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.
Last week, I posted a story about Steven Winn, a youth worker at Open Door Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas, being arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a church girl. This week, Larry Winn, Steven’s father, has been arrested on sexual assault charges. The elder Winn was the bus director at Open Door, an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation.
Domingo Ramirez, Jr, a reporter for the Star-Telegram, writes:
A Mesquite church staff member accused of an inappropriate sexual relationship with an underage congregant may have additional victims, police say.
Larry Winn, 65, of Dallas, who coordinated a bus ministry for members of Open Door Baptist Church who needed a ride to and from worship, is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. He was arrested Thursday.
“Due to Winn’s level of access to children, investigators believe there may be additional victims,” police Lt. Brian Parrish said in a news release.
Days before Larry Winn was arrested, his son Steven Aaron Winn, 33, also a church volunteer, was arrested on a charge of sexually assaulting a different teenage girl at the church.
Larry Winn was arrested Thursday after police received a tip. He was free Tuesday after posting $25,000 bail.
While being interviewed by police, the girl made an outcry of sexual assault that authorities say occurred three years ago when she was 16.
Larry Winn has been on the church staff for several years, police said.
Steven Aaron Winn, of Crandall, worked with church youths, and he became the subject of an investigation Feb. 18, also based on a tip.
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In 2011, Open Door’s then-pastor Matt Jarrell was arrested and accused of raping a woman near Charleston, W.Va. Jarrell was later found hanging in his jail cell and could not be revived
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.
Ronnie Gorton, worship leader (some reports say Gorton is the lead pastor) at Awakening Church in Atoka, Tennessee, stands accused of sexually assaulting several teenage boys.
The Covington Leader reports:
On Monday, former Awakening Church worship leader Ronnie Gorton was indicted on 47 counts of sexually assaulting teenagers.
Last month, Gorton, 39, was accused of sexually assaulting at least two minors. He was indicted for incidents involving three, however.
The nearly four dozen charges included five counts of aggravated sexual battery, 17 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child (Child Protection Act), 16 counts of statutory rape by an authority figure, two counts of exploitation of a minor by electronic means, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, two counts of purchasing alcohol for a child and one count of rape.
Tipton County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Billy Daugherty said one of the victim’s ages at the time of the abuse was the aggravating factor in the first set of sexual battery charges.
“The nature of these charges clearly indicate the victims, at some point, were under the age of 13. The age of consent in Tennessee is 18,” he said.
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In a 2014 interview, Gorton said:
I’d be completely lost without him [Jesus] man. Just knowing some of the things that I have dealt with in my life and some of the struggles I deal with, I can imagine the type of hell that I’d be living in today without Him. So it’s only by His grace by His mercy why I’m here today.
My title, pastor means nothing. I’m human, I’m a man. I struggle like everybody else and there’s no way I could overcome these struggles and be victorious in some of these areas of my life without Him. It’s only by the grace of God that we’re able to have this conversation today.
Local Memphis reports:
A local minister indicted on 47 counts of rape and sex assault with two boys is now out on bond.
Ronnie Gorton’s bond was reduced to $100,000 on Friday.
The senior pastor of the now closed Awakening Church in Munford made bond on Friday and was released Saturday under the condition he wear an ankle monitor.
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.
Steven Winn, an unpaid youth worker at Open Door Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas, stands accused of sexually assaulting a teen church girl.
Police in Mesquite have arrested a youth pastor’s assistant at a local church and charged him with sexually assaulting a child.
On Feb. 18, police received a report about the sexual assault. Their investigation concluded that Steven Winn, 33, had an ongoing sexual relationship with a teenager for just over a year. She was 15 when the relationship began and 16 when police got involved.
Police said Tuesday that Winn is the assistant youth pastor at Open Door Baptist Church in Mesquite. The victim was a student at the church’s Christian school, police said.
Pastor Bob Ross with the church said Winn was never employed by the church and was a volunteer who served as an assistant to the youth pastor.
“Mr. Winn’s primary duties consisted of helping to drive our teens to various activities such as camp, youth rallies, and summer camp,” Ross said. “He had no official duties or title of any kind.”
