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 Phillips, pastor of New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, was charged Friday with sex crimes against children. Astoundingly, Phillips has been accused of such crimes numerous times over the years, but this is the first time he has been charged with a crime.
A 74-year-old former Sarasota pastor is accused of inappropriately touching children.
The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office charged Albert L. Phillips with sex crimes against children and detectives are concerned there could be more victims. Phillips is the former pastor of New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.
On Dec. 8, 2017, a 15-year-old victim told authorities that she was inappropriately touched on several occasions by Phillips. Some of the incidents happened when she was only 4 years old, a Sarasota County affidavit stated.
Some happened when Phillips and his wife were caring for the girl when she stayed with them at their Tarpon Avenue home.
The victim said she was shown porn in Phillips’ office and he would touch her in private areas and he tried to get her to touch him, too, on several occasions. He would say that it was their secret and there would be consequences if she told anyone, according to the affidavit.
Sarasota police said there were similar reports in 2015 and 2005 with allegations dating back to the mid-1980s.
On Friday, Phillips was arrested and charged with Lewd or Lascivious Molestation of a Victim Under 12, Lewd or Lascivious Conduct on a Victim Under 16 and Lewd or Lascivious Exhibition on a Victim Under 16.
There is an infatuation with the body, and, of course, the sexual aspects of the body as well. Some sports encourage immodesty, revealing large portions of the body and this happens in some sports. These are the risky sports. Here they are, what are the risky sports? Gymnastics. Gymnastics and swimming. These are the sports in which there is an added risk.
Why are all of the gymnasts [at] more of a risk than other sports? Do you really want your daughters involved in a sport that involves a fair amount of immodesty in which red-blooded American male coaches are interacting with these girls? Or, worse yet, where the infatuation of the body eventually effects the lesbian coaches?
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.
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.
Douglas Rivera, pastor of God’s Gypsy Christian Church in Glendale, California, stands accused of sexually assaulting a preteen girl. The church’s website still lists Rivera as its pastor.
Douglas Rivera, the pastor accused of sexually assaulting a preteen girl at a Covina hotel last week, turned himself in to police Sunday morning and was out on bail by early afternoon, CBS Los Angeles reports. Police have confirmed that Rivera, accompanied by his attorney, turned himself in to Covina Police Department at 11 a.m. local time. He was out on bail by 2 p.m.
Rivera, 40, was accused last week of assaulting a girl visiting from China at the Vanllee Hotel and Suites, located at 1211 E. Garvey Ave. North, Wednesday night.
The pastor of God’s Gypsy Christian Church in Glendale had been on the run since Friday. Later in the day, he posted a video to social media claiming his innocence.
Police said Rivera drove through the parking lot of the Vanllee Hotel late Wednesday, stopping to peer into a room where two girls were staying during a school trip from China.
Rivera allegedly masturbated outside the room, then pretended to be on the phone for about 30 minutes. He then entered the hotel and knocked on the girls’ door. Thinking he was their chaperone, the girls opened the door. Police said Rivera then entered the room and sexually assaulting one of the girls, police said.
After images from the hotel’s security footage were made public, Rivera was identified as a person of interest in the case.
Police raided his Baldwin Hills home Friday, towing a truck similar to the one seen in the security video.
According to a neighbor, Rivera was painting that truck black with a roller and paintbrush Thursday.
Late Friday, Rivera, whose congregation shares a building with Glendale City Church, posted a video to Instagram from inside a vehicle in which he said he “was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He went on to say the accusations against him were false, asking people to keep him “in prayer.” He also said he planned to turn himself in to police Wednesday accompanied by his attorney.
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.
David Cooper, pastor of Mountain Moves Ministries in Eloise, Florida, was arrested Thursday on accusations that he sexually assaulted and raped a minor girl. As of the publication of this post, Cooper is still listed as the pastor of Mountain Moves Ministries on its website.
