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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.”
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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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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“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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jackson Gatlin, a youth worker at The Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to five counts of criminal sexual misconduct and was sentenced to thirteen years in prison. Gatlin’s parents were the church’s senior pastors. None of the Gatlins are currently affiliated with Duluth Vineyard.
Jackson Gatlin was sentenced to 13 years in prison Monday, the first of back-to-back days of sentencings after the former youth leader from Duluth Vineyard pleaded guilty earlier this month to felony-level sexual misconduct.
In early 2023, a handful of women came forward with similar stories of sexual assault from when they were teens or younger at the hands of Gatlin — who held a position of authority at the church where his parents, Michael and Brenda Gatlin, were senior pastors. On Nov. 6, Jackson Gatlin, 36, pleaded guilty to five counts of criminal sexual conduct.
“I hope you conquer your demons,” Judge Dale Harris said to the defendant on Monday.
Gatlin, dressed in orange, did not comment in the courtroom. When he is out of prison, he will have to register as a sex offender.
The first day of sentencings were tied to two separate victims, numbered 4 and 5 in court documents: one who said she was 14 when Gatlin, then 21, snuck her into his parents’ basement and committed the first of several sexual assaults, according to the criminal complaint. It ended when she saw his flirtatious text messages with other girls from a youth group. The second woman was in middle school when she said Gatlin started sending her sexual text messages and later trapped her in a bus seat during the church’s annual retreat weekend in the Twin Cities. He assaulted her and threatened that if she told anyone, the police would get involved, according to the criminal complaint.
The courtroom was at capacity, with the victims sitting together in a row.
“We’re talking about something, for them, that is nearly 20 years in the making,” the victims’ attorney Paul McBride said after the sentencing. “Finding justice is a journey. This is one step toward that. Hopefully we can come to a meaningful end.”
….
Since Gatlin’s plea earlier this month, nine victims have filed civil charges against him — in addition to his parents, Duluth Vineyard and Vineyard USA, its governing body.
In the civil complaints filed Nov. 6, Gatlin is accused of extended hugs, touching teenage girls over and under their clothes, making them touch him, tackling them in the guise of playing games, and raping them. He is accused of tying a girl to his bedpost. In one case, Brenda Gatlin reportedly walked into her bedroom and found her son sexually assaulting a girl. Nothing came of it, according to the complaint.
Gatlin told several girls he was going to teach them and show them the love of God, according to court documents. A parent found sexual text messages from Jackson Gatlin to their daughter and notified at least one of his parents.
The Gatlins, Duluth Vineyard and Vineyard USA are accused of continuing to give Jackson Gatlin access to minors, even though leadership had been told of his actions, not providing proper training, covering up information and not going to the local Police Department, among other accusations.
Jackson Gatlin was fired from his position with the church in mid-February 2023 and was not allowed back on the church campus. Michael Gatlin resigned as senior pastor at Duluth Vineyard and from various positions and the board tied to the church in February 2023. He had been with the church for two years. Brenda Gatlin, who was a super regional leader for Vineyard USA, resigned soon after.
As a church community, we face a heartbreaking and very serious situation. Our former pastoral assistant (Jackson Gatlin) has pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct. Five criminal complaints were filed against him. We have also received an independent investigation report from Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) finding extensive abuse by both Jackson Gatlin and our former senior pastors (Michael and Brenda Gatlin). These findings include sexual misconduct, cover up, abuse of pastoral or spiritual power, and emotional abuse. Civil lawsuits have also been filed against Jackson, Michael, Brenda, Duluth Vineyard, and Vineyard USA.
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.
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.
Timothy Brown, a volunteer youth worker at Frederick Boulevard Baptist Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, was convicted last Wednesday of statutory sodomy, enticement or attempted enticement of a child, third-degree child molestation, and sexual misconduct involving a child under 15 years old. The victim was twelve.
A St. Joseph, Mo. man was found guilty on four felony counts of child molestation and sodomy Wednesday that only took a 12-person jury two hours to decide.
Timothy Brown was found guilty of statutory sodomy, enticement or attempted enticement of a child, third-degree child molestation, and sexual misconduct involving a child under 15-years-old.
Brown faced the felony charges stemming from an inappropriate relationship he had with a 12-year-old girl from May to November of 2019. At that time, Brown was a volunteer with the youth group at Frederick Boulevard Baptist Church in St. Joseph.
The 17-year-old victim, who was 12 when the abuse happened, took the stand Tuesday in which she outlined the details of the sexual abuse Brown inflicted on her.
The victim testified that Brown had touched her and exposed himself to her on multiple occasions.
She journaled the entire experience and the journal was presented as evidence in court.
Police also presented the court with photos of teenage girls found in his phone and a previous alleged victim from Indiana in the late 1990s.