Police say Winn worked for the City of Mesquite as a construction inspector in the Public Works Department for 14 years. He was terminated on Feb. 20.
Two days later he was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child in Dallas County. His bond was set at $25,000 for each count. A few days later he was charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child in Kaufman County. His bond there was set at $1,000 for each count.
Police say sexual encounters between Winn and the teen occurred in both counties. There were multiple occurrences in each, but prosecutors settled on three cases to charge, MPD said.
In 2011, Matt Jarrell, Open Door Baptist Church’s pastor at the time, was accused of rape. He hung himself in jail.
According to the Star-Telegram:
Open Door Baptist Church pastor Matt Jarrell died in May 2011 in a Charleston, W. Va., jail cell. Days before, Jarrell had been arrested and accused of raping a woman.
The woman told authorities Jarrell picked her up in Charleston when she needed a ride home. Instead of taking her home, he took her to a secluded area and raped her, according to a criminal complaint.
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.
Joshua Clemons, youth pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Parker, Colorado, stands accused of sexually assaulting a minor church girl.
A former youth pastor at Crossroads Community Church faces charges of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, and authorities are looking for more possible victims.
Joshua Clemons, 35, was arrested Tuesday by the Denver Police Department amid an ongoing investigation into allegations he sexually assaulted at least one member of the youth program he led.
Parker police say 18th Judicial District prosecutors have already filed three charges of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust against him.
Clemons worked as a youth pastor at the Parker church from 2008 through September 2015, the police department said.
Police said there are three incidents that allegedly occurred involving members of his youth group, and that the church brought the information to the department’s attention and was fully cooperating with the investigation.
According to police, the church brought the allegations to police in December 2016, but at the time, Clemons and the girl said they had a consensual relationship and the girl was 18 years old. But after further investigation from the church, it was discovered their relationship started before she was of age.
There were two other girls who were allegedly victims of Clemons’, police said.
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Crossroads Community Church released the following statement:
Statement from Crossroads Community Church Board and Executive Leadership
Feb. 27, 2018
Today, a former youth pastor who was employed from 2006 to 2015 at Crossroads Community Church was arrested on charges related to alleged sexual abuse of three then-minor girls during his tenure at our church.
This arrest stems from allegations revealed to Crossroads on February 1, 2018, which we immediately reported to local law enforcement authorities.
Crossroads Community Church takes any inappropriate behavior with our young members very seriously. We are heartbroken and grieve with those who are victims of sexual assault and their families.
The individual facing charges resigned from Crossroads in 2015, citing work-related stress. In December 2016, the Crossroads Leadership Council was made aware that after he left church employment, he had apparently engaged in a relationship with an 18-year-old female who was formerly a member of his youth group.
Crossroads’ leadership immediately reported this information to local law enforcement, though no laws were alleged to have been broken.
On February 1, 2018, the mother of the young lady we learned about in 2016 contacted us to express her concern that this former youth pastor was being hired by another church in a position to oversee young people. She further informed us that she had recently learned her daughter’s relationship with this man had begun while her daughter was a minor, and that they believed there were other possible victims.
The same day the mother made us aware of these alleged criminal offenses, we immediately reported the new information to local law enforcement authorities and continue to fully cooperate with them during this investigation.
We have been praying for healing and restoration for any victims, known and unknown, and we ask our entire community to do the same.
We encourage anyone with information regarding potential criminal activity, especially any victims, to contact law enforcement immediately. The Parker Police Department may be reached at 303.841.9800, and the Colorado Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline is (844) CO-4-KIDS, or 844.264.5437.
For many years, Crossroads Community Church has had protocols in place—including a national background check that is performed on all employees when they are hired and again every two years—to try to ensure this would not happen. We also have written expectations of employees that include standards of conduct as safeguards for both our employees and those under their care.
In light of this situation, we are conducting a thorough review of our employment procedures and policies to ensure every safeguard is in place to protect anyone, especially young people, from any predatory behavior on our campus or at the hands of any employees or volunteers. We will remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent such behavior, and swift and firm in dealing with any situation known to us.
