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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Paul Burress Accused of Inappropriately Touching Women

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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.

Paul Burress, senior pastor at Victory Church in Rochester, New York and operator of Fight Church, stands accused of forcibly touching two women.

Steve Orr, a reporter for Democrat & Chronicle, writes:

Paul Burress, a charismatic, in-your-face pastor who gained fame for operating a fight club in his Henrietta house of worship, has been accused of forcibly touching two women.

Burress was for years a pastor at Victory Church, a large nondenominational Christian church. The Victory website does not list Burress as being among its leadership team, and the telephone went unanswered there Monday morning.

Burress, 43, is a mixed-martial arts fighter as well as a minister, and received a great deal of publicity when he was featured in Fight Church, a 2014 documentary.

On Friday morning, however, he was arrested by Monroe County sheriff’s deputies on two counts of forcible touching, according to Sheriff’s Office spokesman Cpl. John Helfer. Helfer verified the person arrested was the minister noted for his “Fight Church” activities.

The charges arose from separate incidents in February, Helfer said. The complainants are adult females.

The offense in question, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year in jail, is defined in the state penal law as forcibly touching “the sexual or other intimate parts of another person.”

….

The Henrietta pastor has been dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct for several years. Several blogs and news websites featured such claims three years ago, when Burress came to public attention because of his fighting-in-church approach.

But none of those accusations were proved and there is no record of any previous arrest.

Tina Wright, a former member of Victory Church who asserts she has a long personal history with Burress, said she had spoken to one of the women who filed charges.

Wright, who now lives in South Carolina, said she encouraged that woman and others who may have been harmed by the minister to come forward.

“I know beyond the shadow of a doubt there are more victims. There’s a lot of us here,” Wright said. “We need to end the silence so we can stop the cycle of abuse, especially in the church.”

Asked her reaction to reports of his arrest, Wright said, “I’m still in shock, to be honest. I’m relieved that the voices of the victims are finally being heard and they’ll have the opportunity to tell their stories.”

Video Link

In May 2014, Raw Story reported:

A former member claims “Fight Church” pastor Paul Burress abused his power and tried to entice others into the swinger lifestyle, the Christian Post reported Tuesday.

The pastor’s Victory Church was featured in a new documentary about the hundreds of American churches that attract new members and build their communities around mixed martial arts fights between “fight ministry” religious leaders.

Burress defended the fights, which he said were “not hateful or destructive,” but instead taught participants to “control our most violent impulses through strength, discipline and perseverance — none of which are at odds with Christianity.”

But the Bloody Elbow blog reported that an unidentified former member told the leadership team at Victory Church that Burress had tried to entice him into a sexual relationship with the pastor’s wife.

The man said Burress asked him to perform a sensual back rub on his wife, Jill Burress, who had removed her shirt and bra, while at the couple’s home twice in 2009.

“Paul made sure that my hand made contact with the side of a breast by moving it there with his own hand,” the man said. “Paul also made sure that I touched her bare bottom.”

The man, who said he was 21 years old and single at the time, said Burress also showed him nude photos of his wife and a video of the couple having sex.

“This weighed on me for years, until I couldn’t take it anymore and eventually left Victory because of it,” the man said. “A person should be able to trust his pastor. I could not. 1 Cor 4:2 says it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.”

The man said Burress made sexual advances in 2012 to two female church members in their 20s at his home, where they were going to have their “backs worked on.”

He said the pastor later tried to seduce one of them at a coffee shop after confessing he had been a swinger while previously married to another woman.

“The girls were asked to remove their shirts and bras because the straps got in the way,” the man said. “They both left Victory, and won’t return, because they were frightened and disturbed by the sexual advances of the pastor.”

A former exchange student who was 16 years old when she stayed with Burress and his family in 2009 also sent a letter to church leadership last year, claiming the pastor had molested her.

Victory Church’s executive pastor sent church leaders an email the following day characterizing the woman’s claims as “the latest vindictive email attack against” Burress and the church.