A former Frederick Boulevard Baptist pastor testified that Brown applied to be the youth pastor in the early 2010s but could not be considered due to an allegation against him in Nebraska from years earlier. Despite the allegation, Brown was allowed to volunteer with the youth group at the church.
In closing arguments Wednesday morning, the state presented the victim deserved to be heard. They said she was honest and credible throughout the entire process.
The defense presented that this was a case of “she said…” and that the church had no complaints against Brown before the abuse happened.
Brown showed no emotion when the verdict was read while members of his family broke down in tears.
The victim and her family breathed a sigh of relief and the parents did send KQ2 a written note that said “Today justice has brought a new beginning for our daughter and others like her.”
And for the church? They knew of at least one previous sexual misconduct allegation against Brown. What did they do? The church allowed Brown to be a youth group volunteer.
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.
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.
Charles Sulivant, a member in good standing at Shawnee First Church of the Nazarene in Shawnee, Oklahoma, stands accused of sexually abusing several church children and preying on others over the years. Worse, two pastors, Johnny Stephens, the pastor at Shawnee First, and Drew Dinnel, a pastor at a youth camp, knew of the allegations against Sulivant and initially did nothing, as did retired District Superintendent Terry Rowland. Stephens pastored Shawnee First for over twenty years. Dinnel is the pastor of Muskogee Church in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Dinnel texted me and stated he first contacted the parents, asking them to contact law enforcement, went to his superiors who pressured him not to report the alleged crime, and later reported it himself. Dinnel, however, had a legal responsibility to immediately report the crime. Kudos for reporting it, but he should have done so without delay. It was not up to the parents or Dinnel’s superiors to decide the validity of the allegation. That role belongs to law enforcement. (Dinnel told me about 24 hours elapsed from knowledge of the allegation to reporting it.) All three so-called men of God should investigated, and, if warranted, disciplined, excommunicated, or charged with a crime. The only way to give teeth to mandatory reporting laws is to hold clerics responsible when they fail to do so.
According to police records 91-year-old Charles Sulivant had been allegedly molesting young girls, and several pastors at the time knew, but didn’t call police.
“I talked to the parents,” said Johnny Stephens who had been the pastor at the time of the alleged abuse. He was one of the pastors at the time who didn’t call the police, News 4 confronted Stephens Thursday.
Documents showed that one victim’s mother reported the alleged abuse her daughter (who was 16 years old at the time) experienced in 2016.
However, charges weren’t officially filed and interviews weren’t conducted until this year. Five other victims were revealed after the original victim came forward.
Their interviews were conducted over the summer while the crimes were alleged to have happened before 2016.
In one of the cases, documents allege Sullivant lured a nine-year-old girl to his truck in the church parking lot, promising a gift. There he reportedly touched her inappropriately, kissed her, and tried to “get under her clothes.”
That victim, it said, went to her pastor at the time Stephens. Police were not called.
Records said that the Nazarene District Superintendent at the time Terry Rowland was told. Still, he allegedly told the girl that a family member of hers would lose their minister’s license if it were pursued further, so it seemed like it wasn’t.
Another victim told police that when she was twelve years old Sulivant allegedly molested her and tried kissing her on the mouth saying, “I could go for a girl like you.” Police weren’t called after that, reportedly.
Another victim said she was fourteen years old and said when he molested her she was able to elbow him in the groin and get away.
Pastor Stephens was told and she said he told her she was a “bad kid” and that people wouldn’t believe her. She also said he allegedly told her that a family member could lose their job at the church.
Several other victims had interviewed with police with similar stories.
Documents stated that a different pastor at the time [at a youth camp], Drew Dinnel, had heard about two victims at least and told the superintendent at the time Rowland. However, Rowland allegedly tried telling Dinnel to not report it, and to leave it up to the girls’ families to report it.
Dinnel is said to be the lead pastor at Muskogee Church of the Nazarene. He didn’t call News 4 back when reached out for comment.
Sulivant was brought in by Shawnee Police for an interview where he confessed to much of it and said, “You know, I had forgotten all about this.”
When told that the girls didn’t forget, he said, “Well all I can say is I’m sorry about it. We all do a lot of stupid things and this was one of them.”
Even though he seemingly confessed when brought into the department in August, he wasn’t booked into jail until November 5.
News 4 confronted former Pastor Stephens, who said he had since retired as pastor of the church. [The church’s website still lists him as employed by the church.]
People are going to say that Sulivant should have been taken out of the church completely.What do you think?
“Well, I’m not going to excommunicate somebody,” said Stephens.
Why? Even if they’re molesting little girls?
