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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Danny Pitts Convicted of Sodomy, Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison

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pastor danny pitts

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 2022, Danny Pitts, pastor of the now-closed GracePoint Church in Decatur, Alabama, was accused of sexual intercourse by “forcible compulsion” with an individual over 12 but under 16. Pitts pleaded not guilty and had a March 2023 trial date.

1819 reported:

A former Alabama pastor pled not guilty to sexually abusing an underage person.

The former pastor of GracePoint Church in Decatur, 59-year-old Danny Duane Pitts, was arrested in November 2021 and charged with two counts of sodomy.

According to the indictment, Pitts is accused of sexual intercourse by “forcible compulsion” with an individual over 12 but under 16.

Pitts was released on bond in September of 2021, with stipulations requiring him to surrender his passport, wear an ankle monitor and not leave the state.

According to a court form signed by Pitts in November 2021, he listed his employer as GracePoint Church.

GracePoint Church deleted its Facebook page and website after the arrest and is listed as permanently closed on the internet.

WAAY-31 added:

The trial for a Morgan County pastor arrested and charged on two counts of sodomy has been delayed once again to March 6.

Danny Duane Pitts of Hartselle was arrested in November 2021 on charges of first-degree and second-degree sodomy. 

Pitts pleaded not guilty to both charges and later posted a $500,000 bond. As part of the bond, he was ordered to wear an ankle bracelet, hand over his passport and not travel out of state.

The trial was originally set to begin in November 2022, but a judge delayed the case until Monday. 

The judge presiding over the case cited a heavy caseload for why the decision was made to continue the case again. 

Pitts also faces sodomy charges in Tennessee.

In March 2022, The Chatanooga Times Free Press reported:

A former Alabama pastor now free on $50,000 bond is facing several counts of statutory rape and sexual battery in Grundy County, Tennessee, while he awaits trial in Alabama on other child sex allegations.

Charges in Tennessee against Danny Duane Pitts, 59, of Hartselle, Alabama, stem from an investigation launched Jan. 5 with Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents working jointly with Hartselle police probing allegations related to incidents that happened between August and November 2019, according to TBI spokesperson Susan Niland.

Pitts is charged with aggravated statutory rape, two counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and statutory rape by an authority figure, Niland said in a news release issued Monday. Pitts surrendered Monday at the Grundy County Jail and was freed the same day, according to Grundy County Sheriff Clint Shrum.

Shrum said Tuesday in a telephone interview he knew little of the case since it arose from a TBI investigation with links to Alabama.

Mike Taylor, 12th Judicial District attorney general, said Alabama’s State Bureau of Investigation contacted the TBI on the case since that state’s investigation crossed the state line.

In the Tennessee case, Pitts and a 17-year-old boy traveled from Alabama to Grundy County where the alleged abuse took place in 2019, Taylor said Tuesday. Taylor said the teen is believed to have been a member of the church where Pitts worked as pastor in Morgan County, Alabama.

Pitts faces a November trial in Alabama on two counts of sodomy involving another minor in Morgan County, according to court records in Decatur, Alabama.

“It is a case that occurred several years ago and it involved a member of his church, a young man that he had befriended,” Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said Tuesday in a telephone interview.

“We allege an inappropriate relationship took place that was criminal in nature,” Anderson said. He said he couldn’t share any further details on the Alabama case as it continues to develop.

“I’m sure the Grundy County DA and I will be exchanging notes,” Anderson said.

The investigation in Morgan County was a joint probe involving the Hartselle Police Department, Anderson’s office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and members of the North Alabama Violent Crimes Task Force, according to a Nov. 5 news release from the police department. Pitts was later released on a $500,000 bond.

After a two-year delay, Pitts had his day in court and was found guilty of second-degree sodomy.

News-19 reported:

A former pastor has been found guilty of sodomy after days of testimony.

According to court officials, Danny Duane Pitts was found guilty of second-degree sodomy Thursday after a trial in Morgan County.

Pitts was originally indicted on two counts of sodomy in 2021, and his trial began on Monday.

Testimony in the trial began on Tuesday with former Hartselle Police Investigator Amy Crouch.

Crouch testified the then-teenage accuser disclosed details about several illegal sexual encounters between him and his pastor, Danny Pitts.

At that time, Crouch testified cases that were sexual in nature were to be drafted into a report and submitted to the DA’s office to decide whether it would move forward to a grand jury. She testified her investigation took nearly a year, but then she sent it over to prosecutors.

The victim in the case also tearfully testified that Pitts took advantage of him early on in counseling sessions. The victim said he initially kept it to himself but later confided in his family, who offered support if he wanted to press charges.

Last Monday, Pitts was sentenced to twenty years in prison for his crimes.

The Hartselle Inquirer reports:

The former pastor of GracePoint Church in Decatur, convicted of sodomizing an underage boy, was ordered at an emotional sentencing hearing Wednesday morning to serve 20 years in prison.

“In my humble opinion, 20 years is not enough, but it’s the maximum I can give you,” Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott told Danny Duane Pitts, who appeared for the first time in stripes and shackles. Pitts, 61, of Hartselle, was arrested in 2021 and charged with first and second-degree sodomy after the case against him – first reported to police in 2007 – sat cold for years.

At trial in late October, the prosecution argued that Pitts “groomed” a member of his church – a boy around 12-13 years old at the time – and began a years-long criminal sexual relationship with him.

A jury found Pitts guilty of second-degree sodomy on Oct. 24. Pitts was found not guilty of first-degree sodomy, which entails forcible compulsion, and not guilty of lesser included offenses of first- and second-degree sexual abuse.

Pitts’ sentencing was the first order of business Wednesday morning in a packed courtroom. Several supporters of the now-adult victim sat in the gallery. The victim stood next to Chief Assistant District Attorney Garrick Vickery before Elliott’s bench. Next to them, Pitts stood alongside his defense attorneys, John Berry and Brandon Little. Each side was offered the opportunity to speak.

