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.
Bradrick Vail, Sr., pastor of Tree of Life Ministries in Mobile, Alabama, was recently convicted of seven counts of sexual misconduct. Originally charged with rape, the jury decided to convict him of misdemeanor sexual misconduct.
Mobile pastor Bradrick Vail, who was accused of raping two women in Prichard and Mobile, has been found guilty on seven counts of the lesser charge of sexual misconduct.
The jury deliberated over parts of two days before returning the verdict.
Investigators say he met both alleged victims through his church, Tree of Life Deliverance Ministries on Stanton Road.
The two women testified that he sexually assaulted them.
Vail had been charged with three counts of first-degree rape, one count of first-degree sodomy and three counts of first-degree sexual abuse. Those are all felonies.
But the jury opted to convict on misdemeanors charges, meaning the maximum punishment is one year in jail on each count.
Mobile County Circuit Judge Jill Phillips allowed Vail to remain free on bond until sentencing, which she set for April 7.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
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