The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
In 2018, Brian Dicken, associate pastor of Church of Christ at Mountain View, was arrested and charged with taking indecent liberties with an underage girl who attended the church and Mountain View Christian Academy. Dicken pleaded no contest, and was sentenced to five years in prison, with three years suspended.
A former Church of Christ at Mountain View associate pastor has pleaded no contest to taking indecent liberties with an underage girl who attended the church and Mountain View Christian Academy.
In a plea bargain Friday in Frederick County Circuit Court, the Rev. Brian Sean Dicken entered the plea. As part of the agreement, a second count of indecent liberties was dismissed.
The 38-year-old Dicken, of the 900 block of Cedar Creek Grade, worked from 2003 until March 2017 at the Frederick County church, which is affiliated with the 170-student school. He began as a youth minister before becoming an associate minister and left to become lead minister at a church in New Bern, N.C. Dicken’s duties included teaching Bible classes, coaching basketball, chaperoning students on trips and counseling them.
The incidents occurred from Dec. 1, 2014, to Feb. 17, 2017, according to Heather D. Enloe, the assistant county commonwealth’s attorney who is prosecuting the case. Enloe told Judge Alexander R. Iden that Dicken touched the girl inappropriately during counseling sessions, including fondling and kissing her. “It became the new normal,” Enloe said.
Evidence includes incriminating texts from Dicken to the girl, who contacted the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office after turning 18. Enloe said the girl and her family are satisfied with the plea bargain.
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Dicken, free on a $50,000 bond, is scheduled to be sentenced at 1 p.m. Jan. 25. Dicken wouldn’t comment after the hearing, but his lawyer Jonathan L. Sylvester said the expected state sentencing guideline recommendations for Dicken will range from no jail time to up to three months imprisonment. He noted Dicken has no prior criminal record and is not accused of abusing any other children at the school.
Sylvester said Dicken strongly considered a bench trial before a judge to prove his innocence, but Enloe insisted on a jury trial. He said Dicken wouldn’t risk a jury trial, “given today’s social atmosphere,” a reference to increased awareness of sexual assaults and sexual harassment and a willingness for victims to speak out through the #Me Too Movement.
Sylvester said Dicken, a husband and father of six, thought a plea was best for his family, and it would spare his accuser having to testify at trial. “He thought it might have meant more stress for her and her family,” Sylvester said.
Dicken, now 40, was convicted of indecent liberties for groping an underage girl between 2014-17 while an associate pastor at Church of Christ at Mountain View in Frederick County. He also taught at Mountain View Christian Academy, a private, K-12 school affiliated with the church. He was sentenced to five years with three suspended. The sentence includes five years of supervised probation during which time he can have no unsupervised contact with children other than his own, and registering as a sex offender for life.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen 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.
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.
Albert Wharton, an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) pastor who pastored seven churches, stands accused of 22 felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a child under the age of 13 while in a custodial position and eight felony counts of aggravated sexual assault. No church name is listed.
A former pastor of an independent Baptist church in the town of Warsaw in Richmond County is facing 30 felony charges relating to multiple incidents the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office alleges occurred at the church between 1981 and 1997.
Albert Benjamin Wharton, 86, of South Carolina, was arrested in South Carolina at 8:42 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 8 by investigators from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and South Carolina’s Pickens County Sheriff’s Department.
On the same day, Wharton was extradited to the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Richmond County.
Sheriff Steve Smith of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office said Wharton’s arrest was the culmination of a 15-month investigation into more than two dozen alleged incidents that occurred while he was a preacher at Berachah Academy between 1981 and 1997. The academy has since closed.
Wharton was charged with 22 felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a child under the age of 13 while in a custodial position and eight felony counts of aggravated sexual assault.
“Wharton has lived and served seven churches in Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida over the past four decades,” Sheriff Smith said.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen 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.
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.
Terry Rudisell, pastor of Cornerstone Independent Baptist Church in Lincolnton, North Carolina, stands accused of three counts of taking indecent liberties with children.
The Lincolnton Police Department says a man is accused of child sex crimes, one of which reportedly happened recently.
The department said 49-year-old Terry Wayne Rudisill was arrested Friday afternoon. He is charged with three counts of taking indecent liberties with children.
A news release from police said one of the charges stems from a reportedly recent incident involving an 11-year-old girl, while the two other charges are tied to a girl who was 15 years old at the time.
Rudisill was jailed with a $50,000 bond. Online records show he made bail.