Vickery said he only just started working for the DA’s Office when the case against Pitts began. “Now, here I stand feeling old,” he said. “This case lasted for years.” He asked Elliott to give Pitts the maximum sentence and alluded to other potential victims. Pitts faces charges for a similar offense in Tennessee, according to Vickery.

The victim spoke next and said the case’s verdict showed him that his voice matters. “Justice …has brought me a sense of peace I never thought possible,” he said. “I’m here to reclaim the narrative and tell my own story. Enough is enough. Just because you are made a victim doesn’t mean you need to stay one.” He, too, asked for the maximum sentence for Pitts.

Pitts and his attorneys declined to speak.

“I have wrestled with the facts of this case since trial,” Elliott said. “Having been on the bench for almost six years now, I have seen some pretty gruesome stuff when it comes to physical abuse and sexual abuse.” Pitts showed little emotion as Elliott spoke of the “ripple effects” of such abuse, deeming Pitts’ crime a form of “spiritual abuse.” Attorneys on both sides stood with their hands folded behind their backs. Berry and Little looked at the floor or, occasionally, the ceiling. “That has caused me to wrestle more with my own faith than anything else,” Elliott continued. “I have struggled with trying to find the right words to say to you today. I have spent a lot of time studying my Bible.” Elliott then spoke directly to the victim and said he was sorry for what had happened to him. Court officials brought boxes of tissues to supporters of the victim, some of whom lightly sobbed as Elliott spoke.

“It is my prayer that you know in your soul what he did was evil,” he said. “It was not God’s will what happened to you. It is my sincere hope that your relationship with God is made whole again.” Elliott said the case reminded him of a bible verse: “Beware of false prophets.” He then sentenced Pitts to 20 years imprisonment with the Alabama Department of Corrections, with a $30,000 fine and a $10,000 victim compensation fee.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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 Francier Obando Pinillo Accused of Bilking Almost $6 Million From Church Members

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Francier Obando Pinillo

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.

Francier Obando Pinillo, pastor of Tiempo de Poder Church (Power Time Church) in Pasco, Washington, stands accused of bilking almost $6 million from church members and other “investors” in a fake crypto investment scheme.

The Yakima Herald reports:

The former pastor of a Pasco church is accused of collecting $5.9 million from church members and others with guarantees of monthly returns as high as 40% from cryptocurrency investments.

But a new federal lawsuit says Francier Obando Pinillo never made the promised investments and trades in cryptocurrency on behalf of his customers, instead keeping the money for himself and his associates.

He was arrested in Miami on Dec. 5 after being indicted in U.S. District Court in Eastern Washington on 25 counts of wire fraud and one count of unlicensed money transmitting business.

In addition, the Commodity Future Trading Commission is suing Francier Obando Pinillo in U.S. District Court in Eastern Washington. The commission is an independent federal regulatory agency charged by Congress with the enforcement of commodity exchanges.

Pinillo was the owner and pastor of Tiempo de Poder Church in Pasco, with members who mostly spoke Spanish, from at least late 2021 to late 2023, according to a court document.

He continues to post videos to the church’s Facebook page, most recently from Florida. The church previously operated out of strip malls on Sylvester and Court streets in Pasco.

Pastor seeks investments in church

The lawsuit claims Pinillo targeted unsophisticated customers who had little or no experience in cryptocurrency transactions or the specific type of investment he said he would make, which involved commodity interest trading.

Court documents claim the alleged scheme involved parking or “staking” digital assets such as Bitcoin to collect rewards, which are typically more cryptocurrency, and then using liquidity to borrow for additional cryptocurrency to stake.

His solicitations for investments were almost entirely made in Spanish.

“As the pastor at his church in Pasco, Wash., and as a guest speaker at other churches, defendant (Pinillo) was able to reach a vast number of potential customers, who believed he was honest and trust-worthy,” according to the civil lawsuit.

At one mega-church in Florida he lectured the congregants on the importance of lifting themselves out of poverty and then pitched them on his investment scheme, saying they could earn as much as 34.9% a month on their investment, said the suit.

He also held seminars for potential investors, including at the Pasco Red Lion Hotel and Conference Center.

He said he was the chief executive of SolanoFi Entities, which operated an automated computer trading program, according the lawsuit.

The trading program did not exist, but investors he recruited were given access to fabricated, online account statements that showed balances increasing monthly, according to the suit.

One customer invested about $36,000 in March 2022 and her balance sheet showed that had grown to more than $1 million by February 2023, said the lawsuit. She was able to log onto a website until as late as summer 2023 to see her purported balance.

….

Pinillo falsely told customers there was no risk to their investments and that they could withdraw their money in as short a time as three months, said the civil lawsuit.

His top guaranteed profit of 34.9% compounded monthly, if true, would have yielded profits on a 24-month basis exceeding 400,000%, “an impossibly high return on any investment,” according to a court document.

To attract additional assets from customers, he solicited investments in a purportedly “Christian-values” oriented token called the “ShekkelCoin.”

He told investors he would pay a 15% referral fee to those who referred additional customers.

He also asked for a $1,500 maintenance fee to access the SolanoFi website with account dashboards and another $1,500 fee to support purported legal efforts to recoup assets from a bankrupt crypto-exchange that Pinillo falsely claimed had held a large amount of customer assets, according to the civil lawsuit.

….

SolanoFi or Solano Fi, Solano Capital Investments and Solano Partners LTD, all sole proprietorships operated by Pinillo, were not registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Pinillo also did not hold money transmitter license from the state of Washington, nor was Solano Fi registered federally as a money transmitting business, according to a court document.

Pinillo told customers to transfer cash to bank accounts he controlled or transfer cash or digital assets to digital wallets he also controlled to allow them to earn “interest” from staked digital assets, according to court documents.

….

He transferred at least $4 million in digital assets to 23 private digital wallets in Colombia with no known connection to trading commodity interests, according to a court document.

Some money from Pinillo’s 1,516 investors from November 2021 through December 2023 may have been used for payments to earlier investors in the nature of a “Ponzi” scheme, according to the suit.

But Pinillo also is accused of coming up with reasons why he could not immediately pay out profits to investors.

