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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Youth Pastor Robert Wyatt Convicted of Sexual Assaulting Church Girl

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Robert Wyatt, youth pastor at Agape Bible Church in Thornton, Colorado, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting church girl.

Fox 31 reports:

A former assistant pastor was sentenced to 13 years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting a girl that initially was covered up by church leaders and the girl’s father, the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said.

Robert Wyatt, 51, repeatedly sexually assaulted the now-15-year-old girl whose family attended Agape Bible Church in Thornton, prosecutors said.

Wyatt gained trust from the girl and her parents, and got access by home-schooling her in his residence.

The girl told investigators the inappropriate touching started when she was 12 and had been going on for nearly two years.

In March 2016, Wyatt offered to take the girl on a field trip but instead they went to a hotel where he sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.

“Mr. Wyatt describes this as a ‘stupid decision’ but this wasn’t a mistake. He saw he could manipulate the victim and her family. It was a calculated, methodical decision by the defendant to take advantage of this young girl,” senior deputy district attorney Patrick Freeman said.

“He is a sexual predator.”

Church leaders and the girl’s father tried to keep Wyatt’s crimes from being reported to police.

“Those who attempted to hide him from justice share blame,” Freeman said.

“You were in a position of trust with the church and as her teacher,” Adams County District Judge Don Quick told Wyatt at the sentencing hearing.

“You preyed on her emotional and physical vulnerabilities. Over and over again you planned how to groom her so that you could commit these acts. You took advantage not just of her body but her heart, telling her that you loved her.”

Quick was also critical of church leaders and the girl’s father for how they shifted blame to her and trying to handle things internally.

“I’m still shocked at how certain adults responded to this,” Quick said. “She didn’t put him in prison. He put himself in prison.”

Wyatt pleaded guilty in July to attempted first-degree assault and sexual assault on a child.

He was charged last year with one count of sexual assault on a child, one count of sexual assault on a child as a pattern of conduct and one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.

In September 2016, Fox 31 reported:

Police documents and former congregation members allege that Agape’s head pastor, Darrell Ferguson, knew about the allegations in July and refused to go to police.

A 16-page arrest affidavit describes evidence that Ferguson knew about the allegations by July 21, when Wyatt reportedly confessed the crime to the girl’s parents.

“Ultimately, Darrell and [the girl’s parents] agreed to not report the sexual assault to the police or social services because they were concerned with what would happen to Bob,” the affidavit alleges.

It is important to know when Ferguson found out about the alleged abuse because in certain circumstances, if a member of the clergy knows about child abuse and does not report it, it might be a crime.

The Problem Solvers pressed Ferguson on the issue. In a recorded phone conversation, he said he didn’t report it earlier to police or the congregation because “the sexual assault on a child, that wasn’t known until the arrest.”

Wyatt stepped down from his leadership position on July 21 and remained at Agape as a member of the congregation until his arrest.

On Tuesday, Ferguson was asked, “You’re saying you, as church leaders didn’t know that it was sexual assault against a child?”

Ferguson replied, “The, uh, the eldership, let’s see I’m just now getting on the highway here. The eldership, you’re asking when the eldership, when the leadership of the church discovered that it was sexual assault on a child?

“That happened the day of the arrest. That’s when that came out.”

Over the weekend, Ferguson sent a letter to the congregation apologizing for making what he describes as misleading statements.

“Dear Agape,
In my phone conversation with the reporter from FOX31, when I answered her question about when the leadership knew, I said it was when the arrest was made. I began my sentence with “The other elders … but that part was edited out.”

FOX31 edited Ferguson’s response for time in the story that aired. In no part of the interview did he specify he was talking about the other church leaders, excluding himself.

Since Ferguson is the head pastor at Agape, it was FOX31’s understanding that when Ferguson was asked “When did you as church leaders know?” Ferguson’s response was referring to himself too.

The rest of Ferguson’s letter to the congregation goes on to support FOX31’s interpretation of his answer:

“I did not intend to deceive her — I just wanted to make the point that the other elders did not know until the arrest. Nevertheless, I do think what I said was wrong. I knew she wanted to know when I found out, and I had been advised by our lawyer not to discuss that in the press, so I got flustered and just tried to divert to something I did want to talk about rather than answer her question. This was wrong, and it ended up being very misleading.”

Ferguson sent a separate statement to FOX31 over the weekend clarifying that he knew about the accusations of abuse before the other church leaders. He also said that under Colorado law, he does not believe that he had an obligation to report the suspected crime to police.

The full statement reads:

“Regarding the Bob Wyatt matter, it is very important to us at Agape Bible Church that all of our communications be completely accurate. To be clear, the statement about first becoming aware of the allegation on Monday applies to the other elders, but not to Pastor Ferguson, who did have prior knowledge. Also, it turns out the other elders actually became aware of the allegation of sexual abuse the day before the arrest.

It is not true that there was collusion with the father to withhold the information. The things that were said to Darrell by the family in confidential pastoral contexts in July were kept in confidence as required by Colorado law (C.R.S. 19-3-304 II and C.R.S. 13-90-107 (1) (c)). Any information that came to Mr. Ferguson outside of those confidential contexts was reported by Mr. Ferguson to the Child Abuse Hotline (report #667944).”

 

Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest Robert Lott Sexually Abused Boy Repeatedly

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The late Robert Lott, a Catholic priest, abused a boy repeatedly between 1975 and 1985. The Archdiocese of New York recently paid out a $500,00 settlement to Stephen Ryan-Vuotto, one of Lott’s victims.