“Well, I need to find out. That’s why I wanted her mother and dad to talk to him and they did. They assured me that they talked to him and things were okay. So, you know every part of it is redemptive. I was trying to redeem Charles,” said Stephens.
But you failed, right? Four or five girls possibly getting molested by this gentleman.
“Did he? Did they?” Asked Stephens. “I tried my best to watch him.”
What would you do if you could go back in time? Actually, call the police?
“What would I do, police, yeah,” said Stephens.
And not let him back into the church?
“No, no. Let him in church,” said Stephens.
Even after he molests girls?
“I’m thinking if I had to do it all over again then yeah. I would have probably called the police. But I was trying to redeem him,” said Stephens. “I was just at the moment trying to figure it all out. So that’s what I did. Maybe it was wrong.”
Maybe?
“I don’t doubt that it was wrong,” said Stephens.
Sulivant posted bond pretty soon after he was booked in Pottawatomie County Jail. News 4 confronted him at his home in Macomb where he denied an interview.
He is charged with three counts of Lewd Acts with a child under 16 and two counts of Sexual Battery.
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.
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.
Ifor Whittaker, a former priest at St John The Baptist Church in Sedlescombe, East Sussex, England, and a serial sexual predator, was sentenced to life in prison after admitting to raping a six-year-old boy in the vestry of the church.
A former Anglican vicar who admitted raping a child in his parish has been jailed for life with a minimum term of eight years.
Ifor Whittaker, 80, admitted rape and gross indecency of a boy in the vestry of St John the Baptist Church in Sedlescombe, East Sussex, where he served as a priest at the time under the name of Colin Pritchard.
The offences are reported to have taken place during the late 1990s when the victim was a young child.
Judge Gary Lucie said Whittaker had baptised him, and that the victim was often left in his care.
He told Whittaker: “You told him… it would be your little secret. Even now he still suffers with mental health issues and had flashbacks.
“There are, in my opinion, serious concerns that you remain a danger to young children,” the judge said.
“You are a predatory paedophile, I doubt that you will ever cease to be a danger to young boys.”
Whittaker was sentenced on Tuesday at Hove Crown Court.
In 2018, Whittaker was jailed for 16 years for sexually abusing a boy and conspiring with another priest to abuse the child.
At the time of that sentencing, the judge said the abuser had “plied the victim with alcohol” and “emotionally blackmailed the boy by saying ‘no one would believe you over a priest'”.
He had previously been jailed for five years in 2008 for the abuse of two children in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, between 1979 and 1983.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of Chichester said its safeguarding team had worked closely with Sussex Police on the case since it was reported.
They said the sentence reflected “the terrible nature of his crimes”.
“The victim in this case has shown extraordinary courage in coming forward to report Whittaker’s crimes,” they added.
“We apologise unreservedly to him for the appalling abuse he suffered.”
Sussex Police Det Con Nicky Beard said: “Ifor Whittaker is a predator who used his position of trust in the community to rape and sexually abuse young children.”
One of the survivors of Whittaker’s abuse, Phil Johnson, present at the sentencing, said the judge’s move felt like “moral justice” to hand down a life sentence, as the impact on victims is lifelong.
“I think this is a really powerful message, because in nearly 30 years of being involved in cases like this, I’ve never heard of a life sentence being handed down in this way before,” he said.
The 59-year-old who runs support groups for adult survivors of child sexual abuse said it sends a powerful signal to other victims that there is hope and to abusers that this could happen to them too.
But Mr Johnson, who has waived his right to lifetime anonymity, said he first reported Whittaker to authorities several years before the abuse he was sentenced for on Tuesday took place.
“Had the police and the church taken these allegations more seriously, this offence wouldn’t have happened. Whittaker wasn’t even suspended from his job whilst he was on police bail. That’s just utterly appalling.
“Thankfully, things have changed and improved since then, but it’s been a long and hard battle.”
In a message to other survivors of abuse, he added: “I would encourage other victims and survivors to come forward and speak about their abuse, because it’s only by doing that that we can prevent these things happening in the future.
“I would encourage people to get support. Talk about it. The more you talk about it, the easier it gets.”
Sussex Police said the initial investigation into Whittaker did not result in a conviction and the force recognises the impact this had on the victim of that investigation.
“We have made significant improvements to how sex offences are understood and investigated in the intervening years and remain fully committed to bringing offenders to justice,” a spokesman said.
Speaking outside of court, Sussex Police investigating officer Nicky Beard urged other victims of sexual offending to report it to the police, adding: “We will listen to you.”
Reacting to the sentencing, she said: “The victim has lived with the impact of this abuse for all his life, most of his life, and he’s shown so much courage to come forward and report him, to help us to get justice for him.
“I hope this outcome can finally give him closure, and Whittaker spends most of it, if not the rest of his life, behind bars.”
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.