In March 2022, he posted online that there were technical issues with the SolanoFi dashboard used to account balances, according to a court document. However, customers would continue to receive profits and interests on their investments, the notice said.

….

When the digital asset exchange FTX became insolvent in late 2022 and declared bankruptcy, Pinillo told customers that their assets were sent to FTX and were now frozen. That prevented him from returning money immediately, he said.

Pinillo had not used FTX for any of his customers’ investments and neither he nor his companies are listed as creditors in the FTX bankruptcy.

One customer met with Pinillo at the Pasco church in October 2022, and begged for the return of her money, said the suit.

Pinillo told her he didn’t have any money and that he was busy, according to a court document. The woman has yet to receive any of her money back, according to the lawsuit.

When another customer confronted him, Pinillo told him that he would never be arrested because investors did not physically hand him money but instead transferred it to accounts he designated, according to a court document.

One Tri-Cities area woman who asked to withdraw money from her accounts, received only $18 when Pinillo recorded her making a withdrawal so he could market his investment platform on social media, according to a court document.

Another woman who sometimes attended Pinillo’s Pasco church invested $10,762 in Solano Fi.

He refused to pay back the initial investment and profits she believed she had accrued, but told her if she found someone to buy out her account, he would give her the money, according to a court document.

She took him to small claims court and won a judgment of $10,000, which remains unpaid, according to the criminal complaint against Pinillo.

Pinillo continues to post short Spanish-language videos on his church and his personal Facebook pages with his prophesies.

In some of the recent videos, he said that God will create grand miracles for his followers, including future financial wealth. He also posts graphics with his own quotes about faith and God.

The 25 counts of wire fraud each carry punishments of up to 20 years imprisonment and fines of up to twice as much money as Pinillo is found to have diverted. The unlicensed money transmitting business charge is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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 Worship Leader Hunter Eubanks Accused of Sexually Assaulting Church Teen

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hunter eubanks

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.

Hunter Eubanks, a worship leader and former youth pastor at Morningside Church in Tallahassee, Florida, stands accused of sexual assault of a minor, cruelty toward a child, aggravated battery on a child, use of a computer to lure a child, obscene communication and travel to meet after using a computer to lure a child. The alleged victim is a 16-year-old churchgoer.

WCTV reports:

A former Tallahassee church employee turned himself into the Leon County Detention Facility Wednesday after he was charged with sexual assault on a minor, according to officials at the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and Morningside Church.

Hunter Eubanks, 30, is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old churchgoer multiple times on church grounds, according to a press release sent Thursday by LCSO spokesperson Shonda Knight.

Morningside Church officials confirmed to WCTV that Eubanks was a former employee there and that law enforcement believes the alleged crimes happened at their campus along Pedrick Road in Tallahassee while he worked there.

The assaults allegedly happened between June and October, and they were reported to police on October 9, the LCSO press release said.

Eubanks is facing charges of sexual assault on a minor, cruelty toward a child, aggravated battery on a child, obscene communication use of computer to lure a child and obscene communication travel to meet after use of computer to lure a child.

The sheriff’s office and Morningside told WCTV Thursday that Eubanks was employed by the church. A secretary there told WCTV over the phone that he was a ‘former employee,’ saying the 30-year-old played in the band and led musical performances.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.

Update: Black Collar Crime: Southern Baptist Pastor James McMillan Accused of Lewd Act with a Child

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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.

James McMillan, the former pastor of several Southern Baptist churches, stands accused of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 16. McMillan previously pastored Slaughterville Baptist Church in Lexington, Oklahoma — renamed Cornerstone Baptist Church — and First Baptist Church in Konawa, Oklahoma.

KOCO-5 reports:

Cleveland County deputies arrested a former pastor accused of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 16, and investigators say there could be more victims.

James McMillan was arrested Tuesday afternoon, and court documents show that there are multiple Department of Human Services and law enforcement cases where he is listed as a sexual abuse suspect dating back to 2003.

His former church members told KOCO 5 that it was about time he was arrested.

“Wasn’t surprised about this, but just sad that there were other victims,” said Lonnie Holland, a former team chairman, treasurer, and youth leader at Slaughterville Baptist Church.

The court documents state that McMillan was traveling with an underage victim on Highway 39 near 120th Avenue Southeast in Cleveland County when they got stuck in traffic. The victim claimed McMillan unzipped his pants and began touching himself in front of the victim.

The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office said McMillan was a former pastor at numerous churches but is not currently employed as one.

In 2014, KOCO 5 interviewed McMillan when he was the pastor at First Baptist Church of Konawa. At that time, he claimed his First Amendment rights were being violated for not being allowed to pray before a high school game.

“This man needs to be locked up in prison where he can’t have any more victims,” Holland said. “He needs to be held accountable for what he has done.”

Holland said he was at Slaughterville Baptist Church when McMillan became the lead pastor around 2018.

“None of the girls felt comfortable with him,” Holland said.

He told KOCO 5 that he heard of allegations against McMillan.

“I knew by what I was hearing that he wasn’t qualified to be a pastor in any way, shape or form,” Holland said, adding that he tried to get McMillan removed. “They voted to keep him. So, at that point, within a week I was gone.”

The Slaughterville church has since been renamed, and church officials told KOCO 5 that they are under new leadership.

Holland said he never contacted law enforcement because he didn’t have evidence of a previous crime. He told KOCO 5, though, that he brought his concerns to the Oklahoma Baptist Conference.

“Told him what I found and basically was told that we were going to get to the bottom of this,” Holland said. “Nothing came of that, as far as I know.”

The Oklahoma Baptist Conference did not return KOCO 5’s calls for comment.

McMillan was arrested again for allegedly sending a nude photo of himself to a 14-year-old girl.

The Christian Post reports:

James McMillan, the former pastor of Slaughterville Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Konawa in Oklahoma, who was arrested last month after he was accused of lewd or indecent acts with a child younger than 16, was arrested again on Monday for allegedly sending a nude photo of himself to a 14-year-old girl.