Sharon Otterman, a reporter for the New York Times, writes:

Stephen Ryan-Vuotto was 14 and had recently lost his father to lung cancer when a priest in his Greenwich Village parish began inviting him to sleep over at the rectory. His mother was happy, he recalled, because she revered priests.

In particular, she loved the Rev. Robert V. Lott, the man who had befriended her son. He had ministered to the boy’s dying father, and was starting charitable organizations. Before his death in 2002, Father Lott’s reputation grew, as he led an effort to build hundreds of low-income housing units in East Harlem. To this day, an assisted living center, a home health care organization, a community development corporation and a charitable foundation in East Harlem are named for him.

But those nights at the rectory were not innocent. In August, Mr. Ryan-Vuotto was awarded a $500,000 settlement for sexual abuse by Father Lott. The money was from a program being run by the Archdiocese of New York to compensate those sexually abused by priests. In an interview, Mr. Ryan-Vuotto said he was abused more than 50 times between 1975 and 1985, in acts ranging from fondling to sodomy. But he kept silent, in part because after the abuse ended, he became a priest.

Mr. Ryan-Vuotto, who was known as Father Ryan for nearly 20 years, is one of 181 victims who have been awarded settlements by the New York Archdiocese for sexual abuse by priests or deacons in claims reaching back to the 1950s. The deadline for victims to apply is Wednesday.

Mr. Ryan-Vuotto spoke about his abuse on Thursday, and plans to hold a news conference on Monday to encourage more victims to step forward. By going public, he becomes one of only a handful of Roman Catholic priests nationally who have spoken about their own clergy sexual abuse. He is also the first person to name Father Lott as an abuser, forcing a reassessment of a man some called a saint.

This is not a happy day for me, and I’m not thrilled about it,” said Mr. Ryan-Vuotto, 55, who lives in the Albany area and works at a college convenience store. “But it is something I had to do from the deepest core of my being. If I’m going to be transparent and honest and expect that of others, then I need to do it.”

“I believe, I truly believe,” he added, “that although it is going to sully the name of someone a lot of people look up to, it’s truthful. And in the Bible, it says, the truth will set you free.”

Most victims of childhood sexual abuse in New York State have been unable to sue or file charges against their abusers because the statute of limitations requires that they report the abuse before age 23. Most victims are unable to come forward until they are older because of the trauma, psychologists say.

….

 

Father Lott was his mentor as he joined the priesthood, and also his family priest, officiating over the marriages of his siblings and the funerals of his grandmothers.

Mr. Ryan-Vuotto said it wasn’t until he entered the seminary in 1987 that he began the process of overcoming what had happened.

As part of his therapy, he confronted Father Lott in the early 1990s. Father Lott, who was then pastor of St. Francis de Sales parish in Manhattan, didn’t even look up from his desk, he said. “You know, I always cared very deeply for you, and I never meant to hurt you,” he recalled Father Lott saying.

Mr. Ryan-Vuotto was a priest for 18 years, his last post as pastor of St. Rita’s Church on Staten Island. In 2008, he petitioned for a leave of absence, telling the chancery that he was questioning his vocation because of his own sexual abuse.

After leaving the ministry, he met the man who would become his husband, Michael Vuotto, moved to the Albany area and joined the Episcopal Church. He received no pension, and his priest friends cut ties with him, presumably to avoid association with his gay marriage. He had to start over. “The church was everything to me,” he said.

….

Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer portrayed in the movie “Spotlight,” represented Mr. Ryan-Vuotto. He called for all posthumous honors to be stripped from Father Lott and the other accused priests.

“The reputation of Father Lott should be reflected to show that he was a pure predator who preyed upon an innocent child by repeatedly sexually abusing that child over the course of years,” he said. “It is not unusual for the Catholic Church to put up buildings in the names of predator priests, and supervisors who allowed predatory activity to take place.”

In East Harlem, the executives of the Lott Community Development Corporation, Lott Residence, Lott Community Home Healthcare, and Lott Foundation were grappling Friday with the news that their namesake had been named a sexual predator.

“The boards and executive leadership of the Lott organizations need time to digest this news and reflect on the question of whether we should rename our organizations, [ YOU HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THIS?] ” the organizations said in a statement.

Lott died in 2002. His paid New York Times obituary stated:

Reverend Robert V. 1939-2002. Father Lott was a visionary who saw outside of normal boundaries. He dedicated his life to teaching others to help themselves and their communities. Driven by the social gospel to serve those in need, he was a vigorous advocate for programs benefiting the elderly, and a prolific developer of low-income housing. Father Lott asked others to reach for goals that would intimidate most, and his sermons and liturgies inspired those around him to put God’s words into action. Born in the Bronx on November 23, 1939, Father Lott was raised in St. Frances of Rome Parish in Wakefield. He studied at All Hallows High School, and graduated from Iona College. Shortly after, he entered St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie and was ordained on May 29, 1965. After ordination, he pursued advanced studies in Liturgy and earned a Master’s Degree in Sacred Scripture. His first assignment was at St. John the Evangelist in White Plains, where he worked with the New York Apostolate for the Deaf. Father Lott served as Assistant Pastor of St. Peter’s in Yonkers and St. Joseph’s of Greenwich Village. While at St. Joseph’s, he co-founded and served as Chairman of the Caring Community, and he led that organization in the purchase of Village Nursing Home. Father Lott was a former member of Planning Board II, and the co-founder and former Chairman of The Council of Senior Centers and Services. He was appointed Pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish on East 96th Street in July of 1987, and Administrator of St. Lucy’s Parish in 1998. At the former, he operated a soup kitchen and a shelter for the homeless. During the past fifteen years, he founded and served as Chairman of the Board and President of the SFDS Development Corporation. Through that not-forprofit organization, he developed over 700 low-income housing units in East Harlem ranging from housing for the homeless to a model assisted living facility for the elderly on Fifth Avenue. The Caring Community, Presbyterian Homes, and Village Care of New York have all honored him as Man of the Year. Last year he was presented with the Maggie Kuhn Award. Donations may be made to the The Reverend Robert V. Lott Memorial Fund, c/o SFDS Development Corporation, 1261 Fifth Ave., New York, NY, 10029.