A pastor in Florida exposed himself to a young girl several times in the past year – and raped another girl at least five times when she was a preteen decades ago, authorities said.
David Cooper, the 43-year-old pastor of Mountain Moves Ministries in Eloise, was arrested Thursday for the sexual battery of a girl under the age of twelve and lewd exhibition with another girl under twelve after a months-long probe was launched when deputies responded to a possible instance of sexual abuse last September, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The victim told investigators that Cooper had exposed his “private spot” to her four times since last year, when she was 7 years old, deputies said.
Weeks later, investigators learned of a second possible victim, an adult woman who said Cooper sexually abused her several times when she was a child, including raping her at least five times between the ages of 10 and 12.
Deputies, according to Miami Herald, tracked the woman down in January. Now 32, she told investigators that Cooper would enter her room as her mother slept sometime in 1995 or 1996 after Cooper started dating her mother and moved in with the family.
What started as comments about her body eventually moved to “oral sex and cuddling” and ultimately sex, she told Polk County investigators, who later listened in on a phone call between her and Cooper.
“What did you do then?” the woman asked Cooper, according to an arrest report obtained by the Miami Herald.
“You know what we did,” Cooper replied. “I can’t really discuss it openly, I’m not standing here alone.”
“Doing all that sexual stuff, it messes with a kid’s head, you know what I mean?” the woman replied. “And growing up and all that and trusting people, I was 10, I was a kid, you know what I mean, it messes with your head and it —– you up. But you are sorry?”
“I am,” replied Cooper, who denied taking the woman’s virginity but did apologize “for everything.” He was later arrested on Feb. 1, the Miami Herald reports.
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.
Garry Evans, pastor of Rushville Baptist Temple in Rushville, Indiana, was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing. He wife, Gay, was also arrested. Readers might remember Evans being arrested last year on charges of child molestation, sexual battery, and child solicitation.
Frank Denzler, a reporter for the Herald-Tribune, writes:
A report of criminal trespass received by the Rushville Police Department Jan. 29 led to the arrest of Pastor Garry Evans, 72, and his wife Gay Evans, 70.
The elder Evans had been released from jail after posting a $20,000 bond following his initial arrest in October 2017 regarding a number of allegations of inappropriate activity with minors, according to earlier editions of the Rushville Republican. A condition of his bond required that Evans be placed on GPS monitoring by the court.
Although innocent until proven guilty, Evans was initially charged last fall with three counts of child molestation, a Level 4 felony; four counts of sexual battery, a Level 5 felony; and five counts of child solicitation, a Level 6 felony.
Additional allegations and charges were filed with the courts in November 2017 when another minor child came forward. Following the second arrest, Evans, the longtime pastor of the Rushville Baptist Temple, unsuccessfully attempted to take his own life and, as a result, was hospitalized for an extended period of time.
The couple’s most recent legal troubles began when the pair appeared Jan. 28 at a Rushville residence stating they wished to see a family member they believed to be inside. The tenant reported they would not leave until they spoke with the individual. The tenant and complainant in the case informed the Evanses that they were not welcome at the property and needed to leave. The couple refused and demanded to speak with the relative.
Following several attempts to get them to leave, the complainant stated that she felt threatened and retreated into the residence, where she retrieved a firearm. The woman returned to the door and again told the couple to leave, but they refused. At this time, Gay Evans attempted unsuccessfully to take the firearm from the resident. The complainant then locked herself inside and stowed the firearm.
A few moments later, the resident observed Garry and Gay Evans looking in a vehicle on the property. The complainant then chased the pastor and his wife off her property with a baseball bat.
As a result of the incident, warrants were issued for the arrest of Garry Evans and Gay Evans for criminal trespass, a Class A misdemeanor.
The pair were taken into custody Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 30. During the course of the arrest, Gay Evans became verbally abusive and physically resistant toward officers and as a result was additionally charged with resisting law enforcement, a Class A misdemeanor.
This is the one hundred sixty-fifth installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.
