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Tag: Black Collar Crime

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Johannes Vermeer Facing Child Pornography Charges

pastor john vermeer

Johannes (John) Vermeer, pastor of Main Street Church in Chilliwack, BC, faces several charges related to child pornography. As is the custom among Evangelicals, Vermeer’s web presence has been scrubbed from the church’s website.

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.

Paul Henderson, a reporter for the Langley Times, writes:

The executive pastor of Main Street Church is facing multiple child pornography charges.

Johannes (John) Vermeer was arrested a week and a half ago and had his first court appearance March 29, facing four child porn charges.

The 58-year-old faces one count each of possession of child pornography and accessing child pornography from May 1, 2010. He also faces the same charges with an offence date of March 17, 2015.

The Progress learned that senior pastor Shawn Vandop informed the congregation about the charges at both services on Sunday at the downtown Chilliwack church. Vandop confirmed that Monday, stating that members of the congregation met the news with “shock.”

“It’s not something that we want to hear or want to deal with but we live in a broken and messy world with a lot of pain,” he said, adding that right from the beginning of the investigation, church staff were co-operative.

“We actually reported this to police when we heard there was this activity on the computer system,” Vandop said.

Once they were able to, Vandop felt it best to inform everyone in the church rather than let rumours fester. He added that it was important they make it clear Vermeer is no longer an employee of the church in case there was any perception of risk to kids as they offer many programs for youth.

“No child in our care is impacted by this situation,” he said. “That’s really important.”

Vermeer was in the news in 2011 when the congregation of Promontory Community Church first purchased the Liquidation World building at Main Street and Princess Avenue in 2011. In 2013, the downtown ministry was named Main Street Church while Promontory one was renamed Hillside Community Church.

In 2014, the two churches came together under one roof at the ever-expanding location on Main Street.

Vermeer has served as executive pastor – an administrative role – for the church since 2009.

Vermeer was a member of the city’s downtown core task force and was elected to the 2011/2012 Downtown Business Improvement Association board.

Vermeer is also an executive committee member of the B.C. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches (BCMB), but as of March 29, 2018, his profile photo and bio are no longer on the www.bcmb.org website.

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Dan Syrcle Arrested on Prostitution Charges

dan syrcle

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.

Dan Syrcle, pastor of First Salem Church in Wichita, Kansas,  was arrested yesterday on “suspicion of purchasing sexual relations and official misconduct.”
The Wichita Eagle reports:

A volunteer chaplain for the Wichita Police Department and Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office was arrested during a prostitution investigation.

Daniel Lee Syrcle, 53, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of purchasing sexual relations and official misconduct, police Deputy Chief Jose Salcido and sheriff’s Col. Greg Pollock said in a prepared statement on Friday.

Syrcle has been terminated from both assignments, the statement said. He was an unpaid, volunteer chaplain.

The Wichita police VICE section was conducting a prostitution investigation when it discovered Syrcle’s involvement, the statement said.

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Black Collar Crime: Catholic Diocese of Erie Releases List of Priests Who Have Been Accused of Sex Crimes

lawrence persico
Bishop Lawrence Persico

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.

Today, the Catholic Diocese of Erie released a list of fifty-one priests and laypeople who have been credibly accused of sex crimes.

GoErie.com reports:

Bishop Lawrence Persico likened the event to ending a kind of darkness.

In a stunning break from years of Catholic Diocese of Erie policy, Persico on Friday released the names of priests and laypeople credibly accused of sexually abusing minors or engaging in improper behavior with minors since 1944. (scroll down for the list of names.)

“When everything is shrouded in cloud, everybody becomes suspicious,” Persico said. “Now that we have turned on the light it should be somewhat of a relief.”

He apologized to the victims on behalf of the diocese and said the release of the list is meant to help victims by letting them know “they are not alone.” He encouraged more victims to come forward.

“We are willing to listen to them and accompany them as we search for the truth,” Persico said.

The cases on the list span from 1944 to the present and the list is made up of a total of 51 people — 34 priests, 21 of whom are dead, and 17 laypeople, two of whom are dead. Persico said the statute of limitations had expired in all the cases except three more recent cases in which criminal investigations are active.

