie with her. She said Strickland began rubbing her privates and asked her if it felt good.

The victim said she was able to get away and run downstairs.

After the victim’s mother was made aware of what happened with the older daughter, she sat down with her other children and asked them to tell her and her husband if anyone had touched them inappropriately and not be afraid to tell them.

The older girl briefly told her siblings what happened to her, and her 11-year-old sister broke down crying and said, “Momma, he did that to me, too,” the affidavit states.

The younger girl said Strickland began rubbing her private parts and she attempted to yell and scream. She said Strickland covered her mouth and said “shhhh.”

She said Strickland digitally penetrated her. She told him she needed to go to the bathroom and ran and got into bed with her brother.

On December 16, 2024, Strickland pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual assault and was sentenced to ten years in prison.

The Sun reports:

After his case was postponed 11 times, and almost a decade after the crimes occurred, a former minister has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting young girls.

Anthony Lee Strickland, 58, of rural Bono, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of second-degree sexual assault, according to court records. He had originally been charged in 2021 with one count of rape and one count of second-degree sexual assault involving two girls whose parents attended his church.

Strickland was the founder of Freedom Center, a congregation he established near Bono in 2003.

One of the victims disclosed the crime after she turned 18. According to the court information, the incidents occurred between October 2015 and December 2016.

After turning 18, the older girl told her parents that when she spent the night with Strickland, he watched a movie with her. She said Strickland began rubbing her genitals and asked her if it felt good.

The victim said she was able to get away and run downstairs, according to a court affidavit.

After the girls’ mother was made aware of the allegations, she sat down with her other children and asked them to tell her and her husband if anyone had touched them inappropriately and to not be afraid to tell them.

One of the younger children spoke up to say a similar situation happened to her, too. That child would have been under the age of 7 at the time.

Rape carries a potential penalty of up to life in prison. Under Arkansas law, Strickland could have received 20 years for second-degree sexual assault.

Strickland had previously been charged in 2019 with rape and felony domestic battery in the second-degree. The following year, he pleaded guilty to the domestic battery charge and the rape charge was dropped. Court records show Strickland was placed on five years of probation.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Black Collar Crime: Former Catholic Youth Worker Brian Werth Sentenced to 37 Years in Prison for Child Pornography Crimes

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments
brian werth

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.

In 2018, Brian Werth, a youth worker at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Rockville, Maryland, was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for the sexual abuse of a church teenager.

The Bethesda Magazine reported:

A former youth minister at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Rockville was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for the sexual abuse of a teen parishioner, according to Montgomery County prosecutors.

Brian Patrick Werth, 34, had been arrested in 2016 in connection with the abuse of a then-16-year-old girl, to whom he had sent explicit text messages for two years and had sexual contact with her earlier that year. He was charged with a fourth-degree sex offense, sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree assault.

Judge Karla Smith sentenced Werth to one year for the sex offense charge and two years for the assault charge, according to a State’s Attorney’s Office press release. The two terms will be served consecutively, followed by five years of probation with COMET, a sex offender monitoring program that will include periodic polygraph and psychosexual testing. Werth is also required to register as a sex offender for 15 years.

Smith went beyond state guidelines, which recommend zero to six months for the charges, in the sentencing. Ramón Korionoff, a spokesman for the State’s Attorney’s Office, said the sentence was appropriate.

“It is our hope that this above-the-guidelines sentence will send a strong message that people in position of authority and trust must not abuse that power over the young people they are supposed to be serving,” he said in a statement. “Hopefully, yesterday’s sentence will be the first step in healing for the victim and the church community in this matter.”

….

Werth, who lived in Montgomery Village at the time, had known the victim through the church, and learned that she “adored him,” according to prosecutors. They began texting, and police later discovered he had sent graphic and sexual texts to her since the summer of 2014.

On about May 20, 2016, Werth kissed the teen and had other inappropriate sexual contact with her during a youth event at the church, according to police.

St. Elizabeth’s had fired Werth in 2016 after the pastor received a complaint against him that summer, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Washington at the time. The pastor contacted the Archdiocese’s Child and Youth Protection Office, which then reported the case to county police.

After his release from prison, Werth was accused of one count of solicitation of a minor to engage in the production of obscene matter, three counts of possession with intent to distribute pornography, and ten counts of possession of child pornography.