Today’s Songs of Sacrilege is Jonestown Tea by Otep.
Warning! Extremly graphic lyrics about child sexual abuse by a Christian father.
And it sounds like…Armageddon
Sounds like…Armageddon
Sounds like…come and drink with me….
Come and drink with me
And I remember him fucking me,
And I remember liking it,
I didn’t know any better…
And I remember the smell, and the pain, and the shame…
And I remember being afraid and thinking everyday,
Every single day.. that it was my fault…
Oh, but what happened to that little girl?
Who used to dream of one day ruling the world,
Who used to draw pretty pictures in my room–beneath the moon
Destroying to create
Softly praying to “God”
What do I do now?
What do I do now?
As I secretly masturbate…
But then I’d hear his hooves coming down the floor
With a Bible in his hand…
Softly opening my door and he’d say…
DAUGHTER! The day of your atonement is due!
Well there’s 3 million sinners out there…
and that includes you!
No daddy, don’t… no daddy, don’t…
LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME ALONE!
NO, I DON’T WANT TO BE FREE! NO, I DON’T WANT TO BE FREE!
SO TAKE YOUR DICK OUT OF ME!
PLEASE TAKE YOUR DICK OUT OF ME! PLEASE TAKE YOUR DICK OUT OF ME! PLEASE TAKE
YOUR DICK OUT OF ME!
I’m bleeding, it’s not fair…
You see, there’s this little place I like to go…
I like to run and hide–deep inside,
Where all the nightmares are real, and all the monsters come alive,
Oh, but the things I’ve seen in soft, soft visions and terrifying prophecies,
Like serpents on the take and gods coming in all sizes and shapes
Nothing seems fulfilling anymore..
Well your temples are swollen in deceit and the body of your missionary,
He’s rotting… rotting in defeat mama?
MAMA!
Are the aliens coming to take us away? (mama?)
Is Armageddon gonna happen again today?
LOOK WHAT HE DID TO ME! WHY DID YOU DO IT TO ME?!
HOW COULD YOU DO IT TO ME! WHY DID YOU DO IT TO ME?!
I will not cry… I will not cry…
I–PREFER–TO–DIE! than live–this life–of LIES!
KILL WHAT YOU CAN — CHALLENGE EVERYTHING
Vengeance is mine…
Hey, I’m sorry baby…
please come back inside…we can laugh a little… and live and die,
no wait. see, I got this hot pot of Jonestown tea
And it’s been brewing for you and me,
Oh, it only takes one sip,
Come on baby,
Surrender your lips,
I can take you someplace nice…
I can take you…someplace NICE!
Breed my disease, be my disease…
Breed my disease, be my disease…
and vengeance will be mine
It’s closer than you think…
So I entered his room at 32 past noon
With my little ritual knife…
I cut out his tongue
Liberated his wife
She loved me for it other world woman,
Well, that’s what she called me (Destroyer),
the one who sets you free, (come and drink with me)
We all die like cartoons, surrender your children,
kids who like to kill, lies…all lies…
This is the one hundred sixty-fourth installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.
Today’s Songs of Sacrilege is Lisa’s Father by Alice Donut.
Hi, I’d like to tell you a story about something
That happened to me
I was sitting at home just the other day
Watching some TV, when there’s a knock on my door
And I went to the door to see who it was, and
It was a woman with no eyes
And she had a stackfull of comic books
And she gave me one and then she said:
Take it and read!
