Today, The Kokomo Perspective released another episode in their ongoing coverage of the Temple Baptist Church sex scandal. Devin Zimmerman writes:
Both the Croddys and Temple Baptist Church have responded to the civil suit filed against them by Jane Doe, and a new venue might be selected for the case.
Both defendants in the case denied the allegations made by the unnamed female plaintiff in a civil suit filed in September. Doe sought damages for alleged sexual abuse she claimed to have endured at an early age at the hands of Donald Croddy and involves Temple Baptist Church and its pastor, Mike Holloway, in that she claimed to have been put under Croddy’s care by the pastor.
In the initial complaint, Doe claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Croddy while between the ages of 12 and 14 years old while living with him and his wife, Elfriede, in the early ‘90s.
The living situation, according to the suit, was suggested by Holloway in 1992 while Doe attended Temple Baptist Church via its bus ministry. Due to difficulty in attending church events and activities associated with Temple Christian School, which is operated by the church, the living situation allegedly was suggested so she could increase her attendance. Then, while living with the Croddys on weekends from 1992 to 1994, Doe claimed to have been sexually abused by Donald.
The suit partially hinges on whether Holloway knew of Donald’s tendencies, which the suit claims he was made aware of during a confrontation that involved similar allegations made by an individual in both Holloway and Donald’s presence.
However, both the Croddys, the church, and Holloway denied the allegations in their answers to the complaint, with the Croddys most recently filing their answer on Nov. 22.
Temple Baptist Church and Holloway’s initial response cited several affirmative defenses in the civil suit, including a claim that the statute of limitations bars Doe’s claims. The defendants also requested the action be tried by a jury.
The Croddys, in their response, sought dismissal of the case and also cited a statute of limitations in their affirmative defenses.
Additionally, a special judge was appointed to the case after a motion to change the venue of the case was filed in September. As a result, Rich Maughmer of Cass County was appointed; however, a second change of venue was filed on behalf of Doe on Nov. 30. As of press time, the second special judge had not been appointed.
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In previous interviews and social media postings, the church has maintained the defense that Holloway sought council from the Christian Law Association (CLA), wherein he was encouraged to take the precautionary measure of restricting Donald from all activities involving children.
In a Facebook posting in April, Holloway wrote, “Since that decision and up to this present time, I have received no information indicating concern about Don’s behavior.”
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.
Harry Thomas, pastor of Come Alive Church in Medford, New Jersey and the founder of Creation Concerts (Festivals), has been accused of sexually assault four minors over a sixteen-year period. Thomas has already been scrubbed from the church’s website.
Jim Walsh, a reporter for the Courier Post, writes:
A 74-year-old pastor active in promoting Christian music festivals is accused of sexually assaulting four minors here over a 16-year period, authorities said Thursday.
Harry L. Thomas, who preached at Come Alive Church in Medford, allegedly assaulted his victims between 1999 and 2015, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.
It did not name the victims or describe their relationship with Thomas, a Medford resident who played a prominent role in a sensational child-abuse case more than a decade ago.
The prosecutor’s office asked anyone “who may have experienced inappropriate contact” with Thomas to contact investigators.
According to online information for Come Alive Church, Thomas founded the church in 1983, holding its first services in a township school building.
He also is the founder of Creation Concerts, a Medford-based promoter of Christian music concerts.
Thomas in 1979 held the first Creation Fest, which bills itself as the nation’s largest Christian music festival. The multi-day summer festival has shows scheduled for 2018 in Mount Union, Pa., and Kennewick, Washington.
Come Alive Church includes “both traditional and contemporary music” in its services, according to the church’s website.
“The art of music can also be a way to present the gospel message in a disarming way, and at the same time inspire and encourage the body of believers,” it says.
In 2003, Thomas served as an advocate for Raymond and Vanessa Jackson of Collingswood, church members accused of starving four foster children.
The pastor created a now-defunct website, savethejacksons.org, and offered emotional and financial support to the family, according to Courier-Post reports from that time.