The affidavit states that Clemons and the alleged victim knew each other since the girl was in fifth grade, but they didn’t begin a sexual relationship until September 2014 – when she was 17 years old.
The alleged victim told police that Clemons had admitted to kissing two other girls in the youth group but police didn’t provide any further details about those incidents.
The investigation began in February 2018, when the pastor at Crossroads Community Church informed police that the church learned of the relationship between Clemons and the alleged victim in December 2016. But Clemons claimed at the time that the affair didn’t begin until October 2015, several months after the girl turned 18.
The pastor reported the case in 2016 because he was concerned that the relationship had actually started when she was a minor, the affidavit states. At the time, police said no crime had been committed.
The pastor then went back to police in February of this year after hearing from the alleged victim’s mother, who was concerned that Clemons was being hired as a youth pastor by another church, according to a statement from church leadership.
In an interview with police a few days later, the alleged victim said she and Clemons first had sexual intercourse in June 2015 when she was a 17-year-old senior in high school, but they had kissed and had other sexual contact before then. Clemons was married at the time but told the girl that he wanted to divorce his wife to be with her, the affidavit states.
Clemons knew the girl was underage and even gave her a card with a message along the lines of “We’re legal” on her 18th birthday, according to the affidavit.
The relationship continued when the alleged victim graduated from high school and enrolled at Colorado State University, the affidavit states. The alleged victim told police that Clemons visited her almost daily and the two continued to have sex regularly.
At one point, Clemons went to a pharmacy and bought Plan B – the so-called “morning after pill” — and made the alleged victim take the medication.
The relationship ended in late 2017, the affidavit states, at which point the alleged victim said Clemons started “stalking” her and showing up at her new church. The alleged victim threatened Clemons with a restraining order, according to the affidavit.
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Clemons’ church bio states:
I love the Broncos, ALL other Colorado Sports teams, and Batman. I eat hot cakes from McDonalds every single day, I’m a native of Colorado, and I got my bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Metro (I wanted to be more like Batman), followed by a Master of Divinity degree with a specialization in Youth and Family at Denver Seminary. I love students and want to be more like Jesus everyday! In 2008 I married my lovely wife, Julia, a doctor in Denver hospitals. We have one other member of our family, Tulo (our super dog!). I have been loving on students at Crossroads since 2006.
“Loving on students” has a whole new meaning now that Clemons is facing sexual assault charges. Evidently, his criminal justice classes didn’t teach him that having sexual relations with minors and people you have authority over is a crime.
Maurice Frazier, youth pastor at Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church (no website) in Indianapolis, Indiana, stands accused of “numerous felony charges of sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography.” Frazier claims he is a “sex addict” and can’t help himself.
A former youth pastor and registered sex offender is accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl.
The United States Attorney announced 51-year-old Maurice Frazier is facing numerous felony charges of sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography.
The suspect met the victim while working with Nazarene Missionary Baptist Church on 38th St.
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According to the indictment, Frazier met the 14-year-old victim through his work as a youth pastor and began communicating with her through social media.
Frazier is alleged to have secretly met with the victim between 15 and 20 times engaging in sexual activity at various locations around Indianapolis, some include his residence, his vehicle and in a church office.
Prosecutors also claim Frazier enticed the victim to produce pornography images of herself through a cell phone and sent them to him.
He is alleged to have sent her numerous images of himself in sexually explicit poses. The indictment further states he said he would leave the area if they were discovered and he could retaliate against her if the victim reported the activity to authorities.
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The exact timeline of the alleged sex crimes with the teen aren’t clear, but Frazier hasn’t worked at the church in years following an arrest in 2011, when prosecutors charged Frazier with sexually assaulting female coworkers when he worked at the Marion County jail.
“He grabbed me and kissed me. I pushed him off,” said one accuser in 2011. “You know anywhere he could get his hands, I was constantly pushing him off and pushing him off.”
According to court records in the 2011 case, Frazier admitted his crimes and went on to say he is “a sexual addict and can’t help it.”