McMillan’s most recent arrest stems from an incident that happened in March 2023, KFOR reported. He is no longer pastoring at any church. 

Citing court documents, the 14-year-old’s father said his daughter told him about the photo McMillan sent her and he reported him to local police. It wasn’t until he reached out to an Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics officer in October that he saw any action on the case.

“My daughter had come to me and let me know that she had received a nude picture from a grown man,” the victim’s father recalled.

He explained that his daughter and McMillan’s son had previously attended school together, and his daughter believes McMillan likely used his son’s Snapchat account to look up her name because of her security settings. She eventually accepted a friend request from McMillan.

According to court documents, a friend of the teenage victim alleged that McMillan was a pedophile when she learned of his friend request. The victim countered the allegation, saying that she would screenshot any communication that crossed the line and report it to police.

McMillan soon sent the victim an unsolicited photo of himself flexing in a mirror, to which she responded something to the effect of “trying to get them gains.”

The former pastor then allegedly asked if she might “want to see more” and sent her his nude photo before she could respond.

“He just sent the fully nude picture,” the victim’s father said. “There was no request or anything like that for it.”

When McMillan later learned she was 14, he blocked her on Snapchat, which erased their messaging history. The teenager had the screenshot, however.

“He’s clearly proven that he has a problem with this and won’t, you know, won’t stop,” the victim’s father said. “He’s somebody that’s truly a danger to our society.”

Court documents cited by KOCO News 5 show that the former pastor has been listed as a sexual abuse suspect in multiple Department of Human Services and law enforcement cases dating back to 2003.

In the charges leveled against him in late November, McMillan allegedly unzipped his pants and touched himself in front of an underage minor while driving down a Cleveland County highway. His bond after his arrest on Monday was set at $450,000.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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 Kurt Schenk Accused of Sexually Assaulting Developmentally Disabled Woman

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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.

Kurt Schenk, pastor of New Beginnings Church of the Cross (formerly Freemont United Methodist Church) in Christiana, Pennsylvania, stands accused of sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman with autism and a learning disability. Schenk has been scrubbed from the church’s website.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

A former Coatesville City Council member sexually assaulted a 21-year-old woman with autism and a learning disability in his home after months of having explicit conversations with her, Chester County prosecutors said Thursday.

Kurt Schenk, 63, told the woman, whom he is related to and got to know as pastor of New Beginnings Church of the Cross, “not to tell anyone [he] tried to touch [her], no matter what,” after the Oct. 21 assault was interrupted by her family, according to the woman’s testimony at Schenk’s preliminary hearing.

Schenk offered to give the woman a ride home but, instead, brought her to his house, where he forced her to the ground and assaulted her inside his garage, she said Thursday.

….

District Judge Nancy Gill held Schenk over on charges of attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and false imprisonment, sending the case to a county judge.

Schenk’s attorney, Dan Bush, cast doubts on the woman’s credibility during the hearing, pressing her on details in her testimony, particularly why she continued to speak with Schenk after he made her feel uncomfortable and hid their correspondence from her parents.

“We are looking forward to the truth coming out,” Bush said afterward. “Because what we heard in that courtroom was not remotely close to the truth.”

The woman, who said her learning disability affects her comprehension, testified that Schenk called her on Oct. 21 as she was out for her daily walk near her home in Parkesburg. He asked her where she was and, shortly after their call, pulled up to her in his pickup truck, she said.

The two had begun communicating privately when the woman turned 18, and their conversations were initially benign, usually discussing their days and New Beginnings, a Christian church in nearby Christiana, according to testimony Thursday.

But not long before her 21st birthday, she said, Schenk began to say “inappropriate things” to her. In phone calls, Schenk told her he wanted to “make love” to her and made sexually explicit comments about her body, according to the woman. He also asked her to send him pictures of her wearing a bathing suit, which she agreed to do, she said.

The woman testified that had she continued to talk with Schenk even after her parents told her not to because Schenk was kind to her about her disability and consoled her when she confided in him that friends of hers had abandoned her.

Those conversations, she said, were specifically timed to when Schenk’s wife was not home.

“It was disturbing and disgusting, and I’m so, so angry,” the woman said. “Shame on him.”

During their encounter on the day of the alleged assault, she said, she accepted Schenk’s offer to drive her home because it was warm out and she felt tired.

However, instead of dropping her off, Schenk drove past her home to his, about two miles away on Upper Valley Road in Atglen. The woman said she was afraid and confused by the unannounced detour but didn’t know what to do or say to Schenk.

At his home, Schenk asked her to get out of the vehicle on its driver’s side so no one could see her from the road, she said. He then grabbed her by her wrists and led her into his garage, closing the door behind them, she said.

Once inside, Schenk pushed her to the ground and sexually assaulted her, she said. She said she felt “frozen” and unable to move as Schenk attempted to pull her leggings off.

He stopped only when the woman’s sister began banging on the garage’s door and calling her name, she said. The woman’s sister had been tracking her through the Life360 app and had become worried when she saw she had traveled so far from home, the woman said.

Schenk got up and opened the door for the woman’s sister when he saw that police had also arrived.

The woman’s father said Thursday that Schenk targeted her while aware that she had a disability.

“Justice will be served in this life and when he stands before the Almighty God, the one he claims to serve,” the man said. “Proclaiming the cross, he is actually an enemy of it. He’s a phony. He knows it, we know it.”

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.

Update:Black Collar Crime: IFB Pastor Robert Jaynes Jr. Has Sentence Commuted by President Biden

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robert jaynes jr

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.

Robert Jaynes Jr., pastor of Irvington Bible Baptist Church in Irvington, Indiana was sentenced last week to eleven and a half years in prison on charges ” related to the manufacture of more than 10 tons of synthetic drugs”  The Indy Star reports:

Once, pastor Robert Jaynes Jr. was a man of many words, shown in videos giving thundering sermons to his small flock at the fundamentalist Irvington Bible Baptist Church.

But it was different last week in federal court, where Judge Rodney W. Sippel sentenced Jaynes on charges related to the manufacture of more than 10 tons of synthetic drugs.