“I find it very hard within me to believe they have done this in any purposeful way, if in fact they have done it,” he told a Courier-Post reporter in November 2003.
Thomas was criticized at a congressional hearing on the case in November 2004, after he minimized weight gain by the children after they were removed from the Jacksons’ care.
The boys, ages 9 to 19, each weighed less than 50 pounds after a neighbor alerted police after he found a boy looking for food in his trashcan.
During his testimony, Thomas suggested the boys may have been weighed with their shoes on and said the boys might be responding to attention from authorities, said a Courier-Post report.
“We’d all gain weight in that environment,’ he told the panel.
Vanessa Jackson received a seven-year prison term in 2006 for endangering the welfare of the children. Raymond Jackson died in 2004.
A representative of Come Alive Church, which is on the 200 block of Old Marlton Pike, could not be reached for immediate comment.
Thomas, a Queens Lane resident, was arrested Wednesday morning, and “is being treated at a medical facility, where he is under guard,” the statement said.
The pastor is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault and three counts of sexual assault, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The Medford man also faces four counts of endangering the welfare of minors.
Harry Thomas, the 74-year-old church pastor accused of sexually assaulting four minors over more than a decade, consented to remain detained pending further court proceedings.
At a detention hearing in Burlington County Superior Court Tuesday afternoon, Thomas said he would voluntarily remain in prison, at the advice of his attorney, public defender Anthony Aldorasi.
Thomas, a Medford resident and pastor at Come Alive Church, was charged earlier this month with a series of alleged assaults that took place between 1999 and 2015.
In addition to his role at Come Alive Church, Thomas is also a popular national figure in the Christian community, and founded the country’s largest Christian music festival, the Creation Festival.
Both Come Alive Church and the Creation Festival have indefinitely suspended Thomas from his leadership and ministry roles.
Authorities are withholding information about where the alleged assaults took place, as well as the victims’ ages, to shield their identities.
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In a February 17, 2018 story, the Burlington County Times reported:
The former pastor of a Medford church was solemn, weeping at one point and sniffling often, as he admitted in court Friday that he sexually assaulted or abused five minors over a 14-year period.
Harry L. Thomas, 74, of Queens Lane in Medford, will likely die in prison after he agreed to a plea deal before Superior Court Judge Jeanne T. Covert that would have him serve 15 to 20 years without parole.
Thomas, founder of the Come Alive New Testament Church on Old Marlton Pike, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated sexual assault, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
Under the deal, the state will argue that he serve 20 years; the defense will seek 15 years. Thomas’ sentencing is tentatively scheduled for June. He had faced the possibility of up to 25 years for first-degree aggravated sexual assault and 10 years each on the other charges, Covert told him.
When questioned by his attorney, Anthony Aldorasi, Thomas admitted to the sexual assault of a 9-year-old in 2005; sexual contact with three girls who were 7, 8 and 9, in 2000 and 2010; and exposing himself and endangering the welfare of a girl between 2008 and 2010, when she was 8 to 10 years old.
All of the crimes occurred in Medford, according to comments in court. Any additional information about the victims was withheld to protect their identities, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office. The office also would not comment on whether the victims were church members.
Aldorasi said although Thomas could not recall the exact dates of the offenses, he did not dispute the allegations. Thomas pleaded guilty before being indicted on any charges, waiving his right to grand jury proceedings. Both sides indicated that he wanted to plead guilty quickly out of consideration for the victims and their families, some of whom were in court.
Thomas will be evaluated to determine if he should undergo treatment as a repetitive and compulsive sexual offender. He will also be subject to Megan’s Law requirements, including registering as a sex offender.
Thomas, who has been in jail since his arrest in December, told the judge he has had serious health problems, including strokes and congestive heart failure. He was sniffling throughout the proceedings, but told Covert he was in a clear mind frame in admitting his guilt.