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Rudisill’s home address was included in a news release shared with media outlets. WCNC Charlotte verified he lives next door to Cornerstone Independent Baptist Church. Google Earth data gathered in 2019 has a “Terry W. Rudisill” listed on the church’s sign as the pastor.
While Lincolnton Police have not yet confirmed Rudisill’s status as a pastor, WCNC Charlotte received confirmation from a former church member who said he was Cornertsone’s pastor. WCNC Charlotte also reached out to the church for comment and left a voicemail.
While someone did call WCNC back from the number, they did not leave a voicemail. A follow-up phone call yielded no response.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen 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.
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.
Matthew David Tonne, the 35-year-old accused, was dismissed as associate children’s minister from the Southern Baptist megachurch on an unrelated matter in June, senior pastor Matt Chandler said Jan. 24 in video and printed comments at thevillagechurch.net. The alleged crime occurred at the Mt Lebanon Retreat and Conference Center, a Baptist ministry in Cedar Hill, Texas.
“We want to state clearly that there are no persons of interest in this investigation that have access to children at The Village Church,” Chandler said. “We would not let anyone who is under investigation for a crime like this be near any of our children at TVC.”
Tonne, a husband and father of three, had been out of jail since Jan. 9 on $25,000 bond. His original court date of today (Jan. 29), has been rescheduled to Feb. 7, based on documents filed in Dallas County District Court.
The Village Church is making at least one change in its ministry to children, Chandler said in the website comments.
“We have decided to no longer do overnight events with elementary children based on counsel from MinistrySafe,” Chandler said, referencing the ministry founded by attorneys to help churches, camps and ministries protect children from sexual abuse. Additionally, the church has hired a director of care, Summer Vinson Berger, whom Chandler described as a licensed professional counselor skilled in trauma care.
“She is helping us evaluate all of our current practices and will help us further strengthen our ministry here,” Chandler said. “We view physical and emotional safety as a top priority and will continue to pour resources into that area.”
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No details of the 2012 incident were available, other than a statement about the health of the victim and the victim’s family.
“Earlier this year, the minor came to a place where it was possible to verbalize the memory of what happened for the first time through ongoing therapy. (Cedar Hill Police) Detective (Michael) Hernandez has been investigating the case since that time,” Chandler said. “It took courage and strength for the child and the family to share this information, and we want to support them in any way possible.”
The church has no other reported incidents of abuse at the 2012 camp event, Chandler said.
“We have been working with the family and Detective Hernandez to do all that we can to bring healing and the light of justice to this situation,” he said, “including the decision to make this investigation public now.”
Parents and children at The Village Church have no need to fear for their safety from sexual predators at church events, Chandler said.
“We are committed to doing all that we can to protect our children,” he said.
Pastor Chandler might want to pay attention to the news (or this website). Parents have EVERYTHING to fear when it comes to entrusting Evangelical churches with their children. Sexual predators are deeply embedded within Evangelical congregations. Thoughtful, protective parents ought not to let their children out of their sight. Chandler can’t know for sure if there are other predators lurking in the shadows of the Village Church. Is his “word” good enough?
Tonne maintains his innocence. Recently, the mother of the girl allegedly abused by Tonne spoke to the New York Times:
Christi Bragg listened in disbelief. It was a Sunday in February, and her popular evangelical pastor, Matt Chandler, was preaching on the evil of leaders who sexually abuse those they are called to protect. But at the Village Church, he assured his listeners, victims of assault would be heard, and healed: “We see you.”
Ms. Bragg nearly vomited. She stood up and walked out.
Exactly one year before that day, on Feb. 17, 2018, Ms. Bragg and her husband, Matt, reported to the Village that their daughter, at about age 11, had been sexually abused at the church’s summer camp for children.
Since then, Matthew Tonne, who was the church’s associate children’s minister, had been investigated by the police, indicted and arrested on charges of sexually molesting Ms. Bragg’s daughter.
Ms. Bragg waited for church leaders to explain what had happened and to thoroughly inform other families in the congregation. She waited for the Village to take responsibility and apologize. She waited to have even one conversation with Mr. Chandler, a leader she had long admired.
But none of that ever came.
“You can’t even take care of the family you know,” she remembered thinking as she walked out of the large auditorium. “Don’t tell more victims to come to you, because you’re just going to cause more hurt.”
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At the Village, one of the most prominent Southern Baptist churches in the country and a bedrock of Texas evangelical culture, Ms. Bragg said leaders had offered prayer. And at times she was grateful, and she tried to respect their decisions.
But as months passed, she came to believe their instinct to protect the institution outweighed their care for her daughter or their interest in investigating the truth.