“If there’s anything you’d like to say, now’s the time,” Sippel said.

Later, Jaynes did chime in to say it was hard to have the country he loves as a courtroom adversary: USA vs. Jaynes, a case in which he pleaded guilty to two charges.

Over three hours at the sentencing hearing, a much deeper portrait than previously known emerged of a pastor who made drugs at a volume the judge called “staggering” while luring several members of his church into the scheme, even putting his mother in jeopardy of arrest.

Jaynes was the first to be sentenced out of 23 people charged in a national conspiracy, an operation that included his wife, brother-in-law, two now-former sheriff’s deputies and an Indianapolis Public Schools teacher.

From April 2011 to October 2013, prosecutors said, Jaynes sold more than 500,000 packages of synthetic marijuana, or “spice,” in a form ready for retail sale. Over a period of nine months in 2013, Jaynes grossed $2.6 million in sales.

The total income, prosecutors said, was higher but couldn’t be quantified easily.

Judge Sippel stressed the impact Jaynes had on victims whose “lives were disrupted, destroyed, altered.”

While not directly linked to Jaynes, synthetic drug use caused a rise in emergency calls to the Indiana Poison Center. Officials at the center told IndyStar that reports involving synthetic cannabinoids spiked in 2011 and 2012, and two deaths in 2014 were attributed to such drugs.

“The quantity here is staggering,” the judge said of Jaynes’ operation, “so that means the number of people who could come tell us that story is incomprehensible.”

Spice, selling under brands such as Pirates’ Booty, is smoked like marijuana and meant to mimic its effects. Its production, however, isn’t usually precise, meaning the amount of the active ingredient in a package can vary wildly.

One of the charges to which Jaynes pleaded guilty involved mislabeling the drugs, typically sold at mom-and-pop gas stations, head shops and tobacco stores. The drugs are sometimes labeled as “potpourri” or as incense.

Jaynes started in the business by packaging synthetic drugs made by Doug Sloan, with whom Jaynes had worked in the mortgage business, and eventually moved into distributing the finished product to retail outlets.

Jaynes’ lawyer said he got involved with synthetic drugs after filing for bankruptcy and as his son was about to undergo open-heart surgery.

Public records show that Jaynes filed for bankruptcy in 2006. He claimed a monthly income that year of just $528 from his work as a pastor and self-employed courier. That was a dramatic drop from the $91,000 he claimed to have earned.

….

Prosecutors portrayed Jaynes as a brazen criminal undeterred by the threat of prosecution, even after police shut down manufacturing facilities operated by Sloan and his brother, Greg Sloan, and others in the St. Louis area in 2012.

“At that point anybody would say, ‘What am I dealing with? What am I doing?’” prosecutor James Delworth said. “But instead he goes the opposite way and he becomes the largest supplier for Greg Sloan. You’ve got this continuation and growth even after law enforcement steps in.”

Prosecutors read text messages from 2012 recovered from Greg Sloan’s phone to emphasize just how aggressive Jaynes was.

“Hi Greg. This is Rob,” one text from Jaynes said. “Just wanted to check in and see if you guys needed me yet.  I’m still ready to go. I’m broke and trying to find work. If you needed me to come over there and sell my crew to the guys you work with, I’d be glad to. I’d do whatever you thought necessary in order to get work for me and my guys.”

Being broke seemed a dubious claim, prosecutors said. Tax records from the previous two years showed that Tight 30 Entertainment — the company prosecutors said Jaynes used to launder money — had sales of more than $4.5 million. During that time, Jaynes reported personal taxable income of more than $850,000.

Greg Sloan, who has pleaded guilty, soon found even more work for Jaynes, selling to a man in Oklahoma City later in 2012. Jaynes texted Sloan: “That’s great. I’ll take as much as I can get. Maybe if I prove myself with these guys, your guys might decide to give me a shot, too. I’m ready to roll.”

Greg Sloan replied: “These are my guys. Robert Jaynes, I seriously thank you. You are one of the most gracious and kind men I’ve ever met.”

For protection, Jaynes turned to church members Jason and Teresa Woods, a married couple who at the time served as Hendricks County Sheriff’s deputies.  A criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service testified that people in Jaynes’ organization knew Jason and Teresa Woods as “the fixers.”

“If anybody got in trouble, that’s who they were supposed to call, if they got stopped by law enforcement,” the IRS investigator said.

When Jaynes moved his operation from New Ross, Indiana, to a home in New Palestine, Jason Woods provided an escort.

“He was out of uniform, but showed up in his squad car,” the IRS investigator. “He met the truck down the street and followed it on two different occasions that day as an escort behind the vehicle to protect it, so nobody could, possibly, could pull the vehicle over during the transportation of all the synthetic drug products in the back of the vehicle.”

Jason and Teresa Woods were initially arrested in December 2014 on charges in Boone County stemming from an investigation into the spice ring. They were suspended from their law enforcement jobs and later fired.

You can read the Indy Star’s in-depth investigation of Jaynes and his drug empire here.

In 2024, President Joe Biden commuted Jaynes’s sentence.

The Indianapolis Star reports:

President Joe Biden has commuted the sentence of a former Indianapolis pastor who was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison for running a multimillion-dollar spice ring.

Robert Jaynes Jr. is one of nearly 1,500 people whose sentences were commuted last week as part of what the White House has described as the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

….

Jaynes, a former pastor at the fundamentalist Irvington Bible Baptist Church, was charged for manufacturing more than 10 tons of synthetic marijuana, also known as “spice” or “K2.” Jaynes, who pleaded guilty in 2016, had lured several members of his church into the scheme to manufacture drugs at a volume that a federal judge called “staggering.”

….

From April 2011 to October 2013, Jaynes sold more than 500,000 packages of spice, prosecutors said. He grossed $2.6 million in sales over a period of nine months in 2013.

Jaynes, who founded the Irvington Bible Baptist Church in 1998, remains in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons as of Monday. A spokesman said Jaynes was transferred on May 4, 2022, to community confinement overseen by the Detroit Residential Reentry Management office. This means Jaynes is either in a residential reentry center or in home confinement.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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 Assistant Pastor Arturo Alarcon Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

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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.