LOTT-Rev. Robert V. Died February 27, 2002. The son of the late Margaret and Robert Lott. Survived by his aunt Emily LaFleur, and his cousins Joan Kliemisch, Barbara DiFiore, and Catherine Lewis. The Pastor of the Church of St. Francis deSales on East 96th St, and Administrator of the Church of St. Lucy on East 104th St, Chairman of the Board and President of the SFDS Development Corporation. Father Lott was a vigorous community advocate dedicated to elderly and low income persons in need of housing. His body will lie in state in the Church of St. Francis deSales on Friday beginning at 10:30 A.M. A Eucharist will be celebrated on Friday at 7:30 P.M. The Funeral Liturgy will be prayed at 10 AM on Saturday, March 2. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Robert V. Lott Memorial Fund, c/o SFDS Development Corp., 1261 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10029.

LOTT-Rev. Robert V. The Board of Directors, staff and volunteers of The Burden Center for The Aging note with profound sorrow the passing of Rev. Robert V. Lott. He was a good friend and generous colleague. His passion for helping others informed all his work as demonstrated through his exceptional leadership. We were fortunate that he served as executive director of Volunteer Services for the Elderly of Yorkville before its merger with the Burden Center. His compassion and vision helped set high standards for excellence. We will miss his gracious counsel and wonderful humor. Our heartfelt sympathy is extended to his family and to all the staff and parishioners of St. Francis deSales Church. Ellsworth G. Stanton III Chairman, Board of Directors William J. Dionne Executive Director

LOTT-Reverend Robert V. The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty mourns the passing of our dear friend Father Lott, a pioneer in caring for people in need. Merryl H. Tisch, President Joseph C. Shenker, Pres-Elect William E. Rapfogel Executive Director

LOTT-Rev. Robert V. Bob was a great and good friend and we will treasure our memory of him. Rose Dobrof, Pasquale Gilberto

Black Collar Crime: Indian Pastor Gideon Jacob Arrested in Child Trafficking Investigation

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pastor gideon jacob

Pastor Gideon Jacob, operator of the Moses Ministries Home in Tiruchirappalli, India, stands accused of child trafficking.

The Tribune India reports:

Tamil Nadu police have arrested a pastor accused of trafficking girls through a Christian-run orphanage that was taken over by authorities two years ago during an investigation into the unregistered children’s home.

Police said they arrested Pastor Gideon Jacob on Saturday after he arrived from Germany and he has been charged under trafficking and juvenile justice laws.

Denying the allegations, Jacob’s lawyer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that his client had voluntarily appeared before the police and was cooperating with the investigation.

The Moses Ministries home in Tiruchy, run by Germany-based Christian Initiative for India that was founded by Jacob in 1989, housed 89 children, all said to have been rescued from female infanticide from Usilampatti in neighbouring Madurai.

However, the home had no proper records of the children, all of whom are now aged 18 years and above.

In December 2015, the home was taken over by the social welfare department after a court directive.

A wave of claims by people saying they were the children’s parents prompted a local court to rule that all the children should undergo DNA testing to establish their real families.

In 2016, DNA results showed at least 32 matches. None of the girls, however, have yet been reunited with their families.

“We have been counselling the girls, who have known no other life since they were babies,” said Tiruchy district head Kuppanna Gounder Rajamani.

“We have also identified the parents willing to take back their daughters and, following Saturday’s arrest, things will move faster and we are hoping to reunite the girls soon.” More than 40 per cent of human trafficking cases in India in 2015 involved children being bought, sold and exploited as modern-day slaves, according to government crime data.

There has been a recent spate of reports of the trafficking of infants and children for adoption and raising funds through charity-run child homes and private hospitals.

In Tamil Nadu, state authorities closed 500 homes between 2011 and 2016, citing mismanagement, a lack of registration and misconduct.

Rights groups have long complained that children’s homes in India are poorly regulated, not inspected often enough, and that many privately-run institutions are able to operate without a license leaving thousands of children open to abuse.

“The arrest gives us hope that there will be justice,” said A. Narayanan, the director of advocacy group Change India, who outlined the scope of the problem in a petition filed in Chennai’s High Court.

“The real worry is when and how these girls will be rehabilitated. Right now, it seems like a life sentence, where they are resigned to live in an institutional home.”

The Express UK reports:

More than 40 per cent of human trafficking cases in India in 2015 involved children being bought, sold and exploited as modern-day slaves, according to government crime data.