Those on the list include the late Erie Catholic Bishop Alfred M. Watson, who died at 80 in 1990 and who the diocese said had been credibly accused of failing to stop abuse that was “credibly reported to him.” Persico said someone was abused because Watson, who served as bishop from 1969 to 1982, failed to act on the abuse allegation.

Also on the list is William P. Garvey, the former president of then-Mercyhurst College, who died at 81 in August. The diocese said its investigation showed Garvey had been credibly accused of abusing minors when he was a youth basketball coach at St. John the Baptist School in the 1960s and 1970s. The Erie Times-News first reported the allegations against Garvey in 2004, but Garvey called them “patently untrue” and Mercyhurst disputed them, citing “a lack of solid evidence.”

Persico’s release of the 51 names is unusual for Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States, most of which have kept such names secret. And the release of the names is unusual because the list includes laypeople and not just clergy.

“If we’re going to protect children, it is not just priests, but it is laypeople, too,” Persico said. “Why would I just put (in) priests if we know people who have not protected children?”

He said the release of the names, which he announced during a news conference at St. Mark Catholic Center, is also meant to help the community and the church, accused of covering up for abusive priests since the clergy sex-abuse scandal exploded nationwide in 2002. The Erie diocese on March 21 said it intended to release the names of accused priests soon. The diocese released that statement a day after the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo released the names of 42 accused priests, 24 of whom are dead.

The Erie diocese’s disclosures also come as a statewide investigative grand jury is in the final stages of its review of how the Erie diocese and five other Catholic dioceses statewide handled allegations of clerical sexual abuse. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office is running the probes, which started in 2016.

The grand jury’s term is expected to end by April 30, with its report to be finished soon after. The report will be public and is expected to name abusive priests, based on previous grand jury reports on other Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. A year ago, the attorney general’s office released a highly critical 147-page grand jury report on the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Persico said he “probably” would have released the names of the accused priests and laypeople if the grand jury had not been meeting. [bullshit] He said he expects the grand jury report will include the names of more victims. The Erie diocese has cooperated with the investigation, which has included a review of diocesan records.

“We were going to do this regardless of what the report said,” Persico also said. “This is something I felt has to be done. We have to do all we can to protect children and minors across the diocese.”

“I know people stand firmly on both sides of whether or not releasing the names of these individuals is the right decision,” Persico said. “Some will say that it has taken far too long to publish these names. Others think we shouldn’t do it at all. They say we are not showing mercy.

“As Catholics, we believe the Lord has infinite mercy and absolution for those who are contrite and sincerely seek forgiveness. But that does not mean they are free from the ramifications of their behavior.”

He also said, “there will be some who will say this is not enough.”

One of those people is James Faluszczak, 48. He is a former Roman Catholic priest in the Erie diocese who in March said he was abused as a teenager in Erie in the late 1980s by Monsignor Daniel J. Martin, a former pastor of St. George Church in Millcreek Township who died at 88 in 2006. Faluszczak said the abuse occurred between when he was 16 to 19 years old. Martin’s name is on the list released Friday.

Faluszczak said he is grateful that Persico released the list, but he said he would have liked the bishop to also disclose where the accused priests and laypeople had been at the time of the abuse to help victims get a better idea of the scope of the problem.

“It is a start, but even the bishop acknowledged that more names will be coming,” Faluszczak said. “I think it would have been best to provide a list of where all these priests have served.”

….

You can read the entire story here.

Black Collar Crime: Mormon Elder Dr. Gerald Mortimer Accused of Sperm Switcheroo

gerald mortimer

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.

A recently filed lawsuit alleges that Dr. Gerald Mortimer, an elder in the Mormon church, used his own sperm to artificially impregnate Kelli Rowlette’s mother. Roweltte was unaware of the switcheroo until her Ancestry.com DNA test revealed that Mortimer was her biological father.

CBS News reports:

Millions have used Ancestry.com to trace the roots of their family tree. But Kelli Rowlette, a woman from Iowa, says it led to a stunning discovery about her biological father.