In 2021, the Maryland State Police reported,

A Prince George’s County man was arrested and charged Tuesday after a Maryland State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigation developed evidence supporting charges of possession of child pornography and the attempted solicitation of a minor.

The suspect is identified as Brian Werth, 37, of Beltsville, MD. Werth, a registered sex offender, is charged with solicitation of a minor to engage in the production of obscene matter, three counts of possession with intent to distribute pornography and 10 counts of possession of child pornography. He was taken to the Maryland State Police College Park Barrack for processing before being transferred to the Prince George’s County Detention Center, where he is being held without bond.

On June 24, the Maryland State Police Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force received a CyberTip report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children involving the distribution of child pornography online. The investigation led to the identification of the suspect and his residence in Prince George’s County.

Through the course of the investigation, troopers discovered that Werth had also been communicating with a minor in North Carolina. Troopers, with the assistance of Homeland Security Investigations, arrested Werth Tuesday as he went to visit his probation officer in Hyattsville, Maryland. Investigators also served a search warrant at the identified suspect’s residence.

Finally, Werth had his day in court and was convicted of on two counts of production of child pornography; coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity; and committing a crime involving a minor by a registered sex offender. Werth was sentenced to 37 years in prison.

WUSA-9 reports:

A 39-year-old registered sex offender was convicted by a jury Wednesday on multiple charges related to creating pornography involving minors. 

After a three-day trial, Brian Patrick Werth, a 39-year-old from Beltsville, was found guilty by a jury on two counts of production of child pornography; coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity; and committing a crime involving a minor by a registered sex offender. 

Prosecutors said between January and June 2021, Werth pressured a 14-year-old and 15-year-old girl to create sexually explicit content and share it with Werth via apps. The teens testified that he used coercion methods such as showing them porn with other teens, flattering them and helping them buy lingerie and “school girl outfits.” 

During that same time period, prosecutors said Werth was also talking to an 11-year-old girl and asking her for nude photos. 

Werth faces a minimum of 25 years in federal prison, up to 50 years for the child pornography charges, and an additional 10-year mandatory consecutive sentence for the commission of a new offense involving a minor while being required to register as a sex offender, and between 10 years and life in prison for coercion and enticement of a minor. If and when he’s released from prison, he will be required to continue registering as a sex offender. 

….

Werth’s previous conviction stems from a 2016 case where he was accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl he allegedly spent two years grooming. 

“There was an extended period of grooming,” Assistant State’s Attorney Hannah Gleason said at the time of his arrest. “He’s a danger to this juvenile and to the community.”

Werth was a youth minister at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Rockville at the time and was accused of abusing her at a youth ministry “lock-in” overnight event.

“She felt helpless to resist or object to the defendant’s advances and solicitations based upon their historical relationship and her belief the defendant had been so helpful and kind to her in the past,” investigators wrote in court documents.

The Daily Voice adds:

Beltsville resident Brian Patrick Werth, 40, has been sentenced to 37 years in prison after being convicted by a jury at a three-day trial for producing child sexual abuse material.

Werth was convicted of coercing and enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct and engaging with a minor as a registered sex offender.

According to court documents, between January 2021 and June 2021, Werth communicated with underage girls, ages 11 and 15, through Internet-based applications WhatsApp and Kik. 

During these interactions, prosecutors said that Werth persuaded, coerced, and enticed the minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct by producing sexually explicit videos of themselves. 

Additionally, Werth engaged in child sexual abuse as a member of the Maryland Sex Offender Registry for a previous sex offense conviction.

In addition to his prison term, Werth was also ordered by a judge to serve 25 years of supervised release. He also must register as a sex offender where he resides, is employed, and where he is a student when he is released.

Werth also is barred from having contact with children under the age of 18 without prior permission. He also will submit to computer monitoring.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Richard McGee Accused of Sexual Misconduct with a Minor Girl

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments
pastor richard mcgee

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.

Richard McGee, pastor of Embrace Me Ministries in Bossier City, Louisiana, and retired deputy chief of Bossier City Police Department, stands accused of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile.

KTBS reports:

The former second-in-command at the Bossier City Police Department is now wearing an ankle-monitoring device so that authorities can track his movements as he awaits trial on criminal charges alleging sexual conduct with an underage girl.