“The timing is suspect as she hasn’t said a word for all these years until these other people started up,” said Al Ogden, who also serves as the church’s director of counseling. “And last year when she came to visit she came back to Victory. So it apparently didn’t bother her much then.”

Ogden also said in the email that her claims may have been coached because they so closely resembled other allegations against Burress, and the official questioned where the woman had gotten the deacon’s email list.

The man said he was concerned about the apparent pattern in the pastor’s life, noting that Burress had been a swinger while married in Missouri and then divorced after an affair with another woman at his Fusion church in Rochester.

….

Update:

USA Today reports that Burress has been charged with additional counts of forcible touching:

Two more forcible-touching charges were filed Friday against Paul Burress, the New York pastor known for running a fight club in his church.

The two new charges involve an adult female who said Burress touched her in a sexual way in one incident this year and another one in 2016, said Corporal John Helfer, spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

Two other women made similar accusations against Burress last week.

….

You can read court documents related to Burress’ case here.

A March 15, 2018 report states that Burress pleased guilty and received probation. WHAM reports:

A former Henrietta pastor has pleaded guilty to sexual abuse. Paul Burress pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse in the third degree. Burress will be sentenced to one year of probation. No-contact orders of protection were filed for all the complainants in the case. Three women accused Burress of sexual abuse. The incidents took place at different times in a hot tub at Burress’ house. Burress was a pastor at Victory Baptist Church in Henrietta until last June.

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Charles Woodall Convicted of Sexually Molesting Boys He Met Through Church

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In 2015, Charles Woodall was arrested and charged with molesting three boys he met through his work at Northway Church in Macon, Georgia. Last Friday, Woodall was convicted of his crimes.

Amy Leigh Womack, a reporter for The Telegraph, reports:

Jurors deliberated for about two hours before finding former GBI agent Charles Woodall guilty of molesting three boys he met through his work at Macon’s Northway Church.

Woodall, who was taken into custody after the verdict was announced, was found guilty of six counts of child molestation, five counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes and one count of violating his oath as an agent. He will be sentenced at a later date.

District Attorney David Cooke said Woodall “abused the trust of two of our most sacred institutions, the church and the badge. Now he will have to answer for his crimes thanks to the courage of his victims who came forward to hold him accountable.”

Testimony in Woodall’s trial began Tuesday in Bibb County Superior Court.

The 36-year-old testified Thursday, calmly denying all the allegations against him. He said he didn’t know why the boys — whom he’d met during stints as a volunteer and other times as an employee of the Zebulon Road church — would make such serious allegations against him.

In her closing argument to jurors, prosecutor Nancy Scott Malcor recounted statements of 11 men — who were teenagers at the time of the alleged inappropriate contact with Woodall in Georgia and Tennessee — and reminded jurors of their “eerily similar stories.”

“Their stories are the same because the defendant is a pervert who hasn’t changed his playbook in 15 years,” she said. “These men are telling the truth. They have nothing to gain by lying. … They’re saying these things because they’re true.”

Allegations against Woodall date from 2005 to 2014.

Woodall testified he got a job at a Knoxville, Tennessee, church after dropping out of college following his freshman year.

At first he worked with the church’s afters-school program and then began volunteering with the youth group.

In 2005, he moved to Macon and began a summer internship working with youth at Northway Church, formerly known as Vineville North Baptist Church, Woodall testified.

At the end of the internship, he was hired as an assistant to the student pastor, a position he held until going back to college in 2007, with hopes of one day becoming a federal law enforcement officer.

In December 2011, Woodall was hired by the GBI as a crime scene specialist and was working as a field agent at the time of his 2015 arrest. The GBI assisted in Woodall’s prosecution.

Charles Cox, Woodall’s lawyer, said the actions of the men who accused his client of impropriety don’t match their words.

“Their words say Mr. Woodall is guilty. Their behavior says he’s innocent,” Cox said in his closing argument. “Actions speak louder than words.”