And I took it, and I did read. And the story was
So moving and compelling that I had to write a
Song about it
It wasn’t one of your regular comic books
Rather it was one of those comic books from Chick publications out of
California, one of those comic books that’s
Meant to convert you to a fundamental Christianity
And it was a story about a family
And the father’s name was … he was name was Lisa’s father
And the mother’s name was … her name was Lisa’s mother
And then there was a child, a five year old child
Named Lisa
Lisa, pure as the driven snow
But she was driven in other ways as well, I’ll
Tell you about that later
Lisa’s mother was an alcoholic
She used to sit and knock back JD from 8 o’clock
In the morning ’til she passed out at midnight
Lisa’s father however, he was a sinner of another sort
He was a sinner of a different color, if you know what
I’m talking about
He was a kind of a man
A kind of a man who didn’t keep his sinning to himself
‘Cos he was a child-molester
This was a man who abused his little daughter Lisa
Every night. Every afternoon. Every morning
As soon as Lisa’s mother was whacked out on JD –
He’d go up to Lisa’s bedroom
And he’d start wailing around this poor little kid
Making that sound:
Oh waka waka waka baby baby baby –
Have me a good time yeah yeah
Yeah – yeah
One day he was up there, doing what he once did to
That poor little girl
When there was a knock on his front door
He tucked in his shirt, and he ran down
And he pulled up his pants
And he answered the door as quick as he could
And he said:
– Yo! Who’s there?
– Hey, this is Phil. Your neighbor!
– Oh! Hey, how’re you doing?
– Hi, Lisa’s father!
– How’s the weather?
– Oh, the weather is fine and I know what
You’ve been doing with Lisa
But you’d got to let me do it too
If you don’t want me to turn you in!
And Lisa’s father said:
– Whoa, I’m in the soup now!
What am I gonna do?
I gotta let him do it to Lisa or
Else he’ll turn me in to the police!
– Okay! You can do it!
You can do it too!
Upstairs the two of them went
And from that day on the both were doing it
To poor little Lisa
One day the mother dried up just long enough
To take that kid to the doctor
The doctor took one look at this kid, and
Do you know what the doctor said?
– Your daughter has a venereal diseases
And that mother, she put two and two together mighty
Fast, I’ll tell you
She knew what was going on up there
And she grabbed that kid – she started running home
She ran home as fast as she could
And she ran and she pointed a finger at Lisa’s father
And she said:
– You repulsive little shit!
I hate you! I hate you!
And Lisa’s father said:
– Whoa! Whoa, I’m in the soup now!
She knows what I’ve been doing to Lisa
He ran!
He ran out that door as fast as he could!
He started to make his way down to the bridge
Just like James Stewart in “It’s a wonderful life”
He was going to throw himself off that bridge
A woman with no eyes and a handful of comic books
Walks up to him ‘n’ give him a comic book
Just like the woman in my …
And she gave him a comic book and she said:
– Just pray!
Just pray, is what she said
The next panel said “15 minutes later”
And he said:
– Whoa! I feel excellent!!
I’m gonna go home and tell Lisa’s mother about
This prayin’ stuff
And he ran home, and he said:
– Hey, Lisa’s mother. Listen to this!
And she said:
– I hate you! I hate you!
And he said:
– Oh shut up you old cow!
Listen to this:
Get up and pray!!
15 minutes later
She says, she says:
– I feel great!
And Lisa’s father says:
– Let’s call Lisa in and tell her
What’s happening around here!
They call in Lisa
And Lisa is a little scared
They say:
– Hey Lisa. We’ve got some good news for you!
We’re never
Gonna hurt you
Never gonna hurt you anymore
And Lisa says, Lisa says:
– oh really!?
In March 2000, Joe Combs and his wife Evangeline were tried and convicted on numerous criminals charged related to their ritual abuse and rape of their adopted daughter. Joe Combs was the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Bristol, Tennessee. He previously had been a trusted member of First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana and a teacher at Hyles-Anderson College.
The Combses case was brought to memory recently when police arrested “David Turpin and Louise Turpin earlier this month in Riverside County, California, on charges of torture, child abuse, dependent adult abuse and false imprisonment.”
Dalena Mathews and Robert Sorrell, reporters for the Bristol Herald Courier had this to say:
Sullivan County District Attorney General Barry Staubus said news of the Turpin case brought back memories of a case he prosecuted in 2000.