In addition to being fitted with the GPS device after a court appearance Thursday morning, Richard Broom McGee, 57, also was served with a protective order to stay away from the alleged victim.

The investigation that led to the arrest of McGee, BCPD’s now-retired deputy chief, arose out of a corruption investigation by Louisiana State Police, sources told KTBS News.

McGee, who was deputy police chief from 2015-23, was arrested earlier this week after a Caddo Parish grand jury indicted him for felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile. He is free on $150,000 bond.

Authorities allege there was sexual misconduct in Caddo Parish involving a babysitter, beginning when she was in her early teens and continuing for several years. They would not provide details about how McGee knew the alleged victim.

The State Police investigation that led to those charges began in late 2022 or early 2023 after authorities received information that suspects in criminal cases had gotten tips from inside the Bossier City Police Department that officers were about to conduct raids, sources told KTBS News, speaking on condition they not be identified because it is an ongoing investigation.

No charges have resulted from that investigation. But sources told KTBS News that while State Police detectives were investigating that case, they got complaints of sexual misconduct by McGee involving underage girls in Caddo and Bossier parishes, with one case occurring in the late 1990s.

No charges have been filed against McGee in Bossier Parish, but prosecutors in Caddo Parish are expected to use a provision of Louisiana law that allows them to use evidence of sexual misconduct involving another female to try to show a pattern of behavior.

The Caddo District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the case. State Police are continuing their investigation.

McGee’s defense attorney, Eric Johnson of Minden, said his client denies wrongdoing. He will be arraigned on Jan. 9.

“Mr. McGee looks forward to facing these allegations in court and we feel confident he will be completely exonerated,” Johnson said. 

McGee is also a minister and has been a pastor at Embrace Me Ministries in Bossier City for 13 years.

A 30-year veteran, he was deputy chief of police in Bossier City until January 2023, when he was placed on paid leave for undisclosed policy violations. He then retired

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Josh Lough Accused of Domestic Violence

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments
pastor josh lough

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.

Joshua “Josh” Lough, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Canal Winchester, Ohio, stands accused of two counts of domestic violence.

The Roys Report reports:

An Ohio minister, who encouraged husbands to honor and praise their wives, was recently arrested on assault charges related to the alleged physical abuse of his wife and daughter, according to police reports.

Joshua Lough was charged in Franklin County (Ohio) Municipal Court with two counts of domestic violence – assault and battery, both misdemeanors. According to court personnel, he was released on a personal recognizance bond this week.

….

According to a Dec. 8 complaint, Lough slammed his wife’s head against a hardwood floor The assault reportedly left marks on her arms and a “large knot behind her right ear.” 

….

Lough denied to police he hit his wife but claimed she had “mental problems,” and they were fighting and grabbing each other, according to an arrest affidavit. Lough is also accused of slapping his daughter, court records show.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical CEO of ‘My Faith Votes’ Jason Yates Charged with Possession of Child Pornography

Bruce Gerencser 4 Comments
jason yates

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.

Jason Yates, the former CEO of My Faith Votes –an Evangelical voter ministry that supported Donald Trump in the last election — has been charged with eight counts of possessing child pornography.

Religion News Service reports:

The former president of an evangelical get-out-the-vote nonprofit, which seeks to motivate Christian voters to promote family values and “biblical truth” in the public square, was charged Monday (Nov. 4) with eight counts of possessing child pornography.

Jason Yates, former CEO of My Faith Votes, was charged during a video court hearing in the District Court of McLeod County, Minnesota. State officials allege that from February 2023 to July 2024, Yates possessed a hard drive with digital pornographic images of minors under 14 years of age.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension began investigating the 55-year-old Yates at the end of July after a relative, identified in court documents as “Witness #2,” accidentally discovered a hard drive containing over 100 images of child porn in Yates’ office, according to a statement of probable cause filed in the case. That relative told a second relative, identified as “Witness #1,” who turned the hard drive over to law enforcement. According to court documents, the hard drive allegedly contains both still images and videos of pornography involving minors under 14.

During an interview on Sept. 13, Yates allegedly confirmed that the hard drive did not belong to Witness #2 but declined to give law enforcement a password for encrypted files on the hard drive.

“Defendant stated that he had a prior conviction, which had been expunged, related to CSAM/child pornography,” the complaint filed against Yates alleges.