On its website, the church posted: “Harry Thomas has officially resigned all associations and ministry roles with Come Alive New Testament Church, Creation Festivals and Come Alive International, effective immediately. The leadership of these organizations have accepted Mr. Thomas’ resignation as the proper course of action and will continue to actively cooperate with the authorities. While we are unable to share the details of what was reported, we have been informed that the charges are not related to any of his roles in these ministries.”
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.
Erick Granados-Zeledon, a Bible teacher at Iglesia Hispana Emmanuel in Annapolis, Maryland, was sentenced today to ten years in prison for sexually molesting a ten-year-old child.
Saline San Felice, a reporter for the Capital Gazette, writes:
A former Bible study instructor at an Annapolis church was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for sexually abusing a child.
Erick Ernesto Granados-Zeledon, 39, of Edgewater, was arrested in June and charged with sex abuse of a minor and several related crimes. A 10-year-old child told investigators that Granados-Zeledon sexually abused him.
On Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge Michael Wachs sentenced him to 10 years in prison with five years probation. Granados-Zeledon is required to register as a tier three sex offender for the rest of his life and has been barred from any unsupervised contact with minors.
Granados-Zeledon was a chaperone and Bible study instructor at Iglesia Hispana Emmanuel in Annapolis, where he met the boy and his family, Assistant State’s Attorney Reva Chopra said during the sentencing hearing in Annapolis. He became a friend of the family and would take the child from the family’s residence to church, out to eat and occasionally to his home in Edgewater, police wrote in charging documents.
“His family believed (Granados-Zeledon) wanted to be a mentor for the young boy,” Chopra said in court.
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Assistant Public Defender Bethany Linden Skopp, Granados-Zeledon’s attorney, said her client admitted to investigators that he’d performed sexual acts with the child in March when he drove the boy to his home. He pleaded guilty in October, and prosecutors dropped all of the charges except for sex abuse of a minor.
At the time of his arrest, Anne Arundel County police expressed concerned there might have been more victims since Granados-Zeledon’s position at the church put him in regular contact with children.
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.
Jeffrey Graton, a counselor affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was arrested Monday on sexual abuse allegations.
The Daily Herald reports:
A second counselor in a bishopric in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was arrested Monday after reportedly sexually abusing a girl multiple times.
Jeffrey Graton, 40, of American Fork, was arrested on suspicion of three counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
Police responded Sunday to a call at the 300th block of 620 South in American Fork Sunday night on a welfare check after an LDS bishop called to have police check on Graton, a second counselor in an LDS bishopric.
Graton reportedly had left his home with a gun and wasn’t answering his phone after it was reported he had inappropriately touched a girl several years ago, according to a police report. Graton was found and gave the rifle to an LDS leader.
The abuse reportedly happened 10 times.
Graton reportedly told police he had touched the girl’s chest and thighs, both under and over clothing, while giving her a massage in two occasions two and a half years ago. He also admitted to grabbing the girl’s hand and using it to touch his genitals.
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.
James Crawford, pastor of Westside Church in Redding,California, inexplicably escaped 22 felony counts alleging lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, accepting a plea deal that had Crawford pleading no contest to three misdemeanors. Crawford will spend no time in jail.
Jim Schultz, a reporter for the Record Searchlight, writes:
A former Redding pastor arrested in February and charged with 31 criminal counts, including 22 felonies, for allegedly molesting three girls over a seven-year span pleaded no contest Monday in Shasta County Superior Court to three misdemeanors.
James Gladwell Crawford, the ex-pastor of the Westside Church of Redding off Swasey Drive, pleaded no contest to child endangerment not likely to produce great bodily injury.
He was placed on probation for four years and credited for eight days he served in Shasta County Jail. He is not required to serve any additional jail time and was ordered to pay the standard court fees and fines.
A prosecutor for the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office could not be reached late Monday afternoon for comment about his plea deal.
Crawford was arrested Feb. 3 and later released from jail after his $1 million bail was posted. He was charged with 22 felony counts alleging lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, as well as a series of sex crime-related enhancements and nine misdemeanors.