A 14-page lawsuit filed in Idaho revealed her biological father was allegedly her parent’s fertility doctor.

The suit claims that Dr. Gerald Mortimer, an elder in the Mormon church, helped Rowlett’s parents get pregnant in 1980. He recommended they use a “85 percent mixture of her dad’s [Mr. Fowler] genetic material, and 15 percent of the mixture would be from anonymous donor.” The suit alleges that didn’t happen, and instead Dr. Mortimer used his own sperm.

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When Ancestry.com test results said Mortimer was her father, Rowlette thought there was an error. But she “discovered her birth certificate had been signed by Dr. Mortimer,” and she was “horrified and contacted her parents in a panic,” according to the suit.

The Idaho Statesman adds:

A doctor in Eastern Idaho is accused of secretly using his own sperm to fertilize a patient in 1980. Almost 40 years later, the baby is a grown woman who says she just learned the truth from a mail-in DNA test.

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Sally Ashby and Howard Fowler were having trouble conceiving in 1979. They went to Dr. Gerald Mortimer, who ran an OB/GYN practice in Idaho Falls, looking for help.

The problem, Mortimer told them, was that Ashby had a tipped uterus and Fowler’s sperm count and motility were low.

He recommended artificial insemination — using a mix of semen from Fowler and an anonymous donor, chosen by the couple based on whatever characteristics they desired.

They chose a donor who was in college and who looked like Fowler — over 6 feet tall with brown hair and blue eyes.

Mortimer told the couple he had a donor in mind, and he performed the artificial insemination procedure three times a month on Ashby, throughout the summer of 1980.

The couple welcomed a daughter, named Kelli, in May 1981. Mortimer delivered the baby.

Ashby continued to see Mortimer as her OB/GYN for several years. The couple eventually decided to move to Washington — after adding a son to their family without medical assistance.

….

Three decades later, Kelli Rowlette was a grown woman. Like many other Americans curious about their lineage, Rowlette sent in a DNA sample for analysis on Ancestry.com.

She got a notification last July that her DNA sample had a match: a parent-child relationship with Mortimer.

Rowlette had no idea who Mortimer was. She didn’t know the story of how she was conceived. She assumed Ancestry.com was just plain wrong and mentioned to her mother how disappointed she was in the service.

“Mrs. Rowlette gave Ms. Ashby access to the results from Ancestry.com,” the lawsuit says. “When Ms. Ashby was alone, she accessed the account to investigate further. When Ms. Ashby saw Dr. Mortimer’s name, she was devastated.”

Ashby called Fowler, now her ex-husband, and filled him in. Both of them were devastated, and they spent “several months” trying to decide whether to tell their daughter who Mortimer was, the lawsuit says.

The parents “struggled to cope with their own anguish, and had difficulty contemplating the torment the discovery would cause their daughter when and if she found out,” the lawsuit says.

Last fall, the choice was made for them. Rowlette was at her father’s house helping him clean out old papers. She found her birth certificate — and on it, Dr. Mortimer’s signature.

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Black Collar Crime: Baptist Pastor Mitzi Bickers Charged with Accepting Bribes from City Contractors

pastor mitzi bickers

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.

Mitzi Bickers, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, stands accused of accepting bribes to steer city of Atlanta contracts to several contractors. According to a 2017 Project Q Atlanta article, Bickers is a lesbian. She is also a chaplain for the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

In handcuffs and leg irons, The Rev. Mitzi Bickers made her first appearance in federal court Thursday to face charges that she took $2 million in bribes to steer city of Atlanta contracts to at least two contractors from 2010 to 2015.

Bickers pleaded not guilty to the 11-count indictment and answered yes or no questions from U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Russell Vineyard.

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Prosecutors accused the former city of Atlanta human services director of taking money from contractors to help them win city contracts and spending the money on a lavish lifestyle that included: a $775,000 home in Jonesboro; a $46,000 Denali luxury SUV; $45,000 worth of waverunner jet skis; and vacations to Aruba, Disney resorts and on Carnival cruise lines.