Cox said the men sought out a relationship with Woodall after the alleged inappropriate conduct supposedly occurred.

He said there’s no computer or credit card evidence that supports allegations Woodall purchased pornography he was accused of showing the men when they were teens.

There’s also no evidence he bought a sex toy he’s accused of providing to the boys, Cox said.

In a November 25, 2015 article, Womack reported:

The investigation of a former GBI agent charged with molesting three boys has revealed other alleged victims in Georgia and Tennessee, as well as an allegation in Dallas, Texas.

Bill Bodrey, assistant special agent in charge of the GBI’s Perry office, testified during a hearing Wednesday that 34-year-old Charles Woodall also was investigated in 2014, but insufficient evidence was found to prosecute.

Since authorities launched a new investigation about two months ago, allegations brought forward by others have corroborated the account that the boy in the 2014 case described, he said.

….

He is charged with nine counts of child molestation, six counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes, one count of electronically furnishing obscene material to minors, and violating his oath of office.

The charges stem from allegations that he molested three boys between September 2005 and February 2014.

Woodall, who became a GBI agent in December 2011, resigned in lieu of termination last month during the investigation.

He’d been assigned to the GBI’s Milledgeville field office, but he had interned at the Perry office before being hired as an agent.

When speaking with the GBI, one of the boys said he’d met Woodall at Northway Church on Zebulon Road in north Macon, Bodrey testified.

Woodall was a small group leader and mentor for the church’s youth and played in a church band, Bodrey said.

The boy told agents that his sexual contact with Woodall began when he was 13 or 14 years old, after the boy had confessed that he was addicted to pornography, Bodrey said.

Woodall offered to help the boy. Between 2009 and 2014, he drove the boy from his home to Woodall’s home or from church to Woodall’s home, where Woodall provided a sex toy and pornography to the boy, and touched the boy’s genitals, Bodrey testified.

Later, after the boy turned 16 and Woodall had left his position at the church to become a GBI agent, Woodall and the boy met at a motel room, where Woodall again provided pornography and a sex toy, and touched the boy’s genitals, Bodrey said.

Agent Jason Shoudel testified that Woodall provided pornography and a sex toy for two other boys, whom he drove individually from their home north of Macon to his home in Macon, where he coached them on how to pleasure themselves.

“He called it being his accountability partner with the church,” Shoudel said.

Between 2005 and 2007, one of the boys alleges that he had contact with Woodall once or twice a month, beginning when he was 12 or 13.

Years later, when the boy was 16 or 17, Woodall took the boy to a location outside Bibb County and gave him alcohol, Shoudel said.

Another boy alleges that he had contact with Woodall at least a dozen times between 2009 and 2011 when he was between 14 and 15, the agent testified.

At some point, Woodall took him to a motel room near the Mall of Georgia, north of Atlanta, where he gave him alcohol and touched his genitals, Shoudel said.

….

Black Collar Crime: Pastor Mitch Olson Slips Out of Criminal Charges

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Mitchell “Mitch” Olson, pastor of Grace Ministry Center in Kimball, Michigan, will not face criminal charges over “anointing” a female church member’s breasts, buttocks, and genitals. If you are not familiar with this story, please read, Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Mitch Olson Accused of Sexually Assaulting Church Member.

Nicole Hayden, a reporter for the Times Herald, reports:

A pastor accused of sexually assaulting a young woman will not face prosecution because the woman doesn’t fall under any classes of victims as outlined by state law, officials said Wednesday.

Pastor Mitch Olson, of Grace Ministry Center in Smiths Creek, was being investigated after the 20-year-old woman filed a police report in June alleging that Olson sexually assaulted her while performing a religious act. The Times Herald does not publish names of sexual assault victims. At the start of August, the St. Clair County Sheriff Department submitted the case to the prosecutor for review seeking a criminal sexual conduct charge.

The prosecutor concluded no criminal activity occurred.