Frazier is already on the states Sex Offender Registry and remains incarcerated…
….
Prosecutors say if Frazier is convicted on the new federal charges, he could be facing decades behind bars.
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 and Cindy Litzinger, pastors at Church for Life in Santa Maria, California, have been sued by a church member who accuses them of sexual battery and assault.
A Santa Maria church and two of its former senior pastors are facing a sexual battery, harassment, assault, and gender violence civil lawsuit that was filed anonymously by a churchgoer in July 2017.
The plaintiff, listed as Jane Doe in court documents, alleges that Robert and Cindy Litzinger, who left Church For Life in 2016 because of other alleged complaints, used their positions as leaders and teachers to satisfy Robert’s “sexual fetishes.” The complaint also claims that Church For Life failed to adequately investigate complaints against Robert, who allegedly taught premarital and purity courses at the church, for years.
The plaintiff claims that while enrolled in Robert’s premarital counseling course, he told women to masturbate before their wedding nights, provided them with a list of sexual acts to do while married, and instructed them to do “whatever their husbands wanted.” Robert also allegedly asked the plaintiff and other women for “intimate” photos.
Robert sent the plaintiff unsolicited nude photos of himself, she claims in the court documents, and after several persistent requests, the plaintiff sent Robert similar photos in return, but she claims she eventually complained and asked him to stop. Still, the plaintiff claims Robert’s conduct continued.
While at the Litzingers’ house, the plaintiff alleges that Robert groped her breasts and genitals. When the plaintiff told his wife, according to the report, she said it must have been a mistake. When the plaintiff complained to Church For Life’s executive pastor, he allegedly instructed her to speak with Robert directly.
The complaint states that other claims against Robert led Church For Life to investigate and eventually remove him in 2016.
Paul Greco, defense attorney for the Litzingers, said his clients have completely denied the allegations listed in the complaint. Greco also said that because the lawsuit is a civil case, anything can be written in the complaint before a formal investigation takes place.
“Mr. Litzinger denies the allegations, and the discovery process will bring more information to light that will support his position,” Greco 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.
Viktor Lishavsky, formerly the pastor of an unnamed Evangelical church, stands accused of sexually assaulting numerous foster children who were under his care.
Viktor Lishavsky, 37, carried out sickening sex attacks on mostly victims aged 13 or under in his care and treated them as his “personal harem”.
The “monster” abused five schoolgirls for five years when he was their legal guardian, it is claimed.
Cops arrested him in June 2017 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur after one of the foster girls complained to a teacher.
But details of his alleged depraved offending over five years have only just emerged.
Social services in the Khabarovsk region have now been accused of negligence in putting vulnerable children including orphans under his supervision.
Igor Komissarov, a senior official of the Russian Investigative Committee, expressed dismay over the alleged reign of terror.
He said: “Just imagine these girls who were given to a rapist.
“Why in Khabarovsk region did the so-called foster dad have the opportunity to rape children under his control for five years?”
Lishavsky, the former head of an evangelical church who ran a shoe repair shop, was seen as a “model foster father”.
He even appeared on local TV with his wife Olga as an example of a successful fostering family.
The “trouble-free family” had passed repeated inspections by social care workers.
The couple are reported to have had three children of their own, and to have fostered up to nine more youngsters.
No charges have been brought against her.
Lishavsky was paid £265 a month by the state to care for each of the five adolescent girls he abused.
A local media report claimed: “With the money that the government paid him as a foster parent, he rented an apartment where he had sex with either one or another foster daughter every other day, or every third day.”
Lishavsky is accused of more than 900 offences including 248 rapes and 358 “violent sexual acts” against girls aged 13 and under, according to a leaked charge sheet.
He also faces more than 270 further sex abuse charges involving girls aged between 12 and 17.
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.
Twenty years ago, Andy Savage, teaching pastor at Highpoint Church in Memphis, Tennessee, sexually assaulted a church teenager. He was never prosecuted for his crime. His church, at the time, Woodland Parkway Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, covered up his “sin.” Thanks to fine people at The Wartburg Watch, Savage’s victim’s story is being heard far and wide, forcing the not-so-good pastor Savage to shed crocodiles tears before his church as he confessed his crime. Astoundingly, the tone-deaf, clueless sheep at Highpoint Church gave their pastor a standing ovation.