“I immediately remembered the Combs trial and started comparing it to what’s happening in [the Turpin] case,” Staubus said in a recent interview with the Bristol Herald Courier.
“The difference is that in the Combs case, it centered on the sadistic, brutal treatment of Esther Combs.”
….
In November 1998, Bristol Tennessee Police arrested Joseph D. Combs, pastor of the now-defunct Emmanuel Baptist Church on Weaver Pike, and his wife, Evangeline Combs, on charges that they brutalized, Esther, a girl they were raising as their daughter.
The couple and their children were living in the church parsonage at the time the abuse took place.
Grand jury indictments against the couple were the culmination of a multi-jurisdictional investigation that began in February 1997, according to Blaine Wade, who now serves as Bristol Tennessee’s police chief.
Police began investigating when Esther, then 19, was taken to Bristol Regional Medical Center for treatment after she attempted to commit suicide.
Hospital staff discovered that her body was covered in layers of scar tissue. It was revealed during the trial that she had more than 400 scars.
The case went to trial more than a year later in March 2000. Lawyers questioned 121 jurors over six days before agreeing on the 12-member jury. The 12 jurors selected for the case included five retirees, a nurse, a press room manager, a bread salesman, a fast food restaurant manager and several Eastman employees. The group also included two church deacons and a Sunday school teacher.
….
Subpoenaed witnesses for the defense included two Michigan lawyers who represented Esther in a civil action against the Combses and against the Indiana adoption agency that placed her with the family.
Esther led a tortured life behind the locked doors of a Bristol church, enduring rapes, beatings and burnings at the hands of the people who should have protected her, Staubus said in his opening statement.
“Inside this locked, closed fellowship hall, there were sinister things going on,” Staubus said.
The couple systematically beat and abused the girl with baseball bats, wood burners, pliers, pieces of tin and metal whips, the prosecutor said.
“Mrs. Combs found out about [the abuse], and she blamed Esther and she viciously abused her,” Staubus told the jury.
Along with physical abuse and rape came other forms of cruelty, Staubus said. Esther was starved, denied an education and medical treatment and was “separated out to be the family servant,” the prosecutor said. “You will hear and see evidence of lies, betrayed trust, assaults, injuries, brutality, molestation and even torture.”
Defense attorneys, Spivey and Joe Harrison, said Esther had an ulterior motive. “She has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, and has received compensation for stories she has told to news agencies and newspaper people,” Spivey said.
Spivey said the most important evidence would come from the girl’s five brothers and sisters, who would testify she was a “disturbed young woman who inflicted injuries on herself.”
The jury was shown 58 photographs, which were taken by Richmond on the day the young woman was admitted to the hospital. The photographs showed red, whip-like marks covering the young woman’s back, raised scars on her buttocks and near her genitals, and other scars on her forehead, chin, neck, wrists, arms, breasts and legs.
When the detective tried to uncover the cause of the disfiguring marks on the young woman’s body, she was met by silence, Richmond said.
“Joe Combs told me he did not know she had scars and that he had never seen the scars before,” Richmond said. “He said she was very clumsy and she fell down a lot on the pavement.”
Esther took the stand on the 12th day of the trial, where a standing-room only crowd filled the courtroom. Joseph and Evangeline Combs showed little reaction to the testimony and rarely looked at Esther Combs while she was speaking.
“My earliest memory is of being tied to the high chair and thrown down the stairs by Mrs. Combs,” Esther testified, drawing gasps from the crowd of courtroom spectators.
She testified that the abuse continued for the next two decades as she detailed numerous incidents of abuse by Joseph and Evangeline Combs.
So many people wanted to observe the trial, Judge Beck set up a lottery system to determine which members of the public would get seats for the court session. He said he would not let spectators stand in the courtroom, but on certain days, some were allowed to do so.
A number of witnesses testified on behalf of the defense that the Combs children were “normal, happy children.”
The couple’s other children denied the allegations against their parents.
