The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Tag: Prostitution

  • Black Collar Crime: Two Evangelical Pastors Arrested and Charged with Sex Trafficking

    zubin parakh and jason kennedy

    Jason Kennedy, children’s ministry pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee and Zubin Parakh, the creative pastor for Lifehouse Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, were arrested last year on charges on human trafficking.

    Channel 8-Knoxville reports:

    After a three-day investigation, nearly two dozen men were arrested on charges related to human trafficking, including Jason Evan Kennedy, a pastor of children’s ministry at Grace Baptist in Karns.

    ….

    Church leaders said Kennedy was hired two-and-a-half years ago. Church administrators got a background check on Kennedy and it turned up with no issues at the time. It did not indicate any previous problems. Church leaders believed Kennedy was a good fit because he listed a children’s pastor as a reference on his application. That pastor affirmed Kennedy had no issues in his background.

    “We are praying for his family and will continue to provide the services of our ministry to them,” read the final statement in the church’s release.

    ….

    According to a police report, Kennedy responded to a Backpage.com ad via text message. The report says Kennedy was made aware that there would be two girls present, one was 15 years old. He negotiated $100 for a half hour of sex with both girls.

    He was told to go to a gas station on Merchants Road for further instructions. Then he received instructions to go to a hotel room where the girls were.

    The report says he stated he wanted to have sex with both girls he thought were inside. He put the agreed upon $100 on the counter. He removed his pants and then law enforcement took him into custody.

    “Our work is not finished. We want to make sure there is no safe place to hide for criminals who would victimize the most vulnerable among us. We want anyone answering an ad for sex to think that a TBI agent and a Knoxville Police officer may be on the other end of that line,” said TBI Director Mark Gwyn.

    Kennedy is charged with human trafficking and patronizing prostitution.

    TBI Director Mark Gwyn says another man, Zubin Parakh, responded to ads specifically indicating he was looking for underage girls to have sex with. Parakh was listed as a “Creative Pastor” for Lifehouse Church in Oak Ridge.

    Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and officers with the Knoxville Police Department worked together to arrest or cite 32 people on charges related to human trafficking. Twenty-three of those arrests were of men trying to buy sex from a prostitute.

    “These are men from our community. They include an engineer, a volunteer firefighter, a landscaper, a student. These are people we work with and live with,” said Gwyn.

    ….

    During the investigation, undercover agents posted ads on Backpage.com, including an ad posing as an underage girl. Three-hundred people made contact in relation to those ads. More than two dozen people made contact in relation to the ad of the agents posed as an underage girl.

    “What so many people in our community don’t quite understand is that human trafficking is a demand driven crime. And that demand comes from every single part of our society, including those parts that we’d all like to believe are not part of the problem,” said Trudell.

  • Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor A. Livingston Foxworth Busted in Prostitution Sting

    busted

    A. Livingston Foxworth, pastor of Grace Church of All Nations in Dorchester, Massachusetts, was arrested Tuesday during a  prostitution sting.

    The Boston Herald reports:

    The prominent Boston minister who blessed Gov. Charlie Baker after he was elected to the Corner Office was caught soliciting a prostitute during an undercover police sting that also reeled in nine other would-be johns, authorities said.

    A. Livingston Foxworth, the senior pastor at the Grace Church of All Nations in Dorchester, was arraigned yesterday in Boston Municipal Court on a single charge of paying for sexual conduct. He was released without bail after a brief appearance.

    Foxworth gave newly elected Baker and his wife, Lauren, a blessing in November 2014 during a Grace Church of All Nations service.

    “Gov. Baker is saddened by this news and is confident the courts will examine the facts and reach an appropriate decision,” said Lizzy Guyton, a spokesman for Baker.

    ….

    The pastor and his attorney, Hassan Williams, declined to comment yesterday.

    Foxworth and nine other men were busted in the Tuesday afternoon sting, according to authorities. Detectives from the Boston Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit conducted an “undercover online investigation into ­illegal sexual services being offered for a fee,” according to an incident report.

    Detectives posing as a female on the infamous online classified ad website Backpage.com were contacted by Foxworth and the other men, according to authorities. Foxworth agreed to pay $150 for sex and went to an address on Pine Street for an illicit rendezvous, according to police.

    Once he arrived, detectives called the number Foxworth provided and it started to ring, a police report states. He was placed under arrest, and his cellphone was placed into evidence, according to authorities.

    “Human trafficking exists because sex buyers make it profitable,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. “Part of our strategy is making clear that there are social, financial, and legal consequences for that behavior in Boston and Suffolk County.”

    Williams tried to convince BMC Judge Thomas Horgan to drop the charges and give Foxworth a civil infraction but Suffolk prosecutor Jessica Meyer pushed back.

    “This is a matter that your honor has arraigned for almost 10 other defendants today and no action was taken with them regarding a civil infraction,” Meyer said.

    Horgan agreed with Meyer, and Foxworth is now slated to return to court July 26.

    Foxworth’s bio states:

    Archbishop Foxworth is married to Karen L. Foxworth and he is the father of six children Elizabeth, Kevin, Anthony, Ricky, Brandice and Jeremy, and the grandfather of six children.

    He received his Biblical and Pastoral training through Moody Bible Institute, and has been pasturing Grace Church of All Nations for 35 years. He was consecrated to the Bishopric at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Paul in Boston, Massachusetts in May, 2007.

    Currently, Archbishop Foxworth serves a congregation of over twelve hundred members and is training pastors within the Pentecostal Episcopal Church (PEC) reformation to establish multicultural congregations throughout the United States and internationally. He is also working with uni-cultural ministries ie: Haitian, African and Latino to establish a Multicultural Christian Fellowship. This vision is in its infancy, pastor stands on the Word of God and believes that ALL things are possible and ‘we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.’