There has been a recent spate of reports of the trafficking of infants and children for adoption and raising funds through charity-run child homes and private hospitals.

In Tamil Nadu, state authorities closed 500 homes between 2011 and 2016, citing mismanagement, a lack of registration and misconduct.

The Gospel Herald reports:

The investigation began after two interns from Chennai-based NGO CHANGEindia visited a few unregistered children’s homes in 2015 to gather evidence for a High Court petition on illegal childcare institutions. The interns, Vikas Christy and Babi Christina, reportedly walked into Mose Ministries and spoke to the inmates for three hours.

“It was surprising; they were all around the same age,” Christy told the Hindu. “All the girls said they had been rescued from female infanticide.”

She added, “They were brought up in an unhygienic, isolated environment, without counsellors, or mentors. The older girls took care of the younger ones; they cooked, cleaned and did domestic chores. No local person, except the Pastor’s friends, ever visited. They were forcibly involved in prayer and groomed for evangelist work.”

According to Reuters, a number of people have since stepped forward claiming to be the children’s parents. In 2016, DNA results showed at least 32 matches, but none of the girls have yet been reunited with their families.

“We have been counselling the girls, who have known no other life since they were babies,” said Tiruchy district head Kuppanna Gounder Rajamani. “We have also identified the parents willing to take back their daughters and, following Saturday’s arrest, things will move faster and we are hoping to reunite the girls soon.”

Speaking to ChristianToday in 2015, Pastor Jacob claimed strongly denied the allegations, which he said were motivated by Hindu nationalists. He argued that the children had all been brought to the orphanage as an alternative to infanticide, thus explaining the lack of records.

“When you bring a baby to give her away you are committing a crime for which you can be imprisoned,” he said. “If you give away your child you aren’t going to give your telephone number.”

He added, “I don’t know what lies in the future, but God can do the impossible.”

….

Black Collar Crime: Sound-Light Tech Lance Davis Accused of Molesting Girl at C2G Ministries Music Hall

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lance davis

Lawrence “Lance” Davis, a sound-light tech at C2G Ministries Music Hall (Come2Go Ministries) in Fort Wayne,Indiana, has been charged with molesting a girl from the age of five through age eighteen.

Jamie Duffy, a writer for the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, reports:

Sixteen felony charges of child molesting and related misconduct have been filed against a 47-year-old local sound and light technician whose victim said she endured years of abuse before she finally went to police when she was 18 years old.

Lawrence M. Davis, also known as Lance Davis, of the 300 block of Third Street, started abusing the young girl when she was 5 by performing a sex act on her, according to court documents. He also showed her some porn during the first incident, a practice he continued over the next 13 years.

The pornography included what the victim referred to as “normal pornography” in magazines and photos from Davis’ “Porn Bucket,” and some that included animals and nude children. When she was older, the victim said she was shown pornography on a computer, according to court documents.

When she was 13 or 14, Davis gave her cigarettes and fruity alcoholic beverages, and the two would smoke Spice, a synthetic marijuana, together. The sexual demands became greater and more varied, eventually including eating feces, the victim said in court documents.

When she balked at his demands or asked him why he abused her, Davis used various lines: “I am doing this because I trust you; I love you,” and “If you tell anyone they’ll get jealous and that would make me mad.” At other times, he would tell her he’d kill her if she told anyone.

Court documents said her mother was uncooperative when questioned. An older relative said she was uncomfortable with the way he spoke to the victim, as if he were a lover.

Some of the abuse allegedly took place at Come2Go Music Hall, or C2G Ministries Music Hall, in the green room, the men’s bathroom and the tech room, the victim said. Davis was a subcontractor working light, sound and music tech, according to Pastor Brian Spahr, court documents said.

The pastor said the victim had made a disclosure to church staff about Davis sexually molesting her and the church staff encouraged her to file a police report [REALLY? SHOULDN’T THE STAFF HAVE IMMEDIATELY CALLED THE POLICE?], court documents said. She went to the police in March and an ensuing investigation resulted in the felony charges against Davis.

Those charges include child molesting – intercourse or deviate sex with a victim younger than 14; sexual misconduct with a minor; child seduction as a guardian, adoptive parent, adoptive grandparent or custodian; two counts of dissemination of matter harmful to minors; and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

….

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Ermonte Moliere Arrested During Prostitution Sting

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Ermonte Moliere, pastor of First Haitian Community Church in Houston,Texas, was arrested during a ten-day sting at a massage-parlor-turned-brothel.

The Beaumont Enterprise reports:

The Houston Police Department (HPD) arrested at least 140 men in a 10-day sting at a massage-parlor-turned-brothel on Westheimer.

Among the men arrested was Emonte Moliere, whom the First Haitian Community Church lists as the senior pastor.

Public records and the arrest complaint obtained by Chron.com match the same address for Moliere and his wife.

The records also show that other than a minor traffic infraction, Moliere has no prior criminal history.

Moliere’s church bio states:

Ermonte Moliere was born on October 19, 1976, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. His father Raoul Moliere and mother Marie Fanfan Mercile together conceived five children. Pastor Ermonte Moliere has served diligently in ministry since his childhood. He was baptized at the age of 18 and two years later, he enrolled as a Sunday school teacher at “Mission de l’Eglise Evangelique Communautaire de Santo”. Empowered with God’s anointing, he helped people in his community to serve God and experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s power through redemption.