The former pastor adamantly denied allegations that he raped, tortured or enslaved Esther.
“I love her. I thought she loved me,” Joseph Combs said. “I’m bewildered by all of this. I can’t get my mind around it. It doesn’t make sense.”
Combs took the stand, but his wife did not.
After deliberating for just four hours, the jury delivered a guilty verdict. Joseph and Evangeline Combs were found guilty of especially aggravated kidnapping. Joseph Combs was also convicted of aggravated rape, aggravated assault, aggravated perjury and seven counts of rape. Evangeline Combs was also convicted of four counts of aggravated child abuse. The trial ultimately lasted 31 days, one of the longest in Sullivan County history.
On April 26, 2000, Joseph Combs was sentenced to 114 years behind bars. He later died in prison. Evangeline Combs received a 65-year sentence.
….
What follows is a video from the trial. Warning! This video is graphic:
The fundamentalist Baptist minister charged with kidnapping, raping and torturing a girl he took from a Porter County children’s home was once a respected Bible teacher at Hyles Anderson College in St. John Township.
When the Rev. Joseph and Evangeline Combs allegedly illegally adopted a 4-month old girl from the Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries in Kouts, he was “probably the foremost Bible instructor at Hyles Anderson,” said Jerry Kaifetz, a former student at the school and now an ordained minister. The family settled in a comfortable ranch home along a cul du sac in northwest Merrillville, where neighbors say the children were polite, well behaved and said they were not allowed to talk to adults unless their parents were present.
….
Joyce McGowan, a neighbor of the Combs family when they lived in Merrillville, said the Combses often tried to talk McGowan and her husband into accompanying them to Sunday services at First Baptist Church in Hammond. The Combs children were not allowed to exchange even small talk with McGowan, she said. McGowan also said she recalled the Combses often commenting how often their adoptive daughter seemed to be ill. “She was the one we didn’t see too often,” McGowan said. “She was small at that time, I think she couldn’t have been but 9 or 10 when they moved away. When we did see her, she had the saddest little face you ever saw.”
Prosecutors in Tennessee said the girl lived a hellish existence with her adoptive parents, being tortured and sexually abused as she was brainwashed into believing she was being raised to be the family’s slave because it was “God’s will.” The alleged abuse was discovered when the woman, who turns 21 on Monday, was hospitalized after a suicide attempt last year. Federal court records show the Combses were given the little girl in March 1978 by the operators of the Baptist Children’s Home. The adoption process was never completed. In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Hammond, lawyers for the woman said their client was systematically tortured by the Combses, never allowed to attend school and not told she was adopted or that a judge never awarded custody of her to the Combses. The lawyers are suing the Combses for their alleged abuse and the Baptist Children’s Home for negligence. The lawsuit does not specify the damages being sought.
….
Kaifetz said Combs left the area, probably in 1985, during a controversy over his sale of Bible study books at the college. He has had no contact with Combs since then, but did see an advertisement for his ministry several years ago in a religious publication.
The Rev. Jack Hyles, the pastor of the First Baptist Church and chancellor of Hyles Anderson College, could not be reached for comment Saturday. Beverly Hyles, his wife, said neither one of them has had any contact with the Combses since they left the area, taking 40 or so Hyles Anderson students with them to start their Tennessee church. “He has called us several times,” Hyles said. “We have not returned any of his calls.”
The woman’s lawsuit says she faces huge medical bills as the result of her alleged mistreatment. Among the injuries the Combses are alleged to have inflicted upon the woman were broken bones, dislocated joints, severe and repeated lacerations and trauma and damage to the nervous system and vascular systems. She is being cared for in Michigan by a foster family and has met both of her birth parents since her suicide attempt, said Gregg Herman, one of her lawyers.
Jennifer Talirico, another former neighbor of the Combses, said she was horrified to learn of the charges pending against the Combses. “They kept to themselves, they certainly weren’t the type to have neighbors over or anything like that,” Talirico said. “But God, I wish I knew what was going on in that house.”