Lisa Gutierrez and Adam Darby, reporters for the Kansas City Star, wrote:
Members of a Memphis megachurch stood and applauded their pastor on Sunday when he admitted to and apologized for engaging in a “sexual incident” with a high school student 20 years ago.
Jules Woodson, who accused Highpoint Church Pastor Andy Savage of sexually assaulting her when she was 17, told The New York Times she watched the moment, streamed live on the church’s YouTube page, in disbelief.
“It’s disgusting,” she said.
Though Savage, an author and podcast host, remains on the Highpoint staff, repercussions have begun for what Woodson says happened two decades ago.
The Times reported that on Monday afternoon, Christian publishing company Bethany House canceled the July publication of Savage’s book “The Ridiculously Good Marriage.”
Also on Monday, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis reported that the Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas, placed staff member Larry Cotton on leave.
Cotton was associate pastor at Woodland Parkway Baptist Church in Texas, where Savage worked at the time of the alleged assault.
Woodson has said a pastor at the church urged her to stay quiet about what happened.
“We grieve for what happened to Jules Woodson,” said a statement to the Commercial Appeal from Austin Stone’s communications director John Young. “… No person should ever be subject to sexual sin from any church leader.”
The church felt it was “appropriate to ensure (Cotton’s) qualifications for his current role of leadership,” the statement read.
“In order to remove our potential bias from the situation, we have placed (Cotton) on a leave of absence while an investigation by a third-party organization is undertaken. We will provide a full report to the church after its completion.”
Woodson graphically shared her story on Friday with The Wartburg Watch, a site started by two Christian women who pursued their faith but saw “disturbing trends within Christendom.”
After she did, Savage went on social media to say he “had a sexual incident with a female high school senior” when he was a college student working for a Texas Baptist church now known as StoneBridge.
Savage, who helped found Highpoint Church, said he responded in a “biblical way.” He said he had apologized to Woodson immediately and asked for her forgiveness, Fox 13 in Memphis reported.
During his remarks on Sunday he did not tell the congregation what happened, but he said he had sinned and had not keep it a secret from Highpoint’s leaders. He also said he believed the episode had been “dealt with in Texas.”
“Until now, I did not know there was unfinished business with Jules,” he said, reading a statement off his cell phone.
“Jules, I am deeply sorry for my actions 20 years ago. I remain committed to cooperate with you toward forgiveness and healing.”
When he finished, church members stood and applauded.
Chris Conlee, Highpoint’s lead pastor, said he supported Savage, one of the people “hurt by the ripple effect of the consequences of that sin.”
Woodson told The Times the episode had not been “dealt with” because it had never been reported to law enforcement authorities.
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She told The Times she sent an email in December to Savage at Highpoint, asking him, “Do you remember that night that you were supposed to drive me home from church and instead drove me to a deserted back road and sexually assaulted me?”
She said she decided to go public when he didn’t respond after more than a month.
Here’s some of what she wrote in the blog post.
“One evening, in the early Spring of 1998, I was hanging out with my youth minister, Andy Savage, at my church, Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church located at 10801 Falconwing Drive,” she wrote.
“I was 17 years old at the time and a senior at The Woodlands High School. There had been multiple kids there at the church after school, but as the night got later I was the only student left, alone in the church with Andy. I did not have a vehicle at the church, so Andy offered to take me home to my Mom’s house. …
“We reached a dead end and he turned the truck around before putting it in park. We were stopped, and he turned the headlights off. Suddenly, Andy unzipped his jeans and pulled out his penis. He asked me to suck it. I was scared and embarrassed, but I did it. I remember feeling that this must mean that Andy loved me. He then asked me to unbutton my shirt. I did. He started touching me over my bra and then lifted my bra up and began touching my breasts.