In 1997 Pastor Moliere graduated from high school at Lycée Alexandre Pétion and continued his studies in the sciences of Agronomy where he earned a license in management of natural resources in 2003 from “Université Caraibe”. 2 years later Pastor Ermonte Moliere married *****, and they now share joy in their two lovely daughters: ***** and **** and son ****.

Pastor Moliere graduated from the Theological School of Boulvard on October 15, 2004 located in Tabarre, Port-au-Prince, Haiti where he studied Theology. After working for 5 years for the “Conseil National de Financement Populaire, (CNFP)” he travelled to Fort Myers, Florida, in January 2010 to rejoined his wife. Once arrived in Fort Myers, Florida he started preaching the Word of God to his people. In late 2010, with Cenel Benel, he founded the church “Riocher de Delivrance” at Fort Myers, Florida.

Pastor Ermonte Moliere is committed to winning souls for Jesus-Christ and uses preaching, and formation to provide God’s Word to help people understand how important it is to have Christ in their life. His ministry is based in the scriptures “God has saved us through his only Son Jesus-Christ who accepted to give his life on the cross for our sins”, this is how we know what love is when Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”, John 10:11.

While he was collaborating and serving people, the people at the Church of Rock deliverance, He had a vision of God, in which God asked him to go to Houston, Texas to work in a ministry he reserved for him. Pastor Ermonte Moliere and his family accepted to travel to Houston, Texas where they did not have any family members, but God has planned everything because he gave the vison. When God gives vision, he provides means for it.

After 3 years of ministry in different churches in Houston, Texas God guided Pastor Moliere through the ministry he has prepared for him. He is now the Senior Pastor of First Haitian Community Church, an assembly where the people are dedicated to serve God and help spread his words according to Mark 16.15-16. Pastor Moliere’s emphasis on the need for spiritual growth and development through the teaching of God’s Word, has resulted in dramatically increased attendance at Bible Study and Sunday School. In addition, the Church School curriculum has been expanded to accommodate the participation of all age groups of the Church.

You can read more about this story here and here.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Keith Haskell Accused of Impersonating a Police Officer and Assault

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pastor keith haskell

Keith Haskell, pastor of Bridges of Hope Community Church in Owatonna, Minnesota, has been charged with five counts of misdemeanor fifth degree assault, impersonating a peace officer, and felony use of tear gas to immobilize.

CBS-Minnesota reports:

A pastor in southern Minnesota is facing charges for pretending to be a police officer and pepper spraying a teenager he caught shoplifting.

Keith Douglas Haskell, 55, faces five counts of misdemeanor fifth degree assault, in addition to the charge or impersonating a peace officer and felony use of tear gas to immobilize.

“I think he got what he deserves,” said Abraam Rodriguez, one of the teenagers at the center of the case.

Rodriguez said on Sept. 4, he and his cousin went to the Cash Wise grocery store. He admits his cousin shoplifted about $10 in snacks. In the documents, Haskell told officers he saw the teenagers grab cereal and fruit snacks without paying. He said he went outside to write down their license plate, then followed them when they left.

Rodriquez said he pulled his SUV into a nearby apartment parking lot because he didn’t want Haskell to know exactly where he lived.

According to the court documents, witnesses who live near the scene told investigators they could hear Haskell identifying himself out loud as a police officer and trying to pull the teenagers out of the SUV. Haskell is a pastor at Bridges of Hope Community Church.

“He’s like, ‘Put your hands up, put your hands up, I’m a cop. I need you to get out the vehicle,’” Rodriguez said.

In the documents, Rodriguez told officers his cousin swung at Haskell because the pastor aggressively pulled him out of the SUV. Haskell said he then pepper sprayed the teenager in self-defense.

When his cousin ran off, Rodriguez said he stayed put in the driver’s seat.

“I thought he was a police officer, that’s why I didn’t do anything,” Rodriguez said. “I’m not going to not follow orders of a cop.”

In the documents, Rodriguez told investigators that Haskell took his car keys from him and tried to take his cell phone away. Rodriguez was on the phone with him mom to call for help when he said he was pulled out of the SUV by Haskell.

When his mother came outside, she told officers at the scene Haskell had her son pinned up against the SUV. In the documents, Haskell admitted to police he was holding a baton at the time. He told officers that he told the teens he was trying to make a citizen’s arrest.

“I was actually pretty scared because if he was a cop and you see all those videos of cops, police brutality and stuff,” Rodriguez said.

Police took a can of pepper spray and a baton as evidence. When asked for a comment, Haskell referred WCCO to his attorney, Chris Ritts, who released a statement saying: “The police investigation is absurd and flawed. My client was the victim. We will fight these allegations in the courts.”

….

In an article titled, What Would Jesus Do to a Teenage Shoplifter, the City Pages reports:

Probably not what Keith Haskell is accused of doing. Haskell, 55, and a pastor at Bridges of Hope Community Church in Owatonna, faces numerous criminal charges for his ham-fisted attempt at vigilante justice against two criminals.

The perps in question? Two teenage boys, one of whom was trying to shoplift $10 worth of snacks from a Cash Wise grocery store.

The incident occurred on September 4, WCCO reports, when Haskell spotted the shoplifter pocket “cereal and fruit snacks without paying.” According to the Steele County Attorney criminal complaint against Haskell, the pastor went out to the parking lot to take down the license plate of the teens’ vehicle.