Those charges were dismissed and he pleaded no contest to the three child endangerment-related misdemeanors.
Although there was no sexual intercourse involved, Crawford was accused of inappropriately touching the three girls, who were 17, 16 and 11 at the time of his arrest.
Additionally, he was accused of engaging in other inappropriate behavior, according to a Shasta County Sheriff’s Office report filed in court at the time of his arraignment.
That report says the girls told detectives that Crawford, among other things, playfully tickled — and touched them all over their bodies — as he removed their clothing.
One of the girls also told detectives he became upset at her and one of the other girls about five years earlier because they wanted to ride their bikes to school, according to the police report.
“In an effort to explain what could happen to them, James Crawford threw Victim 3 against a wall and held the backside of a knife blade against her throat,” the sheriff’s report said.
The other girl also involved in that episode confirmed that knife account, as well as the tickling, the sheriff’s report said.
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.
Robert Kalton, a British church choir director, was convicted of sexually abusing boys and sentenced to nine years in prison. Kalton previously spent six years in prison for similar crimes.
A former church choirmaster has been jailed for sexually abusing three boys in the 1970s and 1980s.
Robert Kalton, 82, sexually assaulted the children while he was working at a church in Leicestershire and Wiltshire, Leicestershire Police said.
He had moved to live in Portugal after the attacks and was arrested in 2013.
Kalton, of no fixed address, was found guilty of 15 child sex abuse offences at Leicester Crown Court and sentenced to nine years in prison.
He was also put on the sex offenders register for life.
Police said the victims were sexually abused at a church in Melton Mowbray and Trowbridge.
Officers received a report four years ago from a boy who claimed he had been sexually abuse by Kalton when he was 11 and 12 years old.
An investigation found two other victims were abused when they had attended choir practice.
Kalton was found guilty of four counts of gross indecency with a boy under 16 and 11 counts of indecent assault on a male.
Det Con Steve Winterton said: “These awful crimes took place when the victims were young boys.
“They have lived with what happened to them for many years and no doubt the crimes committed on them have affected them ever since.
“All the victims have shown immense courage throughout the investigation and legal proceedings and it’s their perseverance which has resulted in the conviction.”
Former choirmaster and organist Robert Kalton was extradited from his home in Portugal earlier this year to face charges relating to his abuse of young boys during the seventies and eighties.
He was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Friday after admitting to 15 counts of indecency with a child and indecent assault on a male.
The court heard that Kalton’s crimes were committed against two victims when he was living in Thorpe Arnold, near Melton, and a third young boy when he previously lived in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Richard Thatcher, prosecuting, said: “They were all boys at the time of the offences when this defendant was a choirmaster.”
He said Kalton seemed to “pay more attention to the boys” and was “very tactile with them” whilst not encouraging girls to join the choir.
Mr Thatcher said that the defendant used the victims’ “keenness to learn” to draw them to his home, which one described as being “like a boys club”.
Kalton also relied on his reputation as a gifted teacher and their parents’ naivety to engineer time alone with the boys and would “groom” them with praise to win their confidence.
The court heard that in each case “congratulatory hugs and kisses” would often lead to intimate touching and sexual activity, however, he added that this did not involve intercourse.
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In 1988, the defendant was convicted of a serious sexual offence on a boy and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Mr Thatcher said: “These matters, however, did not come to light at the time, the complainants indicating that they would have lied at the time to avoid the embarrassment of revealing what had happened to them.”
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.
Manuel Mora, a pastor at All Nations Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey was arrested Friday for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a church teenager.
A pastor at the All Nations Church in New Brunswick was arrested Friday for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl, according to authorities.
Pastor Manuel Mora, 52, of the Kendall Park section of South Brunswick, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child in the third degree and criminal sexual contact, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said in a release.
No further details were made available about the pastor’s alleged relationship with the 17-year-old. Authorities only said their investigation found the two “had ongoing sexual contact.”