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The 11-count indictment alleges Bickers used her influence at City Hall to steer contracts to Elvin “E.R.” Mitchell Jr. and Charles P. Richards Jr., both when she worked for the city and after she left in 2013. Mitchell and Richards have each pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the on-going investigation.
At a 2 p.m. press conference, U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak urged others who participated in the conspiracy to come forward, accept responsibility and cooperate with the investigation.

“To those employees who may have taken cash, gratuity or other items of value from the individual named in this indictment, now is your time,” he said. “There is a very small window of opportunity for you to help yourself in accepting full responsibility for being part of this conspiracy and for cooperating with the government. That is the only way you can assure you can minimize your criminal exposure.”

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In the 23-page indictment, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta lay out a complicated web of payments made from various companies controlled by Mitchell to companies under Bicker’s control. Multiple payments in relatively small amounts were made by Mitchell to Bickers in an attempt to hide the nature of the transactions, according to the indictment.

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“Bickers conspired to enrich herself and others by soliciting and accepting payments directly and indirectly from Mitchell and Richards and their companies in exchange for her agreement to represent their businesses and to obtain lucrative City of Atlanta contracts for their companies through bribery,” the indictment says.

Bickers’ purchase of the $775,000 home in Jonesboro on her $57,000 city salary has long been the subject of media reports since the bribery investigation became public in January 2017. The indictment goes into detail about how the home was purchased: Mitchell made $200,000 in cash deposits directly to the seller; from June 20-27, 2011, Mitchell made 12 deposits of $9,500 or more in at least four different bank accounts owned or controlled by Bickers, along with another deposit of $85,000; on June 27-28, Richards made wire transfers of $53,000 and $20,000 into Bickers’ controlled accounts.

Bickers spent that money on the house almost immediately, according to the indictment, making wire transfers of $81,000, $104,000 and $114,000 to her closing attorney in a two-day span.

She is also charged with tax fraud in that year.

“In her 2011 tax return, Bickers represented … that her total income for 2011 was $57,986,” the indictment says. “Based on the false representations in her return, the IRS issued Bickers a tax refund of $3,924.”

The bribery scheme continued in 2014, with Bickers helping Mitchell secure some $5.5 million in snow removal contracts from the city, despite Mitchell’s company not owning a snow plow. In return, Mitchell paid her about $1.4 million, according to the indictment.

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Black Collar Crime: Ex-Baptist Pastor George Baker Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

george baker

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.

George Baker, an ex-Southern Baptist pastor and seminary professor, was arrested March 23, 2018 for possession of child pornography.

The Burleson Star reports:

On the surface, George Baker appeared to have everything. A job helping others, a beautiful fiancé who he was building a life with and doing some university-level teaching. All of that came to a crashing halt on March 23 when he was arrested for possession of child pornography.

“The entire time we were going out, he never mentioned that he had a problem,” Stephanie Conroy, Baker’s now ex-fiance, told the Star. “He said he was helping people addicted to porn, not that he himself had a problem.” [a problem? Is that what possessing child pornography is now, a “problem?’]

Conroy was checking email in a bedroom of the house they shared on Alsbury Blvd., when one of her children walked in and said that there were some police who wanted to speak with her.

“At first I sort of laughed it off, I thought he was making a joke,” Conroy said. “But I followed him into the kitchen and there were two police officers in there. At first I thought my oldest son had been in an accident, but then they told me that they had been investigating George for over a year.”

According to BPD Officer Wes Routson, Baker had uploaded a pornographic image of a child from his computer.

“We’ve been looking at him for awhile,” Routson said. “But one reason it took so long is that we had to send his computer off to be looked at. When you are doing forensic investigations on computers you have to get in line at the state for someone to do it, and thats why it dragged out.”

Baker was arrested and transferred to the Johnson County jail, where he posted bond for $100,000.

Baker had most recently been working for ‘Feed the Right Wolf,’ as a life coach helping people overcome sex and porn addiction.

Craig Perry, owner of ‘Feed the Right Wolf,’ knew that Baker had a problem with teen porn and described him as a “great man who made a mistake.” [uh, teens are still minors. Again, here’s that “problem” word again.]