Haskell also followed the teenagers, who pulled into the parking lot of an apartment building, at which point Haskell approached, identified himself as a police officer, and told them to put their hands up. According to Abraam Rodriguez, one of the two boys involved, Haskell roughly grabbed for his cousin, the one who’d stolen the snacks.

The boy took a swing at Haskell, who responded by pepper-spraying him before he ran off. Haskell says he used the pepper-spray in self defense, but he’s facing a charge of unlawfully using of tear gas, a felony.

By that time, Rodriguez had used his cellphone called his mom for help. When she arrived, she found Haskell, who was holding a baton, had pinned Abraam against his SUV. Haskell would later tell police he was merely trying to execute a citizen’s arrest of the teenager.

Rodriguez, for his part, says he wishes Haskell had done the easier thing and called the actual cops.

“If I were to be in his shoes or whatever, I wouldn’t chase after people that stole candy from a store,” Rodriguez told WCCO.

Haskell faces five counts of misdemeanor assault, one of impersonating a peace officer, plus the felony tear gas charge. Haskell is due in court November 30. His defense attorney Chris Ritts told the station the charges have the whole situation flipped around.

“The police investigation is absurd and flawed,” Ritts says. “My client was the victim.”

Black Collar Crime: Church Chief Financial Officer Nikki Shelton Accused of Stealing $78,000

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theft cartoon

Nikki Shelton, the chief financial officer of Bethlehem First United Methodist Church in Bethlehem, Georgia, stand accused of embezzling $78,000 from the church.

Fox-5 reports:

A Loganville woman was arrested in Barrow County for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars from her church in Bethlehem.

The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office said 28-year-old Nikki Shelton was writing checks to herself from various accounts of the Bethlehem First United Methodist Church.

Church members were emotionally broadsided to learn Shelton, the church’s Chief Financial Officer, had been arrested for allegedly stealing approximately $80,000 from the church.

“Well, I’m concerned, anyone would be. It’s a lot of money,” said church member Bonnie Deal.

Deal and others headed to choir practice Wednesday night were surprised and disheartened to learn of the arrest of Shelton.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said church leaders contacted him about a week and a half ago after finding financial discrepancies.

“What we have confirmed is she was simply writing checks to herself out of the accounts,” said Sheriff Smith.

The sheriff said his investigation revealed Shelton had been writing checks to herself for about 13 months.

“Easily. You do a thousand dollars at a time you could do it at $78,000 if that’s the case,” said Sheriff Smith.

The sheriff said Shelton is facing 78 counts of theft by taking, one count for each check written.

Most church members were reluctant to speak. Others in Bethlehem, which has its Prayer Mile and Christmas themed streets, wondered about the loss of trust.

“It’s sad you can’t trust somebody in charge of a church,” said Alan Heath who works at the Big H store near the church.

“They probably all know her and they’re gonna probably look at her and say wow I can’t believe this I can’t believe this,” said Betlehem resident Lawrence Moon.

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Black Collar Crime: Pastor William Pounds III Convicted of Murdering His Lover

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william pounds III

Yesterday, William Pounds III, pastor of King’s Chapel Memorial CME Church in Perry, Georgia, was convicted of murdering his lover.

Joe Kovac Jr, a reporter for The Telegraph, writes:

The trial was over, the guilty verdict was read and the former church pastor just convicted of murdering one of the two women he had simultaneously been engaged to marry shut the small Bible on the defense table in front of him.

At times during his four-day trial as his fate hung in the balance, William Claude Pounds III appeared to read that Bible and pray over it.

He stood accused in the June 2015 slaying of his longtime girlfriend and fiancee Kendra M. Jackson, a 46-year-old divorced mother of three who worked as a personal banker at the BB&T branch near Macon Mall. Pounds and Jackson had met at another local bank in 2000 and dated off and on for a decade and a half.

In the years before she died, they had been engaged to be married. Unbeknownst to her Jackson, Pounds would later ask an Atlanta woman for her hand in marriage. She, too, had said yes and Pounds had carried on relationships with both of his betrothed.

In the hours and days after Jackson died of a gunshot wound to the head, Pounds told investigators and acquaintances varying accounts of how Jackson had committed suicide.

The general story was that, in a fury over learning he was leaving her for the other lover, Jackson had grabbed his .40-caliber Springfield Armory pistol from his bedroom dresser and fatally shot herself in the right temple.

Pounds, 49, who had been pastor of King’s Chapel Memorial CME Church east of Perry, was a senior master sergeant in the Air National Guard. He worked at Robins Air Force Base.

On Tuesday, a jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about three hours and 15 minutes before finding him guilty of malice murder. At one point about an hour into their deliberations, they returned to the courtroom and asked to hear the 911 call that Pounds made the night Jackson died.

Near the beginning of the roughly seven-minute call, Pounds could be heard telling the emergency operator that Jackson “was trying to take the gun and she shot herself in the head,” only to rephrase that numerous times later in the call, saying, “I was trying to take the gun away from her,” and later adding six more times, “I was trying to take it from her!”

Pounds sat hunched over his Bible as the recording played, his head bowed and his hands clenched, thumbs twirling.

Other inconsistencies also plagued Pounds’ version of events from the night of July 11, 2015, when Jackson died on the floor of his Bel Meade Place townhouse just south of Macon’s Stinsonville Road.

Among the discrepancies were how Pounds told some people in the days afterward that Jackson had fired a shot at him, but did not remember whether she had done so when an investigator questioned him soon after it happened.