“The conduct of suspect Mitchell Olson directed towards 19 year old Victim was morally reprehensible. The Grace Ministry Center head pastor’s conduct appears to be highly questionably and not religious in nature. It also appears to have violated the standards of the church. However, based on the information and law cited above, this conduct despite being immoral is not illegal according to Michigan criminal law. For these reasons we are unable to prosecute this case,” said Senior Assistant Prosecutor Paul Soderberg in the case review released Wednesday morning.

The woman told the Times Herald that she was heartbroken by the decision.

“It’s frustrating to know that it did happen but that Michigan law can’t protect me,” she said. “It’s very frustrating. I think if Michigan law was different he would be prosecuted … it’s frustrating that he can continue to do to other women what he did to me … I have learned through this experience that sexual assault is so minimized and that it’s easier for people to brush it under the rug rather than take action.”

….

The prosecutor’s case review does not argue if Olson committed the alleged acts or not, but states that the allegations are not criminal according to Michigan law.

“In reaching this conclusion, the People thoroughly reviewed the evidence presented in the sheriff department’s criminal investigation. It included the multiple disclosures and statements made by victim, which were consistent and reliable … The review also considered the statements of suspect Olson, who appeared to minimize his actions and while also deflecting away from the issue at stake,” said the prosecutor’s review.

To be a criminal act in Michigan, the victim either had to fall under a special class of victims or there had to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt that there was force or coercion involved in the alleged sexual assault.
The special class of victims includes children under the age of 16, incapacitated victims, family members, students of a certain age, special education students, persons in foster care, clients of mental health professionals, prisoners, and patients of medical doctors, among others.

“In contrast, there currently are no laws in Michigan that specifically list or protect members of a religious organization as ‘status’ victims against sexual contact by religious leaders, authorities, or pastors, etc,” according to the prosecutor’s review.

But while Olson may have manipulated the victim to consent to his touches, the actions were deemed consensual and not criminal by the prosecutor as there was no force, violence or threat of injury.

“It should be noted that a knowing consent to the touching is a valid defense to this (criminal sexual conduct) charge,” said the prosecutor’s case review.

David Moran, University of Michigan clinical law professor and co-founder of the Michigan Innocence Clinic, said consent is generally a fair defense to all criminal sexual assault charges.

If a victim knows the sexual conduct is happening, even if they are tricked into it, it’s hard to criminalize the action, Moran said.

“If a guy at the bar says I am a second cousin of (the president) and can get you a job in the government if you sleep with me, but it turns out he actually is not related, is that rape?” Moran said. “It’s very hard to draw the line between the different types of lies people use to get sex … everyone can agree it is unethical for a pastor to take advantage of a member of his flock, but it’s hard to draw the line if it’s criminal … It is innocence in a legal sense.”

Moran said often times sexual harassment lawsuits in civil court are available in cases where it is impossible to charge someone with a criminal sexual conduct charge.

….

Grace Ministry Center board members Gordon Farnsworth, Joseph Forth, Dave Frazier, and Lewis Hurley declined to comment for the story. We could not reach board members Caremy Snellenberger, Bev Wilson, Tim Holcomb or Hannah Herr. Some of the board members have since resigned, according to the police report. Former Assistant Pastor Justin Mcburney declined to comment and has since resigned from his position.

You can read all of Hayden’s excellent article here.

 

Quote of the Day: Evangelicals Have a Sexual Abuse Problem Says Boz Tchividjian

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Excerpt from VICE interview with Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian. Tchividjian operates GRACE: Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment.

How big of a problem is child sexual abuse for Protestant churches?

It’s hard to answer that with any degree of certainty, because the research out there is pretty minimal. If you accept the general statistic that one in four women and one in six men will have been sexually victimized before they turn 18, then you have to acknowledge that those same people are inside of our churches and faith communities. So if you had 100 men and 100 women in your church, 20.5 percent of your church would be survivors of child sexual abuse.