Perry said that even though he knew Baker had a record of viewing child porn, he hired him anyway.

“I was so impressed by his recovery and his skill set, I let him take my certification course where I train therapists and counselors,” he said. “It didn’t look like this was going to happen again, but when it did, we terminated him immediately.”  [How did Perry KNOW it wouldn’t happen again?]

Baker had also taught at TCU’s at Brite Divinity School in 2011 as  a teaching assistant while pursuing his Ph.D., in philosophy. Baker also claimed that he was the program manager of the Soul Repair Center at Brite from July 2012 to July 2015, though the Star could not confirm that. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was also the pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Stamford, Texas, from 1998-2001, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Seymour, Texas, from 2001-2003 and pastor of First Baptist church in Weinart, Texas, from 2003-2006.

“He was completely normal around me and my kids,” Conroy said.

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Black Collar Crime: Southern Baptist Leader Paul Pressler Faces Civil Suit Over Sexual Abuse Allegations

paul pressler

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.

Southern Baptist luminary Paul Pressler faces a civil suit alleging that he sexually abused a teenager.

The Baptist News reports:

The attorney representing a man suing former Southern Baptist Convention leader Paul Pressler for alleged sexual abuse has filed the first of what he says will be a series of affidavits corroborating his client’s claims.

An attachment to a motion filed April 3 in the United States District Court for the Second District of Texas Houston Division identifies a married man in his 50s living in New York who says he believes Pressler “had designs” on him when he was a teenager.The witness, a member of a youth group that Pressler led at a Presbyterian church in Houston in the 1970s, said during one weekend retreat at the Pressler Ranch, when he was 16 or 17, Pressler told him there was a shortage of beds and asked if he would mind if they shared a bunk.

He said he recalls “feeling a typical teenage aversion to sleeping beside him,” but did not at the time think the request was unreasonable. During the night, he said, Pressler told him he was cold and rubbed his feet against his under the covers without asking.

The affidavit also says Pressler used to take boys from the youth group to saunas and showers at the Houston Oaks Country Club, typically when no other club members were around. They usually would carpool after Bible study in groups of four to 12, but one night he rode with Pressler and noticed he was the only passenger. He asked who else was going, and Pressler said they were the only two.

He suspected nothing, the affidavit says, until Pressler groped him when they were alone in the steam bath.

“I was absolutely not aroused,” the statement says. “I froze. Shocked, stunned and utterly frightened, I had no idea what to expect next. I was naked and trapped — miles from home — and I needed to be beyond Pressler’s reach.”

“My instincts told me to carry on as though nothing had happened — to end the incident with no further incident. With great difficulty, I talked calmly, while staying alert. We returned to the locker room and dressed. Then Pressler drove me to my car without further incident. I went home and from that moment I have stayed away from him.”

Houston attorney Daniel Shea said in the April 3 motion the allegation is just one of “affidavits and material corroborating witnesses” in preparation and partially completed in the case. Shea said they span a period from as early as 1977-78 to as recently as unwanted sexual advances claimed by a man in 2016. Shea said “other affidavits will follow” and “new corroborators continue to come forward.”

Shea’s motion came in response to a motion for summary judgment filed March 30 by the Southern Baptist Convention, one of a number of organizations and individuals accused in the lawsuit of being co-conspirators. While denying any wrongdoing, the SBC argued that the lawsuit is barred by statute of limitations.

Allowing the case to proceed, the motion said, “would involve discovery regarding documents, events and people spanning 40 years.”

“The attendant costs to SBC, taxpayers and judicial resources constitute an abuse of the civil justice system,” the motion said.

Shea opposed the motion, saying he has not yet had a chance to depose Pressler.

According to legal websites, depositions — the taking of an oral statement of a witness before trial, under oath — are part of the right that all parties in a lawsuit have to “discovery,” a formal investigation to find out more about the case before going to trial.

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Depositions for Pressler and his wife, Nancy, were initially set for Jan. 16 but were “quashed” — declared legally void — by the defendants. March 13 depositions ordered in state court were intercepted when defendant Second Baptist Church in Houston filed a motion March 12 moving the case to the federal bench.