Police believe two bullets were fired the night Jackson died: one into Pounds’ bed, the other into Jackson’s skull.

Prosecutors believe Pounds made up his bed to hide the bullet hole in the bed.

Pounds also told a firefighter at the scene that he hadn’t been in the room when Jackson supposedly shot herself.

The varying scenarios of Jackson’s death — all attributable to Pounds, what with him the only one alive to tell — apparently didn’t fly with jurors. Nor would they with Bibb Superior Court Judge Howard Z. Simms.

As Pounds stood before him at sentencing, the judge said, “Mr. Pounds — and I’m not gonna dignify you by calling you Rev. Pounds, you didn’t earn that — you are a liar, you are a manipulator and frankly you are an outright charlatan.”

Simms rebuked Pounds’ litany of lies, telling him he had never heard anyone in his courtroom tell as many tales as Pounds had told when he testified and when he called 911 after Jackson died.

“I don’t believe that the truth is in you,” Simms said.

The judge said there was a price to paid for all that deceit.

“I sentence you to life in the penitentiary without the possibility of parole,” Simms said.

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor James Johnson Enters Alford Plea on Sexual Battery Charges

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James Johnson, associate pastor of Mountain Valley Baptist Church in Martinsville, Virginia, was convicted and sentenced to eleven years in prison for sexual battery and distributing child pornography.

Paul Collins, a writer for the Martinsville Reporter, reports:

A former Henry County associate pastor will spend 11 years in prison, as his sentence in a child pornography case.

James Arthur Johnson, who had previously served as associate pastor at Mountain Valley Baptist Church, had been convicted June 30 of the charges, including four counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of distributing child pornography. At the time, the 58-year-old entered an Alford plea in Martinsville Circuit Court. In an Alford plea, a defendant maintains his innocence but admits that sufficient evidence exists with which the prosecution likely could convince a judge or jury to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution nolle prossed (dropped but could reinstate) five other charges of aggravated sexual battery against Johnson at that time.

The charges stem from incidents that took place between April 2014 and February 2015 at Johnson’s residence in the 200 block of Martinsville and then in the 200 block of Pine Street, after he moved. The victim, who was 12 to 13 years old at the time, said Johnson would inappropriately touch her when she visited his house. Johnson was a friend of the girl’s family and their neighbor for part of that time. Johnson would also have neighborhood boys visit him at times and, according to the testimony, would instruct them to inappropriately touch the girl as well. The girl testified that at the time, Johnson said he would hurt her if she told anyone what was going on.

Johnson also filmed the girl touching herself and then showed the video to another person between Jan. 1, 2015 and July 28, 2015.

During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, the victim, now 16, read a letter she wrote about how she had been traumatized and suffered some mental health issues. She said she knows now not to trust people like Johnson and added that she hopes he burns in hell.

Keith Fender, testifying as an expert in sexual offender treatment, said one concern he had when evaluating Johnson is that the man is not convinced he needs treatment. The evaluation, Fender said, showed that Johnson has pedophilic disorder. That refers to adults who have a sexual desire for young children.

Johnson’s lawyer, Roscoe Reynolds, called several people who testified as character witnesses for his client. They described Johnson as a good worker, reliable, of good conduct to their knowledge, someone who helped and encouraged other people, active in church and preached in nursing homes. Several of the witnesses said they were shocked to learn of the charges against him. Johnson’s sister also testified, saying that he has some serious health issues and asked the judge to take that into consideration. Prior to this case, Johnson also had no criminal record.

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Greer sentenced Johnson to 85 years in prison, with 74 of those suspended under conditions including indefinite supervised probation and good behavior for life. Greer also ordered Johnson to register as a sex offender upon release from incarceration.

Black Collar Crime: The Sordid Story of Catholic Priest and Sexual Predator Arthur Perrault

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ken wolter arthur perrault
Arthur Perrault with one of his victims, eleven-year-old Ken Wolter

Olivier Uyttebrouck, a writer for the Albuquerque Journals details in the following excerpt the sordid thirty year story of Catholic priest and sexual predator Arthur Perrault:

St. Pius X High School leaders were hit with a “bombshell” in 1970 when they were told of allegations of sexual abuse against the Rev. Arthur Perrault, a teacher at the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s flagship high school.

Those allegations remained secret for decades, but documents released this week pull back the curtain on how those school leaders and the archbishop responded.

And the documents show that, once again, a priest was simply moved to another post where he had access to new victims. They also show that Perrault was sent to St. Pius in the first place as a “good test period” to allow the archbishop to observe the 20-something priest after he was released from a Jemez Springs center that treated pedophile priests.

He was at the school four years and was later accused of molesting 11 victims during that period, from 1966-1970.

In 1970, St. Pius board members were approached by the father of a student, who asked to meet with them because “one of his sons that was at Pius had been involved with Father Perrault,” a board member recalled in a 1992 deposition. The father said that as a result of the abuse, his son “was so messed up that he had been thinking about suicide.”

The father, who is not identified in the deposition, said he discussed the abuse with then-Archbishop of Santa Fe James Davis. The allegations were electrifying, the board member said, because Perrault was chairman of the theology department at the archdiocese’s flagship high school.

“Look, we’ll take care of this but we can’t have any publicity,” Davis reportedly told the boy’s father. “We must be Christian about this.”

New details about the careers of Perrault and two other former New Mexico priests became public this week after a judge ordered the disclosure of nearly 1,000 pages of church records that had been sealed under a previous court order.