How does the issue of sexual predators within Protestant churches compare with the massive scandal the Catholic Church as endured?

A few years ago, data was gathered from some of the top insurance providers for Protestant churches. It was found that they received 260 reports a year of minors being sexually abused by church leaders or church members. Similarly, the John Jay Report on the Catholic Church came up with 228 credible accusations by priests.

Again, sexual abuse is one of the most underreported criminal offenses. But if you just look at these numbers, they tell us that more children are being abused within Protestant churches than in the Catholic Church. One aspect of that is that there are way more Protestants and Protestant churches than there are Catholics. But for me, it’s important to share that statistic when speaking with Protestant audiences so that they stop pointing their fingers at the Catholic Church and engage more with their own church.

I have a friend who is a pastor in a Presbyterian church, and when she started at a new church, she preached six or seven sermons about abuse. She told me that since then, “I’ve had ten women approach me and tell me that they had been sexually abused as children, and that I was the very first person they ever told.” And this is a small church.

I think the reason they approached her was that in preaching about it from the pulpit, she created a safe space for them to talk about it. It’s a great example about how most of our churches aren’t creating safe spaces. Too often victims are afraid to say anything because they’re afraid of how people will respond.

How do the church leaders typically respond?

It’s such a spectrum. There are some that respond very well. The younger generation of pastors seem to get this issue more and are willing to talk about it. But we, unfortunately, do have a lot of pastors who don’t think it happens, and prefer to embrace a false narrative that makes them more comfortable.

It’s common to see a desire to protect the institution at the expense of the individual. Yet the gospel that Christians proclaim with their lips is all about a God who sacrifices himself in order to save [others], but when it comes to abuse, we often do the opposite.

So we have to educate our church leaders about this issue so we can try and eliminate victim blaming when disclosures are made. Telling the victim it was their fault because of how they were dressed or were acting, or forcing them to forgive the offender, just compounds the shame they are already going through.

Shame is a big issue with male victims of sexual abuse. They’re often the most silent of survivors inside the church. I’ve had male survivors tell me they didn’t want anyone in the church to know because they thought that they would be labeled a future offender and everyone would keep their kids away, or they would be accused of being gay.

….

Should there be any kind of support for potential abusers seeking help before they harm anyone?

We’ve intentionally focused on victims, because I’ve found that the perpetrators are often the ones with the most support from the church. Having said that, there are people who are earnestly struggling with this issue and are deathly afraid of telling anyone about it because of how they’ll respond. There should be resources for those who haven’t acted on those impulses to come forward and get help. But it’s tricky, because you see a lot of lying, manipulation, and narcissism with abusers. It’s difficult to know if they’re telling the truth when they say they’ve never acted on their impulses.

How has this line of work impacted you as a parent, and as someone who teaches at one of the largest Christian institutions in the US?

You don’t want to be paranoid and lock your kids in a room. But we also don’t let our kids do sleepovers, because I’ve met with too many victims who were victimized by a friend’s parent at a sleepover. I don’t tell other parents not to do that, but it’s our policy. Also, we talk about this issue a lot with our children. In many, ways it’s been good for them, and hopefully it will shape them when they become parents.

The years of doing this line of work has given me a pretty low view of the church. It has also given me a much higher view of Jesus, and that’s what allows me to go another day and keep my faith.

When you grow up as an evangelical Christian, you have this nice neat view of God and the world. And when you start doing this work, that all gets shattered. Because how do you answer when someone asks you, “Where was God when my dad was coming into my room every night and molesting me? Was he watching? Why didn’t he stop him?” Those are questions I don’t have answers to. All I can do is grieve with them and maybe get a little angry.

But studying who Jesus was while he lived on this Earth has given me a greater appreciation for who he was in relation to this issue. There was no greater defender of children than Jesus.

You can read the entire interview here.

Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest Wayland Brown Charged With Sexual Battery of a Minor Boys

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wayland brown

Wayland Brown, a Catholic priest and convicted sexual predator, has been indicted in South Carolina on nine counts of sexual battery involving two children under the age of fourteen. At the time of his crimes, Brown was pastor of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Hardeeville, South Carolina.

The Savannah Morning News reports:

Former Savannah Roman Catholic priest – and convicted child sex offender — Wayland Yoder Brown has been indicted in Jasper County, S.C., on nine counts of criminal misconduct with a minor – sexual battery — involving two male victims, South Carolina Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone III announced today.

Brown, 74, is in custody in Maryland, Stone said. He will be extradited to South Carolina. It’s not known how long that process will take.

The felony indictments, returned Thursday in the Court of General Sessions, charge Brown with sexual battery in several locations, including St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Hardeeville, S.C., the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge and the intersection of Stiney and Morgan roads in Hardeeville in the area surrounded by railroad tracks and depot area.

Victims in the cases ranged in age of under 11 to under 14. One victim was in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades at the time of the alleged abuses. The other victim was in the seventh grade at the time. The crimes alleged in the indictments occurred in Jasper County between 1978 and 1988.

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Stone said the charges carry a sentence of 25 years to life for criminal sexual conduct in the first degree and 20 years each for the second-degree charges.

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Brown was ordained in the Diocese of Savannah in July 1977 and served as associate pastor at St. James Catholic Church and school in the mid-1970s. The Vatican dismissed Brown from the priesthood in December 2004.

He is a convicted sex offender and is registered in Maryland as a sex offender.

….

In June 2002 he was arrested in Savannah on charges of child abuse and perverted practice from Maryland stemming from misconduct in the 1970’s when Brown was a seminarian in Washington, D.C.

Brown pleaded guilty in November 1977 to charges of child abuse and battery for performing sexual acts on a teenage boy and his younger brother, ages 13 and 12, between 1974-1977 in Gaithersburg, Md.

He was sentenced to 10 years in a Maryland prison in November 2002, but was released after serving five years because of credits he earned for good behavior. He was required to register as a sex offender in Maryland.

In 2016, the Savannah diocese reached a $4.5 million settlement through mediation of a lawsuit against Brown and two bishops stemming from sexual abuse of a minor – more than 30 years ago.

That suit, filed by Savannah attorney Mark Tate in the Court of Common Pleas in Jasper County, S.C., alleged that Brown took the plaintiff to Jasper County and had “multiple sexual encounters” with him between August 1987 and May 1988.

The plaintiff, Christopher Templeton of Savannah, was a 13-year-old student at St. James Catholic School in Savannah at the time.

That settlement resolves claims against former Bishop Raymond Lessard and current Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, but not as to Brown.

In October 2009, the Savannah diocese agreed to pay $4.24 million to another victim – former parishioner Alan Ranta Jr., who at the time of the acts was a St. James Catholic School student. He alleged Brown molested him between 1978 and 1983, starting when he was 10 years old.

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Larry Thorne Sentenced to 30 Years for Sexually Molesting Church Teenager

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larry thorne

Larry “Mike” Thorne, pastor of Abundant Life Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, was sentenced yesterday to thirty years in prison for repeatedly sexually molesting a church teenager. Prior to sentencing, the court heard from two previous victims of Thorne’s predatory behavior.

NWF Daily News reports:

The former pastor of a local church was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in state prison and a lifetime designation as a sexual offender by Judge William F. Stone.

Larry Michael Thorne had been found guilty earlier this summer of lewd and lascivious battery on a victim between the ages of 12 and 18 and sexual battery on a victim in the same age range, according to a press release from the First Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.

Thorne was arrested Nov. 14, 2014 after the victim reported that he’d had sexual contact with her on numerous occasions. The abuse started when she was 14 and ended when she was 17, according to news accounts.

The sexual molestation included sexual intercourse. These criminal acts occurred repeatedly in Thorne’s home in Fort Walton Beach.

The sexual abuse stopped only when the child disclosed it to a pastor at the church she began attending after she had been able to distance herself from the defendant.