“The depositions sought will be confrontational,” Shea said. “Either Paul Pressler will admit or deny the abuse, admit or deny the corroborators, or provide some unknown response.”

….

Shea’s client, Gareld Duane Rollins Jr., claims that Pressler assaulted him over the course of 35 years, beginning when he was 14.

Pressler, a former justice on the Texas 14th Court of Appeals, has denied all allegations in the lawsuit. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

The Texas Tribune adds:

The lawsuit alleges that Paul Pressler, a former justice on the 14th Court of Appeals who served in the Texas state house from 1957–59, sexually assaulted Duane Rollins, his former bible study student, several times per month over a period of years. According to the filing, the abuse started in the late 1970s and continued less frequently after Rollins left Houston for college in 1983.

In a November court filing, Pressler “generally and categorically [denied] each and every allegation” in Rollins’ petition.

The abuse, which consisted of anal penetration, took place in Pressler’s master bedroom study, the suit alleges. According to the lawsuit, Pressler told Rollins he was “special” and that the sexual contact was their God-sanctioned secret.

….

Pressler is a leading figure on the religious right in Texas and was a key player in the “conservative resurgence” of Southern Baptism, a movement in the 1970s and 1980s that aimed to oust liberals and moderates from the church’s organizational structure. Pressler’s wife Nancy, his former law partner Jared Woodfill, Woodfill Law Firm, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and First Baptist Church of Houston are also named as defendants in the suit.

Rollins seeks damages of over $1 million.

When asked about the suit, Ted Tredennick, Pressler’s attorney, pointed to Rollins’ record, which is peppered with arrests on DUIs and other charges over the last several decades.

“Mr. Rollins is clearly a deeply troubled man, with a track record of multiple felonies and incarceration, and it is the height of irresponsibility that anyone would present such a bizarre and frivolous case — much less report on it,” Tredennick said. He would not give any further comment or respond to specific questions.

Rollins and his lawyer, Daniel Shea, say his past legal troubles stemmed from behavior fueled by alcohol and drug addictions sparked by the childhood sexual abuse. In 1998, Rollins was jailed for 10 years on burglary charges. Pressler advocated for Rollins to receive parole in 2000, when he was first eligible, and then again in 2002. In his 2002 letter to the parole board, Pressler pledged to employ Rollins and be “personally involved in every bit of Duane’s life with supervision and control.”

Woodfill called the accusations against Pressler “absolutely false” and described the lawsuit as “an attempt to extort money.” He also said he plans to file counter charges against Rollins and his lawyer for a “frivolous and harassing lawsuit.”

Shea said Pressler previously settled with Rollins over a 2004 battery charge for an incident in a Dallas hotel room. That settlement is not public, Shea said, but reference is made to such an agreement in recent court filings.

Shea said that though Rollins filed that assault charge more than a decade ago, he had a “suppressed memory” of the sexual abuse until he made an outcry statement to a prison psychologist in November 2015. Harvey Rosenstock, a psychiatrist who has been working with Rollins since August 2016, wrote in a letter included in the suit that Rollins is a “reliable historian for the childhood sexual trauma to which he was repeatedly and chronically subjected.”

….

According to an October 19, 2018 news report, some of the claims against Pressler have been dismissed.

Black Collar Crime: Retired Methodist Pastor David Holmes Accused of Sexual Assault

pastor david holmes

The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.

David Holmes, a retired United Methodist pastor, stands accused of sexually assaulting a teenager.  The last church pastored by Holmes was the  Central United Methodist Church in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

KETV-7 reports:

Three men are accused of sexually assaulting the same 14-year-old boy. Bellevue police Detective Roy Howell said they all met the minor on a dating app and left a trail of evidence for investigators.

“These crimes do not just stay in Bellevue, they go outside of our jurisdictions,” Howell said.

One of the male suspects is from Cass County and two are from Iowa.