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.
James Arbaugh, a Mennonite missionary in Haiti, has been charged with “grooming and/or having sexual contact with approximately 21 males under the age of 18.” Arbaugh attended Mountain View Mennonite Church in Lyndhurst, Virginia.
The Mennonite reports:
James Daniel Arbaugh, a Mennonite missionary, has been arrested and charged with molesting children while serving in Haiti. On Nov. 21, The Daily News-Record of Harrisonburg, Virginia, reported that Arbaugh was arrested on Nov. 15 by a U.S. Homeland Security special agent. Court records show that Arbaugh, 40, was charged with felony coercion or enticement of a minor. Arbaugh attended Mountain View Mennonite Church in Lyndhurst, Virginia, a former Mennonite Church USA congregation, and was a board member for Walking Together for Christ Haiti.
The criminal complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg, states that “Arbaugh reported grooming and/or having sexual contact with approximately 21 males under the age of 18.” Arbaugh disclosed the abuse to a counselor during a Sept. 11 session. In Virginia, health-care providers are mandated to report child abuse to social services. According to the Daily News-Record, social services contacted the Harrisonburg Police Department, who then contacted federal agents.
Arbaugh traveled to Haiti from 2009 to 2015. According to a website where he documented his mission work, Arbaugh was a self-supporting “tentmaker” partnering with Walking Together for Christ in Haiti and involved in “media ministry.” The last post on the site is from July 2.
According to the complaint, on Sept. 15, Arbaugh allowed police to look at his laptop and showed police a picture of a 5-year-old boy, the son of a pastor at a church in Haiti, on the computer. The complaint states that Arbaugh confessed to molesting the boy.
The complaint states, “Arbaugh indicated he used his missionary work in Haiti to build friendships with the minors. Arbaugh acknowledged that he groomed the minors in Haiti by engaging in minor sexual activities with them so that one day they would be open to more.”
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According to Lynn Suter, VMMissions Director of Operations and International Ministries, VMMissions has not partnered with Walking Together since its incorporation in 2015. Prior to that time, Suter says, VMMissions was engaged in intermittent work in Haiti and sent six short-term missions teams from 2003-2010. VMMissions is reviewing its records to determine the extent of its connections to Arbaugh. VMMissions has not found record of James Arbaugh having been employed as a missionary by VMMissions. VMMissions is calling on individuals with information about Arbaugh’s connections to the organization to contact Suter (lynn.suter@vmmissions.org). According to Suter, VMMissions and the Walking Together board will work to contact individuals in Haiti that Arbaugh may have been connected to.
Suter says that VMMissions first learned in September that Arbaugh had returned to the United States to receive professional counseling for unnamed “sexual sins.” VMMissions was told that Arbaugh was aware that if he divulged anything about his behavior that was illegal, the counselor would be legally required to report it to the authorities. VMMissions did not learn more about Arbaugh’s behavior until the Daily News-Record article was published on Nov. 21. VMMissions does not have information regarding the time frame when Arbaugh’s misconduct occurred.
“VMMissions strongly condemns the abuse Mr. Arbaugh has confessed and is alleged to have committed. We are heartsick for the victims and for the grievous misrepresentation of Christ and his church by someone who should have been trustworthy,” wrote Suter in a Nov. 30 email.
Suter says that VMMissions has procedures both to assess the fitness and conduct of individuals who apply for service with VMMissions, including criminal background checks.
“The revelation of Mr. Arbaugh’s conduct compels us to more closely examine the character and conduct of persons who are not appointed or employed with us but with whom we associate on the field and their own systems of accountability,” she wrote.
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A February 6, 2018 report in the News Virginian states that James Arbaugh pleaded guilty and now faces up to 30 years in prison:
A Stuarts Draft man who prosecutors say traveled to Haiti as a Mennonite missionary to sexually abuse “multiple children” — some as young as 5 years old — pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg.