An attorney for Yates declined to comment.

For much of its history, Jason Yates was the CEO and president of My Faith Votes. He was still listed as CEO on the group’s website as of Aug. 19 but his name and image were removed sometime after that date.

“In early August 2024, the My Faith Votes board of directors separated Jason Yates from My Faith Votes and board member Chris Sadler assumed the position of Acting CEO. Over the last three months Chris has been working with the dedicated My Faith Votes team to encourage millions of Christians to vote, pray and think biblically about this election in America,” a spokesperson for My Faith Votes told RNS in an email.

The group’s website blames Christians for failing to stand up against “secular progressives” — which the group faults for a host of social ills.

“As a result of apathy at the voting booth and in public life, we’ve suffered devastating moral decay, declining religious freedom, immoral national debt, and the erosion of traditional family values,” the group’s website reads.

In early July, a few weeks before the hard drive allegedly containing child porn was turned over to police, Yates wrote an op-ed for The Washington Times, urging Christians to fight “sexually deviant” messages aimed at children, mainly about LGTB issues.

“This infernal programming is being downloaded into our children, and it becomes far easier when it finds no resistance in our public square — when it is allowed to fill the void left by the absence of our faith,” he wrote.

A biography of Jason Yates from April 2024 describes him as having left a corporate career in 2015 to become CEO of My Faith Votes. Along with promoting voting among Christians, he served on the board of several other ministries.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Update: Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Youth Pastor Brett Bymaster Accused of Child Sexual Abuse

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brett bymaster

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.

In April 2024, Bret Bymaster, a former youth pastor at The River Church Community in San Jose, California, was accused of six felony counts of child sexual abuse.

The San Jose Spolightlight reported:

A prominent Silicon Valley leader and former pastor has been arrested and charged with six felony counts of child sex abuse, after being under investigation this year for allegations that surfaced about his time as a youth ministry leader at a popular South Bay church.

Brett Bymaster faces time behind bars for alleged lewd acts with a child who was as young as eight during his time at The River Church, according to charges by county prosecutors. He was arrested and booked at the Elmwood Correctional Facility on Thursday. His bond was set at $400,000, but at a Friday arraignment hearing, Judge Hector Ramon revoked his eligibility for bail at least until the next scheduled hearing on April 19, according to prosecutors. San José Spotlight first reported Bymaster’s alleged abuse in January.

Ramon ordered Bymaster not to contact the victim documented in the charges. He was also ordered not to contact another unnamed individual, according to the case’s prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Christopher Paynter.

Paynter said it’s too early to tell how much jail time Bymaster faces if found guilty of all charges. The trial date is a moving target.

“It’s an ongoing investigation,” Paynter told San José Spotlight.

Bymaster’s attorneys Renee Hessling and Dana Fite did not respond to requests for comment.

The arrest comes after a second investigation by The River Church in three years regarding Bymaster’s action, when five parishioner families say a 2021 probe led by church leaders failed to uncover the extent of his abuse and excluded one of the most serious claims — sexual abuse.

At the time, Bymaster denied the allegations in a statement to San José Spotlight.

“In recent months, we have discovered that there were profound flaws in the original pastoral inquiry process and in the denominational report (which was never released publicly but only summarized by senior leaders),” church families wrote in an open letter in January. “We now believe that the inquiry process and the senior leadership withheld crucial information about the nature and scope of the abuse.”

Bymaster, a recognizable figure in advocacy and political circles, was still listed as a founder and executive director of the Healing Grove Health Center, a clinic that serves low-income families, on its website as of Friday afternoon.

….

Bymaster served as a youth pastor and director at The River, nestled on Lincoln Avenue, for five years beginning in 2014. He quit after getting a critical job review in August 2019 based on complaints about his leadership from church families.

Yet two years later, youth from the congregation raised more significant concerns about Bymaster.

The church launched an internal inquiry in 2021 led by its own leader the Rev. Theresa Marks, according to an email sent in January from three top church leaders, including lead pastor Brad Wong.

Marks found that Bymaster was a “toxic leader who was spiritually abusive,” and encouraged church leaders to summarize her findings in a letter. The probe from Marks, which included interviews with 25 individuals, also questioned the church’s management of Bymaster.