For years she trusted that her church’s top leaders had acted in the best interest of the congregation, and that if she disagreed, the problem was hers. She had a spiritual reason: to doubt them was to doubt God.
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ut her daughter’s ordeal showed her a different side of her church. The Village, like many other evangelical churches, uses a written membership agreement containing legal clauses that protect the institution. The Village’s agreement prohibits members from suing the church and instead requires mediation and then binding arbitration, legal processes that often happen in secret.
The Village also uses an abuse prevention company called MinistrySafe, which many evangelical churches cite as an accountability safeguard. Ms. Bragg assumed that MinistrySafe would advocate for her daughter, but then she learned that the group’s leaders were the church’s legal advisers.
The Village permanently removed Mr. Tonne from the staff within weeks of learning his name from the Braggs. To this day, the Village denies he was fired because of a sexual abuse allegation.
Mr. Tonne’s lawyer said his client had been falsely accused.
The Village declined to answer a list of detailed questions about the matter from The New York Times, and Mr. Chandler declined multiple requests to be interviewed.
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Unable to wait any longer to hear from church leaders, Ms. Bragg asked for a meeting with them. The first opportunity, the church said, would be several weeks away, three months after the family had reported the incident.
At the meeting, none of the church’s top three pastors were present. Ms. Bragg and her husband brought a list of 15 questions, asking about church policies and the camp. They received no clear answers.
Ms. Bragg raised the possibility that the perpetrator could have been someone from the Village. That was impossible, she recalled being told by Doug Stanley, a senior director at the church, because leaders followed the church’s moral code, enshrined in the membership covenant.
She turned to her husband as they walked out. “Thank God” for the police detective assigned to the case, she said. “If we were relying on our church to give us information, we’d be leaving empty-handed.”
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As summer ended, Ms. Bragg got welcome news. The police detective had filed the case with the Dallas County district attorney’s office, and the Village was finally ready to make a public statement. Relieved, she prepared a family statement to accompany the church’s announcement, which was posted online.
Then, on a Sunday in September, Mr. Chandler told the congregation that an allegation of sexual assault had surfaced. He did not name the suspect. “It took courage and strength for the child and the family to share this, and we want to support them in any way possible,” he said.
What he said next infuriated Ms. Bragg. “We want to clearly state that there are no persons of interest in this investigation that have access to children at the Village Church,” he said. “We would not let someone who is under investigation for a crime like this be near any of our children at T.V.C.”
It was a technicality. Mr. Tonne had already been removed.
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.
Matthew “Matt” Tonne, associate children’s pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, stands accused of indecent contact with a child. The alleged contact took place at the Mt. Lebanon Retreat and Conference Center in Cedar Hill, Texas. The Village Church is pastored by Southern Baptist luminary Matt Chandler.
Matthew David Tonne, the 35-year-old accused, was dismissed as associate children’s minister from the Southern Baptist megachurch on an unrelated matter in June, senior pastor Matt Chandler said Jan. 24 in video and printed comments at thevillagechurch.net. The alleged crime occurred at the Mt Lebanon Retreat and Conference Center, a Baptist ministry in Cedar Hill, Texas.
“We want to state clearly that there are no persons of interest in this investigation that have access to children at The Village Church,” Chandler said. “We would not let anyone who is under investigation for a crime like this be near any of our children at TVC.”
Tonne, a husband and father of three, had been out of jail since Jan. 9 on $25,000 bond. His original court date of today (Jan. 29), has been rescheduled to Feb. 7, based on documents filed in Dallas County District Court.
The Village Church is making at least one change in its ministry to children, Chandler said in the website comments.
“We have decided to no longer do overnight events with elementary children based on counsel from MinistrySafe,” Chandler said, referencing the ministry founded by attorneys to help churches, camps and ministries protect children from sexual abuse. Additionally, the church has hired a director of care, Summer Vinson Berger, whom Chandler described as a licensed professional counselor skilled in trauma care.
“She is helping us evaluate all of our current practices and will help us further strengthen our ministry here,” Chandler said. “We view physical and emotional safety as a top priority and will continue to pour resources into that area.”
….
No details of the 2012 incident were available, other than a statement about the health of the victim and the victim’s family.
“Earlier this year, the minor came to a place where it was possible to verbalize the memory of what happened for the first time through ongoing therapy. (Cedar Hill Police) Detective (Michael) Hernandez has been investigating the case since that time,” Chandler said. “It took courage and strength for the child and the family to share this information, and we want to support them in any way possible.”
The church has no other reported incidents of abuse at the 2012 camp event, Chandler said.