James Daniel Arbaugh, 40, entered a guilty plea to the charge of traveling in foreign commerce to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.
Arbaugh, of Stuarts Draft, will be sentenced in June. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Arbaugh admitted to “engaging in illicit sexual conduct” with more than 20 boys while traveling in Haiti as a Mennonite missionary between 2008 and 2017, according to assistant U.S. Attorney Jeb Terrien.
The defendant would regularly visit remote towns and villages throughout the Caribbean nation, where he would “evangelize and show Christian-themed movies” to the residents, according to Terrien.
During these missionary visits, Arbaugh would befriend children in the communities and “groom” them to satisfy his sexual desires, the prosecutor said.
In all, he sexually abused 21 or more boys who were between the ages of 5 and 17 when the abuse took place.
Comedian and late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel has mentioned Alabama senate candidate and Evangelical Christian Roy Moore several times on his program, Jimmy Kimmel Live! Yesterday, Moore decided to “fight” back by tweeting on Twitter:
If you want to mock our Christian values, come down here to Alabama and do it man to man. #ALSen
Kimmel responded:
Sounds great Roy – let me know when you get some Christian values and I’ll be there!
Moore replied:
Despite D.C. and Hollywood Elites’ bigotry towards southerners, Jimmy, we’ll save you a seat on the front pew.
Kimmel, showing why it is never a good idea to get into a fight with a comedian, replied:
OK Roy, but I’m leaving my daughters at home! P.S. – wear that cute little leather vest.
I accept the invitation. I’m going to come down with a team of high school cheerleaders. … And when the girls and I show up, if you can somehow manage to keep little Roy in your cowboy pants, you and I will sit down in the food court and have a chat about Christian values.
There is no one I would rather fight. I will put my Christian values aside to fight you. I’ll wear a Girl Scout uniform, so you have something to look at. Whoever wins the fight, we’ll donate the money from tickets we sell to whatever charity we want. I’ll donate mine to the women who claim you molested them.
If you have not seen the Anthony J. “Tony” Barbieri (AKA Jake Byrd) video of Roy Moore’s recent rally at Magnolia Springs Baptist Church in Theodore, Alabama, please check it out below. It provides a serious, yet funny look into the minds of Moore supporters. It also shows how homophobic and bigoted Moore really is.
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.
Rupert Clarke, pastor of the Nazareth Moravian Church in Manchester, Jamaica, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of having sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 years old.
The St. Lucia Times reports:
Rupert Clarke, the Moravian pastor who left tongues wagging last year when he was found in a compromising position with an underage girl in his motor car, pleaded guilty yesterday.
Clarke, 64, pleaded guilty to two counts of having sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 years old when he appeared in the St Elizabeth Circuit Court.
On the night of December 28, 2016, the police reported that a team on patrol found Clarke with one of the complainants in a “compromising position” in his parked motor vehicle near Nain, St Elizabeth.
Clarke was immediately taken into police custody. He was granted bail in the sum of $800,000 on January 4.
Further investigations revealed that Clarke also had a sexual relationship with the child’s sister while she was under 16, the age of consent.
Yesterday’s court hearing was actually to make a ruling on the prosecution’s application to have the matter transferred to the Home Circuit Court in Kingston.
Justice Martin Gayle, after approximately three-and-a-half hours into the hearing, granted the application for the matter to be transferred to Kingston, but things changed quickly after the judge handed down his ruling.
Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn told the Jamaica Observer that shortly after 5:00 pm Clarke’s attorney, Deborah Martin, upon hearing the ruling, indicated to the court that her client wished to change his plea.
Clarke then pleaded to having sexual intercourse with the complainants who are sisters from a poor family.
“One who was under 16 years old at the time of the incident and one who was 17 years old at the time the report was made to the police, but who indicated that she had had sexual intercourse with him when she was under 16 and in fact had a child for him as a result of that connection,” the DPP said.
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Rev Clarke was pastor of the Nazareth Moravian Church in Manchester.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, 