“We take full responsibility for not doing the job of keeping our youth and youth volunteers safe in our youth ministry. We did not provide adequate oversight of the youth program or our former youth pastor,” church leaders wrote in an August 2021 letter.

But parents of the alleged victims say the letter swept damning details under the rug and questioned whether some of the incidents should’ve been categorized as sexual misconduct, harassment or abuse.

In November 2024, more charges against Bymaster were filed.

The Mercury News reports:

A well-known nonprofit director was hit with more charges alleging that he sexually abused a minor when he formerly worked as a youth pastor, following a separate case alleging sexual abuse against another minor was filed in April.

Brett Bymaster, 48, the executive director of Healing Grove Health Center, was charged Nov. 19 with one felony count of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 years old and one felony count of lewd and lascivious acts on a child aged 14 or 15, according to court documents. The alleged abuse began in 2013 and continued through 2019.

He was arrested and charged in April with six counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a minor who was between the ages of 8 and 14 during the time of the alleged abuse — a similar range of years, from 2013 to 2019. Bymaster was released on $50,000 bail that same month pending trial.

He was placed on leave from Healing Grove Health Center following the first charges. Bymaster posted $100,000 bail on the new charges, according to the DA’s office. His arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 14.

Bymaster formerly worked as a youth pastor at The River Church in San Jose between 2014 and 2019. He resigned in 2019 due to his leadership style not aligning with the teachings of the church, according to court documents.

The new charges allege that Bymaster took advantage of a position of trust to commit the abuse and befriended the victim, referred to as Jane Doe in court documents, in the pursuit of committing the sexual abuse. Documents added that the victim was “particularly vulnerable.”

….

Bymaster’s attorneys, Renee Hessling and Dana Fite, said in a statement: “These are not new allegations; in fact, the District Attorney’s Office has known of this alleged victim since the beginning of their crusade against Mr. Bymaster. These new accusations were originally considered meritless, but in an attempt to bolster a weak case against Mr. Bymaster, (prosecutors) elected to file these additional charges which stem from an ever-evolving story.”

In response to the statement by Bymaster’s lawyers, Sean Webby, director of communications at the DA’s office, said: “We’ll try our case in court.”

Allegations against Bymaster arose in January when The River, the church where he formerly worked as a youth pastor, sent a letter to the church community detailing their independent investigation into his behavior when he worked there between 2014 and 2019. The church had first investigated Bymaster in 2021 due to complaints about his leadership and concerns about sexual misconduct, according to court documents.

The church’s investigation alleged that Bymaster was too graphic when teaching sex education classes to youth, that he showered naked with teen boys at a camp, that he made a comment about a minor girl’s chest and that, in one instance, he touched a female’s upper thigh inappropriately, according to court documents.

The church conducted its second investigation in 2023 after parents complained that the first investigation “downplayed some of the possible criminal elements” allegedly committed by Bymaster, according to court documents. Between 12 and 13 students made “complaints related to the sexual misconduct” to the church, according to court documents.

The San Jose Police Department began an investigation into the allegations in January.

A civil lawsuit was filed earlier this year against The River Church by a former church employee claiming that the church had been warned of Bymaster’s alleged actions and attempted to cover them up. The church disputed the allegations.

Brett Bymaster’s wife, Angela Bymaster, contacted the Bay Area News Group on Tuesday and strongly defended her spouse.

“My husband is completely innocent of all of these charges,” Angela Bymaster said. “He is guilty only of preaching the gospel of Jesus and building a successful Christian clinic which serves the poor, which has somehow made us a lot of friends and a lot of enemies.”

Angela Bymaster characterized the allegations as attempts by enemies to destroy his reputation and their clinic.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Black Collar Crime: Youth Leader Abraham Coronado Sentenced to Life in Prison for Sexual Abuse

Bruce Gerencser 1 Comment
life in prison

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.

Abraham Jatnel Coronado, a youth leader with a La Luz Del Mundo affiliated church in Redlands, California, and oversaw an off-site church property known as Ebenezer Ranch, was found guilty of thirteen counts of sexually abusing minor church members and sentenced to life in prison. La Luz Del Mundo is a non-trinitarian, charismatic organization.

KTLA-5 reports:

A youth leader at a notorious church in Redlands has been sentenced to 175 years to life in prison for sexually abusing three young members of the congregation.