The jury also heard evidence from two earlier victims who had been subject to the same pattern of conduct and sexual molestation when they were in their teens.

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Astoundingly, Thorne is still listed as Abundant Life’s pastor on their website:

Pastor Mike Thorne began his ministry in 1985 as a Youth Pastor He is the eldest of two sons born to Bishop LM and June Thorne, founders of Abundant Life Church (ALC) Fort Walton Beach, FL. Mike has a teenage daughter, Lindsey, who is the light of his life. He has been in full time ministry for the past 25 years. For nine of those years he served as youth pastor. He was made an associate pastor and was involved in the missions programs of ALC and Evangel Fellowship International. He has traveled to Russia, Cuba, Romania, Hungary, Belgium and South Africa on mission trips. He has an AA degree from Christian Life School of Theology and continues his Bible studies today. Mike has a heart for evangelism, spiritual growth and building families.

God desires to see the Emerald Coast set on fire for His glory and Pastor Mike wants to seize that fire for the people on the Emerald coast.As Pastor at ALC, he sees the vision of the Church moving towards the future with a boldness and purpose for each family member of ALC. It is a deep desire of the entire ALC family to experience every blessing, every gift and every powerful move of God’s spirit.

 

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Terry Dobbs Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for Sex Crimes

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Terry Dobbs, pastor of Old Fashion United Baptist Church (no web presence) in Yorktown, Indiana was sentenced today to nine years in prison for sexually molesting a church girl he was counseling. The courtroom crowd was filled with Dobbs supporters who asked that their child molesting pastor be given probation. Dobbs’ wife blamed the victim and their son blamed the girl’s parents.

The Star Press reports:

The now-former pastor at a Yorktown church on Thursday was sentenced to nine years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old member of his congregation.

Terry Wayne Dobbs, now 54, in July pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor and child solicitation.

Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. imposed a 13-year sentence, with nine years executed and four years suspended.

During a hearing that exceeded two hours, Dobbs repeatedly said he could not explain or justify his actions.

I don’t know where this came from,” he said. “I’d give anything if I could tell you what happened.” [how about a stiff prick has no conscience]

Authorities said Dobbs, at the time pastor of Old Fashion United Baptist Church, had a sexual relationship with the girl after she began counseling with him about personal problems in July 2016.

He was arrested last December.

Deputy Prosecutor Doug Mawhorr said the teenager was the target of “an extreme example of grooming and manipulation.”

Mawhorr said the married pastor at one point got “down on bended knee” and proposed to his victim, giving her a ring and declaring her his “promise wife… so the sex could be legitimized.”

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Dobbs’ wife testified there was “blame to be shared” by her husband and his victim.

The pastor’s son suggested the victim’s parents should not have allowed her to meet with his father alone.

Daley recommended his client – who suffers from chronic health problems stemming from a head injury – should receive a seven-year suspended sentence.

At one point, Daley asked those in the packed courtroom to stand if they supported his client.

All of the people on one side of of the courtroom stood. With the exception of one person, those on the other side – including members of Dobb’s former church – remained seated.

Dobbs said he spent almost “every waking hour… trying to figure out” how he could have behaved in such a fashion.

“I threw (his career in the ministry) away and I don’t know why,” he said. “It will haunt me everywhere I go.”

Cannon called the former minister’s actions “tremendously disturbing.”

“Your actions, however you justify them, render your words meaningless,” the judge told Dobbs. “You undertook a pattern of grooming with the victim to satisfy your prurient desires.”

The Muncie man will be required to register with local authorities as a sex offender for 10 years upon his release from prison.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor David Pugh Accused of Sex Crimes

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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 Pugh, pastor of First Assembly of God in Phillipsburg, Kansas has been charged with child sex crimes ranging from “indecent liberties with a child to sexual exploitation of a child.”

KCWH-12 reports:

A former Phillipsburg pastor is charged with child sex crimes.