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.
Jody Hilliard, assistant pastor at First Baptist Church in Duncan,Oklahoma and a high school teacher and principal, will stand trial March 21, 2018 for allegedly sexually molesting a ten-year-old girl.
In April 2016, Christian Betancourt, a reporter for the Duncan Banner, wrote:
Police arrested a 71-year-old retired Duncan assistant pastor after they say he had indecent acts with an out-of-town 10-year-old female relative while she visited last summer.
Jody Hilliard, 71, was arrested and charged with two counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child under 12, a felony.
According to police reports, on March 11, detectives with the Duncan Police Department received a report from the Department of Social Services in the state where the victim resides advising them about an ongoing sexual abuse while the minor was in Duncan.
The report stated Hilliard allegedly touched the girl in her private parts without clothes on and made her touch him in his genital area.
As part of their investigation, the report states a DPD detective received a video interview and several reports of the victim giving detailed, consistent descriptions of the alleged abuse to several law enforcement members during her month stay in Duncan.
Hilliard did not give a statement to police.
“Reverend Hilliard vehemently denies these horrible allegations, and we look forward to defending him in court,” stated Hilliard’s defense attorney Ed Blau.
A motion to set appropriate bail filed by Blau stated Hilliard was a pillar of the community for 32 years, served as assistant pastor for the First Baptist Church in Duncan for 26 years, was minister of education for three years at the Central Baptist Church in Lawton and was a high school teacher and principal for 11 years in Elgin and Ninnekah.
“The crimes alleged in this crime are serious,” stated the motion. “There appears to be no physical evidence to support the allegation. (Hilliard) maintains his innocence of the crimes alleged. By all accounts, (Hilliard) has a sterling reputation in the community, and the allegations made in this case are completely outside the bounds of that reputation. The outcome in this case will likely turn on who the jury believes is telling the truth. “
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.
Richard Taylor, youth pastor at Dutch Fork Baptist Church — located in Irmo, South Carolina — in the 1980s, has been charged with “third-degree criminal sexual conduct and common law assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.”
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department has announced the arrest of a former Columbia pastor charged with sexual assault from the late 1980s.
Sheriff Leon Lott says Richard Taylor has been charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct and common law assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.
During a bond hearing on Wednesday, a judge awarded Taylor with a $25,000 surety bond.
According to the department’s investigation, between 1989 and 1991, Taylor sexually assaulted a 17-year-old male victim on several incidents while serving as a youth pastor at Dutch Fork Baptist Church located at 3517 Dreher Shoals Road.
RCSD investigators were able to obtain arrest warrants for Taylor who turned himself into investigators on Tuesday, Jan. 23.
We spoke with the alleged victim in this case who told us he came from a very safe home, but he often didn’t feel like he was getting much love or attention.
He says this made it easy for the former youth pastor to quickly gain his trust by showing him a lot of affection and buying him gifts — those gifts came at a much higher price.
“Meeting my emotional and psychological needs that I wasn’t getting at home or through my social group of friends and he provided love, support, attention, gifts – that eventually came at the cost of fondling, mutual sexual acts and then rape,” the victim said.
Pastor Dr. Chuck McAlister with Dutch Fort Baptist Church says that Taylor has not been a part of their church for more than 20 years and they have not had any contact with him.
“Given the nature and direction our society is going, it’s sad these things happen,” McAlister said. “Our hearts go out to the victims. Our message is of redemption and anyone can find healing in whatever they have experienced through Jesus Christ. Our church stands ready to offer to heal to anyone in need.” [Talk about a bullshit “apology”, blaming society for Taylor’s criminal behavior. Everyone just needs to get saved and all will be well, right? Isn’t Taylor saved? Isn’t EVERY pastor featured in the Black Collar Crime Series saved? It seems clear, then, that salvation does not keep men from committing sex crimes.]