Abraham Jatnel Coronado was found guilty last Friday of 13 felony counts of sexual abuse against the young church members.

Coronado was a youth leader at a La Luz Del Mundo church in Redlands and oversaw an off-site church property known as Ebenezer Ranch.

According to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, Coronado was often left in charge of children without parental supervision and the children would often spend the night in his trailer located on the ranch.

Coronado, the DA’s Office said, was “well respected and known to have a close relationship with the Church headquarters’ main leaders.”

For several years, Coronado used his position to prey on young boys in his care, prosecutors said. The victims ranged in age from 12 to 17.

The first victim to come forward was abused by the church leader when he was a teenager. He testified during the trial that Coronado repeatedly sexually abused him, and in a recorded conversation between the two, Coronado never denied the abuse and said he “wanted this [sex] to happen.”

The first victim reported the abuse in 2021 after seeing Coronado taking another young victim under his wing, concerned that he would continue to victimize other children at the ranch.

The second victim testified that Coronado groomed him from a young age to “become his boyfriend” and would often isolate the child from other children at the ranch. The victim testified to experiencing “many acts” of sexual abuse at the hands of Coronado that began when around 2010 when he was only 13. When he turned 14, Coronado became more forceful and raped the child, he testified.

A third victim testified that Coronado would “slap his buttocks, rub his chest, and rub his pelvis against him in a sexual manner” when he was between the ages of 12 and 13. The victim said he’d never experienced an adult behaving like that toward him.

Coronado eventually admitted to the sexual abuse of the children, acknowledging he was aware of their age at the time and his position of power over them. In an apology letter written to his victims, Coronado said he was sorry that his “stupidity” caused them such “suffering and humiliation.”

La Luz Del Mundo is a controversial megachurch headquartered in Mexico that has been mired in allegations of sex abuse perpetrated by church leaders. In 2019, Naasón Joaquín García, the religious organization’s main leader and a self-proclaimed apostle of Jesus, was arrested at LAX and eventually pleaded guilty to charges of sexual abuse of a child.

He is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence for those crimes at the California Institution for Men in Chino

Last year, García was indicted for allegedly possessing child pornography on his tablet, which was found during his arrest at LAX.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Black Collar Crime: Director of Religious Education Craig Daugherty Charged with Sexual Abuse of a Minor

Bruce Gerencser 1 Comment
arrested

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.

Craig Daugherty, educated at Dallas Theological Seminary — an Evangelical institution — and director of religious education for the U.S. Army at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska, stands accused of two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

Alaska’s News Source reports:

State prosecutors have charged the director of religious education for the U.S. Army at Fort Wainwright with having repeated sexual contact with a minor under 13 years of age at his home.

Craig Lasley Daugherty, 58, was charged Wednesday with two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

An affidavit signed by Investigator Al Bell says Alaska State Troopers “received a report” of the abuse on Tuesday. The same day, charging documents say the minor told a forensic interviewer that Daugherty directed them to make skin-to-skin contact with Daugherty’s genitalia during the week of Nov. 18.

The child also reportedly told interviewers the abuse had been going on since 2021, but the two counts on the indictment only list dates for 2024 incidents.

When interviewed, Daugherty recounted two instances of sexual contact and said the child had initiated it, according to the charging documents.

In the report, Daugherty told investigators the child pulled down his (Daugherty’s) shorts and “swiped and grabbed at his [genitalia],” and added he should have told the child’s father about it a while ago.

The documents say the investigation revealed Daugherty serves as a “local youth pastor,” and a resume posted on Daugherty’s LinkedIn page shows he’s been the director of religious education since Dec. 2020.

A resume shared on LinkedIn shows Daugherty also has professional experience in retail and finance. Beginning in 2014, he worked as a retail trainer at Stripes Convenience Stores in Lubbock, Texas.

Before that, Daugherty held a variety of positions in Texas and Europe — in schools and the military — with most of the jobs relating to education or youth ministry, according to the resume. His resume also states that he received his Master of Arts in Christian Education from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1996.

….

Daugherty’s case was assigned to Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Kirk Schwalm. He was arraigned Wednesday afternoon and remanded to Fairbanks Correctional Center.

A bail order says Daugherty is being held in custody under a $300,000 appearance bond and $250,000 performance bond.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.