Arturo Alarcon, an assistant pastor at 121 Community Church in Grapevine, Texas, stands accused of child porn possession. Law enforcement found the pornography while investigating a report of invasive visual recording.

Fox-4 reports:

A Grapevine pastor, volunteer, and substitute teacher is facing charges after allegedly being caught with hidden cameras and child pornography.

Grapevine police say 38-year-old Arturo Alarcon, who was an associate pastor at 121 Community Church, set up spy cameras inside a trailer neighboring mobile home park that the church uses as a temporary place to stay for visiting families.

“The person who planted those cameras knew what they were, and they were intentionally put there,” said Grapevine Police Spokesperson Amanda McNew. “He was the pastor who would bring families into that home. He had the codes to get into it.”

A missionary couple was staying in the home and discovered the cameras. 

According to an arrest warrant, the man noticed a clicking noise from an alarm clock and discovered it took a memory card. He then noticed the camera. The church contacted police soon after.

“Through that investigation, detectives uncovered a downloaded photo of child pornography,” McNew said.

The child porn found on Alarcon’s phone was unrelated to the spy cameras, according to an arrest warrant. It’s unclear if additional crimes are suspected, but police say there’s no evidence indicating so at this time.

“We’re going to keep looking, but we haven’t found anything else at all,” said McNew.

In a statement to FOX 4, 121 Community Church says it placed Alarcon on leave after it made its report to police. He was later fired when he was arrested.

“The Grapevine Police Department has stated that the investigation is ongoing and there is no evidence of additional crimes. We have been in contact with the Grapevine Police Department and continue to cooperate with the investigation,” the church said. “We currently have no indication from law enforcement or any other source that local children were involved with the alleged conduct.”

No one on Friday answered the door at Alarcon’s trailer just two streets away from the trailer where he allegedly installed spy cameras. 

Alarcon was known around the neighborhood for his work with the nearby church and with the Grapevine Community Outreach Center, an extension of the Grapevine Police Department.

Alarcon was also a substitute teacher within Grapevine-Colleyville ISD since March 2022.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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 Church IT Specialist Felix Sung Accused of Sexual Exploitation of 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.

Felix Sung, an IT specialist at Church of the Good Shepherd in Durham, North Carolina, stands accused of 10 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. Good Shepherd is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

WRAL reports:

A Durham church employee faces 10 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor for incidents dating back to 2014.

According to a search warrant, on Oct. 31, officers with the Durham Police Department responded to the Church of the Good Shepherd, where the pastor reported numerous pornographic files of children were located on a computer managed by Felix Sung, a former IT specialist.

The pastor told officers Sung worked with the church for years, maintaining computers, the security camera system and the computer server from a locked office, according to the warrant.

According to the warrant, the pastor said Sung had a history of ongoing disagreements with office staff over administrative issues and resigned in late October, turning over his keys, church credit card and computer passwords.

On Oct. 30, new IT specialists began working at the church.

The new employees alerted the pastor to suspicious pornographic content on church computers, including “files labeled with names of female children who attended church” and “concerning photos” of girls, including one child’s face on “various nude female and male adult bodies,” the warrant states.

Some of the images were made from child pornography and others were computer-generated, the warrant states. 

According to church staff, Sung was the only person who had previously had access to the computer. The warrant states Sung was seen on security camera removing computers and hard drives on the day of his resignation.

Sung appeared in court for the charges on Nov. 13.  He was given a $250,000 bond and has since bonded out. His next court date is scheduled for Jan. 14, 2025.

WRAL News on Monday interviewed Norman Acker, a church elder and spokesperson.

Acker said the images were found on Oct. 30, and police were notified the following day.

“The police interviewed staff and looked at the photos, and the church was fully cooperative with police and turned over those photos to the police,” Acker said.

To be transparent, Acker said the congregation was immediately notified in a meeting following church services.

“We know that these kinds of allegations have happened in the past where churches have not been transparent and have tried to hide things, and we do not want to be in that category,” Acker said. “We want to be fully transparent.”

Acker said Sung did not work with the church youth group, either in a paid or volunteer position, but the warrant says “He was also involved with photography for the church and assisted with many programs within the church, including the youth ministry.”

The church offered to pay for professional counseling for people were affected and created a committee made up of a nurse, a mental health professional and church members — all female — to help in case hands-on abuse was reported.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.

Update: Black Collar Crime: Southern Baptist Student Pastor Daniel Mayfield Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Possession

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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.

Daniel Mayfield, a student pastor at First Baptist Church of Gowensville in Landrum, South Carolina, was accused of secretly video recording a woman while she was taking a shower. First Baptist is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Since this initial allegation, more than 150 counts of secretly recording young girls in the shower and bridal parties changing clothes have been levied against Mayfield.

In 2023, Fox Carolina reported:

The Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office said a youth pastor admitted to videotaping a woman while she was in the shower on Saturday.

According to an incident report, a woman told deputies she was showering at her mother’s house when she saw a light outside the bathroom window. When she went to look, she said she saw 35-year-old Daniel Kellan Mayfield standing in the backyard alone.

The woman and her sister told deputies they confronted Mayfield about the incident to which he initially denied. He then admitted to taking a video of her while she was showering and gave her the phone to look at the video, according tot he report.

Deputies were contacted and responded to Mayfield’s home to speak with him. After admitting to law enforcement, he was taken to the Greenwood County Detention Center and charged with voyeurism.

First Baptist Gowensville, which is located in Greenville County, confirmed that Mayfield was employed with the church as a student pastor.

He was fired from the church on the day of his arrest.

First Baptist immediately fired Mayfield, but makes no mention of him and his alleged crime on their Facebook page or website.

After this story was published, more allegations were leveled against Mayfield.

Fox Carolina reported:

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office announced that an Upstate youth pastor is facing new charges after allegedly videoing girls in the shower of an Upstate church.

Deputies said they began investigating the situation on May 30 after they received information from the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office.

The Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office said the youth pastor, 35-year-old Daniel Kellan Mayfield, admitted to videotaping a woman while she was in the shower on Saturday, May 27.

Following this incident, deputies in Greenville County investigated and discovered that Mayfield allegedly filmed multiple girls in the bathroom of Gowensville Baptist Church in Landrum. They added that they’ve identified six victims so far and that they are as young as 14 years old. According to deputies, Mayfield reportedly set up and recorded video inside the restroom on at least three occasions dating back to July 2022.

First Baptist Gowensville confirmed that Mayfield was employed as a student pastor. However, he was fired from the church on the day of his arrest. Deputies said they believe Mayfield acted alone and don’t believe anyone from the church knew about his activity. On June 1, the church released the following statement on the incident.

The charges kept on coming for Mayfield.

Yahoo reported:

A former youth pastor at a Landrum church faces additional charges for criminal sexual conduct, according to arrest warrants provided by the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.

Daniel Kellan Mayfield, 35, now faces a total 14 charges for filming underage girls and women in the bathroom of Gowensville Baptist Church while still in his official capacity as a youth pastor for the church.

Mayfield was previously charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree, as well as one voyeurism charge. At the time, investigators said at least six victims were involved, as young as 14-years-old.

Mayfield now faces five additional counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and three voyeurism charges, according to warrants filed Thursday, June 8.

Warrants allege Mayfield filmed the victims “in a closed bathroom … where (they) had a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office warrants allege that Mayfield admitted to recording underage girls during an interview with Greenwood County deputies. The videos were allegedly found on his phone.

The alleged crimes occurred on five different dates between May 2021 and September 2022, according to the fourteen separate warrants.

Mayfield faces an additional voyeurism charge in Greenwood County according to public court records.

Mayfield was arrested at his Boiling Springs residence on June 1. He is currently detained at the Greenville County Detention Center and pending an initial court appearance, according to the jail’s website.

“Investigators do believe Daniel Mayfield acted alone and do not have reason to believe anyone from the church had knowledge of the unlawful activity,” Lt. Ryan Flood of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said in a June 1 email.

On November 21, 2024, Mayfield pleaded guilty to having illegal child sexual abuse images. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

The Post and Courier reports:

A former Upstate youth pastor already facing more than 150 counts of secretly recording young girls in the shower and bridal parties changing clothes pleaded guilty to a federal charge for having illegal child sexual abuse images.

Daniel Kellan Mayfield, 36, pleaded guilty Nov. 21 to one count possession of such an image on his iPhone and professional camera, according to recently unsealed court documents.

The maximum federal sentence Mayfield could face is 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, court documents show.

Mayfield faces at least 167 charges across several counties in South Carolina, including 109 in Greenville County, 38 in Spartanburg County, nine in Greenwood County, six in Charleston County and five in Beaufort County, according to a Post and Courier tally of court records.

Authorities in several counties have charged Mayfield with voyeurism for allegedly recording people in private places without their knowledge.

In many of the episodes, Mayfield was a contracted photographer or videographer for a wedding and secretly recorded people at the venue, according to multiple news releases.

Previous warrants in Greenville allege Mayfield had been hired as a videographer for weddings in 2021 when he recorded members of the bridal parties changing clothes. One of the weddings occurred at First Baptist Church Gowensville, according to a warrant.

The charges also allege Mayfield recorded girls using the bathroom while he served in his role as youth pastor.

Mayfield’s state case is being prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office because it crosses into multiple jurisdictions.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.

Update: Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Roy Shoop Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Rape

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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.

In 2020, Roy Shoop, pastor of Cowboy Gatherin’ Church in Inola, Oklahoma, was accused of sexually molesting three girls under the age of sixteen who were either working on his farm or taking horse riding lessons from him.

Channel 6 reported:

Rogers County deputies arrested an Inola pastor after he was accused of molesting three girls under the age of 16.

“It should be sickening to hear this from anyone who would commit those acts on children. They were placed in a position where they should have been able to trust a man. It takes it to another level to see this from a man who stands on a pulpit and leads a church,” Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said.

Deputies said they arrested Roy Shoop on May 20 at his house after they said he molested three girls that were either working on his farm or taking horse riding lessons from him.

Documents said a 12-year-old girl came forward in January to say Shoop sexually assaulted her. Deputies said that girl was receiving horse riding lessons from Shoop.

Documents also showed two other girls, ages 13 and 15, came forward with sexual assault accusations. The documents said the 15-year-old was sexually assaulted four times.

Shoop denied the charges leveled against him.

Channel 8 reported:

In his own words Roy Shoop is an innocent man.

“I can assure you I have done nothing inappropriate with these young ladies or in any manner,” said Pastor Roy Shoop.

The Inola pastor and well known figure in the community is facing sexual assault accusations involving three girls; accusations he says are false.

“All I can do is just continue to pray and to seek the Lord and follow him in this manner and that means praying for the young ladies as well,” said Shoop.

….

“I am heartbroken that these accusations could be made against him. My Dad is a man of God; my mentor,” said Daughter Shanelle Gray.

Through this week’s arrest Shoop has had his family behind him, especially his daughter Shanell Gray.

“He has raised up a church that serves the Lord fearlessly and we just pray that these accusations get stopped,” said Gray.

….

In the meantime Shoop’s family is staying by his side.

“He’s my daddy there’s no greater character of a man who would lay down his life for his friends and his family,” said Gray.

Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton says it’s possible more allegations could surface.

The Tulsa World reported:

One victim told authorities that Shoop would inappropriately touch her while he was instructing her on horse riding and while she was at his Inola, Oklahoma, residence, according to the affidavit.

“These events took place while (the victim) was staying at the Shoop’s residence where she was being instructed on barrel racing with her new horse her father had purchased from Roy and Diana Shoop,” investigators state in the affidavit.

The other two victims reported similar accounts. Each reported going to Shoop’s residence for horse riding or rodeo-related lessons when the alleged abuse occurred.

One victim reported the abuse occurred in October 2018. Another victim reported the abuse occurred between April 2018 and April 2019, and the third victim reported abuse occurring in January.