“We have been working with the family and Detective Hernandez to do all that we can to bring healing and the light of justice to this situation,” he said, “including the decision to make this investigation public now.”
Parents and children at The Village Church have no need to fear for their safety from sexual predators at church events, Chandler said.
“We are committed to doing all that we can to protect our children,” he said.
Pastor Chandler might want to pay attention to the news (or this website). Parents have EVERYTHING to fear when it comes to entrusting Evangelical churches with their children. Sexual predators are deeply embedded within Evangelical congregations. Thoughtful, protective parents ought not to let their children out of their sight. Chandler can’t know for sure if there are other predators lurking in the shadows of the Village Church. Is his “word” good enough?
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.
Sean Gaines, pastor of The Empowerment Temple in Suffolk, Virginia, was arrested on two charges of indecent liberties with a child by custodian and one count of carnal knowledge of a child thirteen to fifteen years old.
Gaines, the former pastor of The Empowerment Temple, told the News-Herald by phone last month that he left the church in early August due to similar charges in Hampton. He said he did not do what he’s accused of.
“I’m refuting all the charges,” he said. “I’m stating my innocence.”
According to a search warrant filed in Suffolk Circuit Court earlier this year, a 14-year-old girl reported she had been sending photos to Gaines via Facebook messenger. She said Gaines had asked her to send the photographs and to “send them to his Facebook account.”
She sent photos of her private parts as well as one of herself in her bra and underwear, the search warrant states. It happened between May 2017 and February 2018, the warrant says.
The girl consented for police to search her phone but said she had deleted the photos at Gaines’ request.
According to the indictments, the charges relate to incidents in which Gaines allegedly touched a juvenile victim’s breast and genitals and had sexual intercourse with her.
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.
Kevin Berry, pastor of First Christian Church in Sedgwick, Kansas, stands accused of taking indecent liberties with a child — a felony. The Witchita Eagle reports:
After allegations were made against Berry in September, the church sent an Oct. 8 letter to churchgoers informing them that Berry was being investigated and saying the “church leadership firmly supports our pastor (Kevin Berry).”
The letter said Berry voluntarily chose to no longer participate in children’s activities at the church while he was under investigation.
Summer and Curtis Peters, whose children attended the church’s youth group, said they don’t think Berry actually refrained from participating in children’s activities.
A video posted on the church’s YouTube account two months after the letter was sent shows Berry narrating a children’s Christmas pageant. Near the end of the video, a woman says that Berry and his wife helped write the children’s play and were “such a vital part of all of this.”
The Peterses, who attended Berry’s church until the fall, said their teenage children were regular attendees of the youth group but stopped going after they saw how church leadership handled allegations against Berry.
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The complaint filed in Harvey County District Court says the alleged crime occurred around mid-September.
The Peters family’s concerns with Berry began in September, when a neighbor told them to check if their own teenage daughter was OK.
The couple then spoke with a youth leader, who is no longer with the church, and several children, asking if anything at church made them feel uncomfortable.
What the children said “raised flags” about inappropriate behavior on the part of the pastor, Curtis Peters said. Later that Sunday evening, as rumors buzzed through the town of fewer than 2,000, church members, elders, children and the pastor gathered to discuss the concerns.
“When the kids saw the pastor in the room, they truly felt uncomfortable,” Summer Peters said. “They were scared to say anything, scared to speak up.”
Elders in the church chastised the concerned parents, including the Peterses, and acted as if the children were lying, Summer Peters said.
It was implied that law enforcement was not needed, Curtis Peters said.
“From that point on, it just didn’t seem like the church really was concerned about the kids as much as they were about the pastor,” Curtis Peters said. “I don’t feel like they really did anything to distance the pastor from the situation.”
Shocker, right? The church believes the pastor and not the victim. This story is played out over, and over, and over again. The church has taken down its website and Facebook page. Time to run and hide lest their deeds be exposed for all to see.
Berry’s church bio states (from Google cached page:
Kevin Berry began ministering in Sedgwick on December 1st, 2015. He came from Amoret Christian Church in Amoret, Missouri where he ministered for 6 years. Kevin attended Ozark Christian College for his bachelor’s degree and Cincinnati Christian Seminary for his master’s degree. He is married to ****** and they have one daughter, ******.
Kevin has a passion for truth and great relationships.
The First Christian Church of Sedgwick has accepted Kevin Berry’s request to be placed on administrative leave to give him time to work through the charges he is facing. The church board has taken the position to continue their support of Kevin at this time.
The church’s Facebook page later stated that the good pastor went to personal counseling and received further training on leading and appropriate interaction with children and youth.