Pastor David Pugh resigned from Phillipsburg’s First Assembly of God Church in May.

Prosecutors say the crimes for which he’s accused happened between November 2016 and March 2017. These charges range from indecent liberties with a child to sexual exploitation of a child.

We do not know if Pugh’s position as pastor had anything to do with what prosecutors say happened. Police arrested Pugh earlier this month. He has since bonded out of jail.

On Wednesday, Eyewitness News did get a hold of Pugh briefly over the phone. Pugh said he did not want to comment at this time

Black Collar Crime: Is there a Connection Between Sexual Abuse by Clergy and Drug Addiction?

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What follows is an excerpt from an article that suggests that being abused by clergy often leads to substance abuse and addiction. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

Stephen Huba, a reporter for Trib Live, writes:

A group of Catholic lay people and clergy is calling on Greensburg Bishop Edward C. Malesic and other church hierarchs to acknowledge that the clergy sexual abuse scandal is feeding the opioid epidemic.

“He’s got to take some responsibility,” said Tom Venditti, founder of Faithful Catholics Against Pedophilia.

Venditti of Bolivar said he founded FCAP earlier this year to help victims of clergy sexual abuse and encourage them to stay in the Catholic Church.

….

Venditti said he wanted to address “Malesic’s failure to acknowledge clerical sexual abuse as a doorway to heroin abuse and death.”

“We’re here specifically because one of the things you’re not going to hear tonight … is that the majority of victims of clergy sexual abuse become addicts, whether it’s to alcohol or heroin or other hard drugs,” he said.

Venditti said he supports Malesic’s push to involve the Catholic Church in solutions to the opioid epidemic but that more is needed. He said bishops should call on priests accused of sexual abuse to repent and resign.

“These men are not going to get to heaven if they don’t repent,” he said.

Malesic did not respond to Venditti’s claims, but diocesan spokesman Jerry Zufelt said, “The diocese is doing everything it can to protect its children, young adults and vulnerable adults from the evils of abuse.”

About FCAP, Zufelt said, “We support anybody who is working to help abuse survivors.”

Venditti cited two recent cases — one involving a retired priest in the Diocese of Greensburg and one involving a priest in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown — as proof that the problem of clergy sexual abuse is still not being handled effectively.

He alleged that a recent overdose victim in Johnstown had been sexually abused by Brother Stephen Baker, a Franciscan friar accused of abusing students at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown from 1992 to 2001. Three Franciscan superiors were indicted in 2016 in connection with the case.

Baker was found dead of apparent suicide at the St. Bernardine Monastery in Hollidaysburg on Jan. 26, 2013, days after the announcement of a multimillion-dollar settlement with his accusers. He was first accused of sexual abuse in 1988, but his superiors never reported allegations to police.

“All of the victims of clergy sexual abuse that I’ve dealt with are either suicidal or addicted to drugs or alcohol — every single one of them,” Venditti said.

….

 

Black Collar Crime: Pentecostal Pastor Jose Bernal Accused of Sexually Assaulting Children

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pastor jose bernal

Jose Bernal, pastor of Tabernaculo De Vida Pentecostal Church in Fort Worth, Texas, stands accused of sexually abusing two girls.

The Star-Telegram reports:

Police arrested a man Wednesday on suspicion of sexually abusing two girls when he was a preacher at a Fort Worth church.

Hurst police reported that officers executed two felony arrest warrants on Jose Francisco Bernal, 52, at his residence in the 7200 block of Deville Drive in North Richland Hills. Bernal was in the Hurst Jail on Wednesday facing two counts of continuous sexual assault of a child. Bail was set at $50,000 for each charge, police said.

Two adult females made outcries of numerous sexual abuse incidents that occurred when they were both juveniles living in Hurst between 2007 and 2013, police said.

Investigators concluded that Bernal met the girls while he was their pastor at the Tabernaculo De Vida Pentecostal Church on West Dickson Street in Fort Worth.