Investigators state in the affidavit that the victims were not related to one another.

Deputies arrested Shoop on Wednesday. He was booked into Rogers County jail on the charges and subsequently posted a $300,000 bond.

Four years later, Shoop faced his accusers in court.

News-6 reported:

The trial is underway for an Inola pastor who was charged more than four years ago with eight counts of lewd or indecent acts involving five girls.

Rogers County deputies arrested Roy Shoop at his home in 2020 after they say he molested girls who were either working on his farm or taking horse riding lessons from him.

The girls who were mentioned Wednesday were as young as 12 when they said Shoop assaulted them. 

Deputies said they interviewed Shoop at the beginning of the investigation, and he denied the allegations and he’s pleaded not guilty to the charges.

News On 6 was at the jury trial Wednesday, and a forensic interviewer, one of the girls, that girl’s sister and her mother testified.

There was a large group of Roy Shoop’s friends at court, supporting him and praying with him. 

The forensic interviewer showed three interviews from 2020, where three young girls testified Roy Shoop sexually assaulted them while at his home and horse ranch. 

In the first video, a girl said Shoop put his hand under her shirt and touched her leg while she was riding horses when she was 10 or 11.

Another one told the interviewer Shoop had touched her inappropriately while on a horse when she was 12. 

The third interview was with a girl who was 12 the time.

She’s now 17 and testified Shoop sexually assaulted her while at his home back in January 2020. 

She said her family was very close to the Shoop family and since it happened, she’s not been the same and it took her love of riding horses away from her. 

That girl’s older sister who is also one of her legal guardians testified about how the girl was upset and didn’t talk much after it happened.

Shoop’s attorney questioned why the sister didn’t take the girl to a hospital for a sexual assault exam.

The sister said the girl wasn’t ready to talk to authorities and it would have traumatized her.

That victim’s mother also took the stand today and said she confronted Shoop and his wife the day after the girl said she was assaulted, and he offered to have coffee and talk about it. 

After that, the family cut ties with the Shoops. 

Other girls are expected to testify about their allegations along with family members and a counselor this week. 

Roy Shoop and his wife Diana are also expected to take the stand.

Shoop was convicted of rape and two counts of lewd or indecent acts involving young girls. The jury recommended Shoop serve a thirty-five-year prison sentence.

Fox 23 reported:

A jury found an Inola pastor guilty of rape and two counts of lewd or indecent acts involving young girls Thursday morning.

FOX23 told you 4 years ago about Inola pastor Roy Shoop when he was arrested.

“I felt I was looking the devil right in the eye,” said Sheriff Scott Walton from the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office as he explained the moment he handcuffed Roy Shoop, “and I believe he was, and we put him right where he needs to be.”

Shoop was the pastor of the Cowboy Gatherin’ Church in Inola. The DA’s office said he and his wife have trained children to compete in rodeo events such as barrel racing and roping.

Walton said, “A situation came to an end last night that was four years in the making…and here’s my opinion, he was successful at playing courthouse lawyer games and buying himself 4 years of freedom, and last night it came to an end. We handcuffed him, walked him across and stuffed him in the jail where he belongs.”

The Rogers County District Attorney’s Office said during the trial multiple victims testified about suffering abuse from Roy Shoop.

His victims were as young as 5 years old. 

Shoop’s trial started on October 1st and he chose to take the stand in his own defense.

“He took the stand himself and did a decent job lying, but not enough to convince 12 jurors that he’s not guilty,” said Walton.

Shoop was found guilty of rape by instrumentation and two counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 14.

Walton explained, “There were 8 counts there, but three major counts—the three he was convicted on—should put a predator in a cage that will die in the penitentiary…You see lives wrecked, but the good feeling is that where he’s at, he will not victimize any more young girls.”

The jury recommended a 35-year prison sentence and $30,000 in fines. Under Oklahoma law, Shoop must serve at least 85% of his sentence. This means that if the sentencing sticks, Shoop would not be eligible for release until he’s 88 years old, but Walton wants him locked up for good.

“You can rip them out and prosecute them again once they’re in the DOC and you know, you look at his actions and his decisions. They ruined a lot of people’s lives…Hopefully, all we can offer these girls that had their lives change is the closure that we put the animal in jail that harmed them.”

Walton believes there are more victims of Roy Shoop who have yet to come forward.

Today, Shoop was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Channel 6 reports:

A Rogers County judge sentences an Inola pastor to 25 years in prison for molesting young girls during horse riding lessons at his ranch.

A jury found Roy Shoop guilty in October after a week-and-a-half-long trial and the jury recommended he spend 35 years in prison.

Prosecutors read victim impact statements on behalf of the victims. They said Roy Shoop ruined years of their lives, ruined their love for riding horses and broke their trust with the Church and God. They say they are scared of Shoop and Shoop’s followers. 

Shoop was the pastor at Cowboy Gatherin’ Church in Inola and was arrested in 2020 for inappropriately touching several girls during horse riding lessons at Shoop’s ranch, or while the girls stayed at the family’s home.

Prosecutors say Shoop has never taken responsibility for his actions, even after he was convicted, but instead said one of the victims is mentally unwell, and the other made these claims just to get attention. 

Prosecutors called the girls heroes for testifying during the trial and facing Shoop after what he did to them. 

They called Shoop a predator who has been hiding behind his position as a pastor and pillar of the community for far too long. 

Shoop’s attorney asked the judge to sentence Shoop to 20 years in prison, and 15 years probation. He said Shoop is a model citizen, a hard worker and has never been in trouble before and the odds of him committing crimes like this again are almost none. 

District Attorney Matt Ballard says he hopes this sentence sends a message that no one is above the law. 

“The sentence was a victory for some young women that came in and told the jury about the worst thing that ever happened to them in their lives. They came in and did that in the face of a group of people who didn’t have all the facts. They had to come in, they had to be brave and it’s a justice verdict for them,” said Ballard. 

Rogers County investigators believe there are more victims out there and encourage them to come forward.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.