Bellevue police first arrested Samuel Morris of Logan, Iowa. Howell said the 55-year-old met up with the minor last December in a Bellevue neighborhood and they allegedly had sex. Howell said someone called BPD to report it, which led to Morris’ arrest and prompted Howell to look through the juvenile’s phone.

“Through my investigation, (I) was able to determine the victim has met three other individuals,” Howell said.

Howell said the juvenile met the older men through a social app called “Grindr,” which also led Howell to 45-year-old Devin Watt, who’s still in the Sarpy County Jail.

Watt is accused of having sex with the minor late last year in the same Bellevue neighborhood Morris allegedly did. Watt is also accused of sexually assaulting a different, 13-year-old minor in Douglas County, where he is also facing charges.

Howell’s investigation didn’t stop after Watt.

“In the (Grindr) chat, I found a guy by the name of David,” Howell said.

That David was later identified as 80-year-old David Holmes from Council Bluffs. According to Iowa Methodist Church records, Holmes is a former pastor who retired in 2002. The last church he’s listed under is Oskaloosa Central United Methodist Church.

“Essentially, he confessed that he had met the juvenile boy on that application and that he had met him in Omaha,” Howell said.

According to court documents, Holmes said he met up with the 14-year-old in the Clarkson Hospital parking garage in February 2017 and the two engaged in oral sex.

Holmes told investigators the minor asked him to introduce him to more older men, so Holmes introduced the minor to 64-year-old Robert Recoy. The affidavit says the three met at the Clarkson Hospital parking garage, where they took turns performing oral sex on each other.

According to the court documents, “the 14-year-old male’s mother confirmed they had spent several days at Clarkson Hospital for approximately 3 months during that time frame for her husband. The mother confirmed the 14-year-old male would leave the hospital room for different reasons.

Howell said Recoy was uncooperative during the investigation, and according to reports from the Omaha Police Department, Recoy was found dead in his kitchen with 13 pill bottles and a glass of wine next to him. The affidavit says, “It is believed Recoy took his own life due to this investigation.”

Holmes, Watt and Morris each face at least one count of first degree sexual assault of child.

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Black Collar Crime: Pastor Sean Riley Charged with Money Laundering and Securities Fraud

sean riley

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.

Thirteen years ago, Sean Riley, the Evangelical ex-pastor of Secret Place International Church in Humble, Texas, pleaded guilty to operating a pyramid scheme.  The San Antonio Express-News reports Riley “was given two years’ deferred adjudication and was ordered to pay a $500 fine.”  Today, Riley finds himself under indictment for money laundering and securities fraud.

KSLA-12 reports:

A former pastor who in 2015 was cited by a state board has now found himself in hot water following a grand jury indictment.

Sean Patrick Riley, 50, of San Antonio, is charged with money laundering, theft and fraud sell securities. He was arrested on the charge March 22 and is being held on a collective bond of $75,000.

According to the indictment, Riley committed the crimes between Dec. 30, 2014, and Jan. 27, 2015.

The Texas State Securities Board issued a cease and desist order against Riley and his company, Petro-San Resources LLC on June 22, 2015. The order states Riley offered oil and gas investments in Texas at a single well for $7,500 and a $30,000 investment would entitle investors to a four-percent working interest and may lead to a monthly revenue of $2,112.

According to the order, the investment was not registered for sale in Texas and Riley failed to disclose that he had pleaded guilty to promoting a pyramid scheme, charged with DWI and charged with assault. The order also says Riley had been issued cease and desist orders in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

According to an article in the San Antonio Express-News, Riley was the pastor of Secret Place International Church, a Humble “storefront church and TV ministry” in 2005 and was convicted then in the pyramid scheme.

If God is so Powerful, Why Can’t He Stop Christians From Committing Heinous Crimes?

Evangelicals believe that their God is all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful. He is the sovereign of the universe, and nothing happens apart from his purpose, decree, and plan. God sets up kingdoms and takes them down; thus Donald Trump is the president of the United States because God wanted him to be. It’s God, not humans, who ultimately elects people to office. He is the divine ballot box stuffer. This same God is the giver and taker of life. No one dies before the time God has appointed for his or her death. Wherever man roams, the Christian God is found. According to Evangelicals, humans cannot escape God. He is e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e.