The records contain letters written by three archbishops of Santa Fe and other church officials, legal settlements, deposition transcripts, psychological reports and other records provided by the archdiocese to Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall, who has filed more than 70 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children by priests.

Among them is the deposition of a former St. Pius board member whose name was redacted from the transcript.

The board member said that Archbishop Davis wavered about how to respond. He at first agreed to remove Perrault, but later changed his mind. “It’s under our control and it’s our problem. Not yours,” Davis told four board members.

The father who made the allegation warned the board member that if Davis took no action, he would file a “sodomy suit” against the archdiocese, according to the deposition.

 

The threat prompted the board member to seek a private meeting with the archbishop, where he told Davis that the archdiocese faced a lawsuit if Perrault remained at St. Pius.

“I remember to this day what Archbishop Davis did,” the board member recalled. “He put his right arm on my shoulder and said, `We can’t have that. I’ll honor my commitment.’” Three days later, Perrault was dismissed from St. Pius.

Davis then authorized Perrault to work as chaplain to the student community the University of Albuquerque, a now-defunct Catholic college operated by the archdiocese.

The incident at St. Pius was not the first time, nor the last, that allegations of Perrault’s sexual attacks on boys would reach the ears of an archbishop of Santa Fe.

Perrault had been accused of sexual attacks before he arrived in New Mexico in January 1966.

The Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn., where Perrault was ordained in 1964, ordered him to undergo treatment at a facility in Jemez Springs operated by the Servants of Paraclete. The now-closed Via Coeli facility received priests from across the U.S. accused of sexually molesting children.

Perrault, then 28, was sent to Jemez Springs after “two alleged incidents of homosexual approaches to some of the young men with whom he was working,” in Connecticut, Via Coeli psychologist John Sanchez told Archbishop Davis in a 1966 letter.

….

Court records show that Perrault is accused of sexually abusing 38 children during his years in New Mexico.

Of those, 11 alleged attacks occurred during Perrault’s tenure at St. Pius High School from 1966 to 1970. The alleged attacks occurred at St. Pius, in Perrault’s home, or at two churches where he worked on weekends.

He has never been charged with a crime.

Letters written in the early 1980s show that later allegations against Perrault prompted then-Archbishop Robert Fortune Sanchez to order that he undergo a psychological evaluation.

That evaluation found that Perrault “acted out his homosexual orientation only with youngsters and has never had an ongoing, adult homosexual relationship,” psychologist Joseph VanDenHeuvel told Sanchez in a June 1981 report.

The psychologist said Perrault “made mention of the fact that he had `been in trouble’ because of illicit sexual activities with students,” VanDenHeuvel told the archbishop.

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Just seven months after receiving the report, Sanchez assigned Perrault to a pastoral post at an Albuquerque parish.

“I am pleased herein to assign you to St. Bernadette Parish for weekend assignment to assist the pastor,” Sanchez told Perrault in a Jan. 6, 1982, letter.

“Thanking you, Father Arthur, for your service to the good people of St. Bernadette Parish, and to the Pastoral Center, while wishing you all the Lord’s Blessing throughout this New Year,” Sanchez wrote.

Perrault became the pastor at St. Bernadette in 1985 and remained there until he fled New Mexico in 1992, just days before an Albuquerque attorney filed a lawsuit alleging that he sexually assaulted seven children.

Perrault turned up last year in Morocco working at an English-language school for children, from which he was subsequently fired. It is not clear where he is now.

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In early 2017, a judge handed down a $16 million judgment to one of Perrault’s victims. Olivier Uyttebrouck reports:

A judge handed down a $16 million judgment this week against a former New Mexico priest for failure to respond to a lawsuit filed by a man who alleges he was sexually abused by Arthur Perrault in the early 1990s.

Second Judicial District Judge Denise Barela-Shepherd handed down the default judgment Thursday after she found that Perrault had been properly served with the civil lawsuit, but failed to defend himself against the allegations.

She ordered Perrault to pay $1 million in damages and an additional $15 million in punitive damages. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Perrault, who vanished from his Albuquerque parish in 1992, was tracked last year to Tangiers, Morocco, where he was teaching at an English language school for children.

Perrault was fired in May when school officials learned of the allegations, the director of the American Language Center in Tangiers told the Journal .

Kenneth Wolter, 35, filed the civil lawsuit last year alleging he had been sexually abused by Perrault at least 40 times in the early 1990s. Wolter was 10 or 11 at the time, and serving as an altar boy at St. Bernadette Parish, where Perrault was the pastor.

Unknown is whether Wolter will be able to collect any portion of the $16 million judgment from Perrault, said Levi Monagle, one of three Albuquerque attorneys who represent Wolter.

“Money wasn’t the point of this for us,” Monagle said Friday. “Ken (Wolter) didn’t do this for the money. The message made on behalf of the victims was Ken’s main priority.”

Wolter testified at a hearing in January that he wanted to send Perrault a message on behalf of his 38 known victims “and the silent people who haven’t come forward.”

He asked Barela-Shepherd to award a total of $38 million in damages, or $1 million for each alleged victim. Barela-Shepherd did not explain in her order why she handed down a $16 million judgment.

Perrault, 79, sent Barela-Shepherd a letter in November denying that he had abused Wolter, court records show. He also said that he had no assets and could not afford to hire an attorney, or to return to Albuquerque to attend the January hearing.

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