If these things are true, I’d love for a Christian to explain to me why it is that God can’t stop his followers from committing heinous crimes? Appealing to free will or sin won’t work. Why? God is in control of everything. If he is in control of everything, then that includes sin. If he is the sovereign over the universe, and nothing happens apart from his purpose, decree, and plan, what does that say about the notion of free will?  If humans truly have free will and can choose as they please, this means that God is not in control; that God’s plans can be frustrated by human volition. (Let the theological wrangling and justifications begin.) Well Bruce, you have to understand ____________. Actually, I don’t. All I am doing here is taking what Christians say at face value. If God is whom Evangelicals say he is, and has the power they say he does, this means that God is culpable for what happens day after day on this dying planet of ours.

Let me ask again, why can’t God stop his followers from committing heinous crimes? If, as Evangelicals assert, God, the Holy Spirit, lives in all believers and is their teacher and guide, why do Christians commit vile, horrendous crimes? Take Matthew Phelps, who stabbed his Christian wife over a hundred times. Explain how a Bible college-trained preacher could commit such a crime. Explain how it is that the news daily reports stories about Evangelical “men of God” committing adultery, stealing church funds, raping teenagers, and sexually molesting children. Why doesn’t Jehovah stop these God-called, Spirit-filled, Bible-reading, praying servants of his from committing these crimes (and others that aren’t reported). Is it that God can’t; that he is powerless to do so? Is it that humans do what humans do, and there is nothing God can do to keep them from doing so? It seems to me, based on an ever-increasing mountain of evidence, that if there is a God who created everything, he is an idle bystander, unwilling or unable to lift a finger to keep his followers from sodomizing boys, sexually assaulting little girls, and preying on adult women.

There was a time when Evangelicals could argue that criminals such as David Hyles or Bob Gray (Jacksonville, Florida) were outliers; that pastors, evangelists, missionaries, Sunday school teachers, deacons, and bus workers who commit crimes are as rare as a dodo bird sighting. Thanks to the internet and the willingness of victims to publicly share their stories, we now know the Evangelicals have just as big of a crime problem as the Catholic church does. And even before the internet, there was gossip about this or that preacher being arrested or run out of his church. Solomon was right when said there is nothing new under the sun.

Evangelical church leaders love to rail against the world and its “sins,” yet these same behaviors are found among the fraternity. Does anyone really believe that Ted Haggard and Jack Hyles are the exceptions to the rule; that yes, preachers can and do commit crimes, but such behavior is rarely found in Evangelical houses of God? I remember a day when Evangelicals thundered against the sins of the world — fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and divorce. Look at our strong, lifelong marriages, pastors would say. Look at our moral purity. We owe it all to JESUS!  Now we know better. Evangelical pastors and their congregants sin just as much as the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the world. We know that pastors are not the pillars of virtue they claim to be: that they have sex with women to whom they are not married, and surf porn sites just like their counterparts in the world. (Please read Is Clergy Sexual Infidelity Rare?)

It seems, then, that Evangelicals aren’t any different from the rest of us; that all their talk about being new creations in Christ Jesus is just that, talk. Now, this doesn’t mean that Christianity is worthless. People find purpose, meaning, and community through religion. That said, I do wonder if pastors stood before their congregations and said, God is not who and what we claim he is and we are just as fucked up as the rest of the world, what would happen? If the notion of a personal, caring God is destroyed, what’s left for Christians besides Grandma Mary’s cherry pie? If there is no difference morally between the saved and the lost, where does that leave Christianity?

Of course — thanks to cognitive dissonance — my words will be loudly and roundly rejected. There is machinery to maintain and gears to grease. There are offerings to collect and souls to save. Evangelicals dare not let reality get in the way of perpetuating the myth — that Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

About Bruce Gerencser

Bruce Gerencser, 60, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 39 years. He and his wife have six grown children and eleven 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. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.

Bruce is a local photography business owner, operating Defiance County Photo out of his home. If you live in Northwest Ohio and would like to hire Bruce, please email him.

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Bruce Gerencser