“After what I believe to have been about 5 minutes of this going on, he suddenly stopped, got out of the truck and ran around the back and to my side before falling to his knees. I quickly buttoned my shirt back up and got out of the truck. Now I was terrified and ashamed. I remember him pleading, while he was on his knees with his hands up on his head, ‘Oh my god, oh my god. What have I done? Oh my god, I’m so sorry. You can’t tell anyone …”
She said she felt manipulated and used, and that guilt and anxiety were “eating at her soul.” She said she took her accusations to the church’s leaders, but police were never called.
She said she was told that the associate pastor would inform the head pastor and the church would deal with the situation.
Savage, she said, went on as though nothing was outside of the norm, teaching a workshop titled “True Love Waits” about sexual purity and abstinence.
In the fire-hose torrent of sexual harassment scandals we are staggering under these days, one thing stands out as a common factor in all the cases: The accused are men.
“One of the reasons it is men who harass women, and sometimes other men, is that this is about power and overwhelmingly (workplace) upper management is male, so the positions of power are disproportionately occupied by men and the bottom is disproportionately occupied by women,” says Abigail Saguy, professor of sociology and gender studies at UCLA and author of the 2003 book, What is Sexual Harassment?
You may be thinking at this point… well, duh, this is something we all know instinctively. Women don’t do this kind of thing — grope, talk dirty, assault, sexually coerce, even rape their work colleagues. It’s a Y chromosome kind of thing, right?
But not so fast. Franklin Raddish, a South Carolina Baptist pastor with a nationwide following, last month declared, as a means of supporting Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore (who lost Tuesday), that accusations of sexual harassment against men in politics and Hollywood amounted to a “war on men.”
“More women are sexual predators than men,” opined Raddish. “Women are chasing young boys up and down the road, but we don’t hear about that because it’s not PC.”
He provided no evidence of this because, well, there isn’t any.
Still, there are exceptions that prove the rule: On Friday, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Kansas dropped out of her race after The Kansas City Star found out she had been accused in a 2005 lawsuit of sexually harassing and retaliating against a male subordinate who rejected her advances when she was a corporate executive.
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Which leads to the question: What are the numbers on women accused of sexual harassment? Has anyone conducted scientific surveys and found some? What’s the reason why it appears the vast majority of people accused of workplace sexual harassment are men?
And what’s the reason few men ever file formal complaints?
“Pride gets in the way,” says Todd Harrison, a partner in a California firm that handles thousands of employment-law cases per year. “Most good plaintiffs attorneys who handle discrimination and harassment claims take on female-to-male harassment and the same (laws) apply. It’s just a matter of whether the men who are victims want to come forward.”
There are few numbers available about women sexual harassers, and some of the numbers available are more than a decade old.
“It is extremely rare — it does happen but it is extremely rare,” says Genie Harrison, a Los Angeles-based attorney who specializes in workplace sexual-harassment cases. “Men can be victims and women can be abusers, and I’ve represented victims where a woman was the harasser, but I would say it’s at best a 99.9%-to-.01% ratio.”
Various government agencies, such as the military, the federal employee system or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, keep track of complaints of workplace sexual harassment but they generally focus on the accusers, not the accused.
— In the most recent data available from the EEOC, there were 6,758 complaints of sexual harassment allegations received by the commission in 2016, and a little more than 16% were filed by men. But the data don’t say who did the harassing — a woman or another man.
Moreover, EEOC data do not provide a comprehensive picture of the entire country. Plus, the agency estimates that most people, male or female, who have experienced harassment (more than 80%) never file a formal complaint about it.
….
Emily Martin, general counsel and vice president for workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, who handles workplace sexual harassment issues, agrees that women harassers are a “minority of cases” because women are less likely to exercise power over men at work.
“I’ve never worked with a client where a woman was the harasser; we’re a women’s-rights organization so the individuals who tend to reach out to us are women,” Martin says. “And women who target other women (for harassment) is an unusual fact pattern.”
Jennifer Berdahl, a professor in the business school at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who studies the harassment of men, says harassment is also about gender and how society defines it. Males learn a sense of superiority over females from the time they are children, she says.
Being a man means being superior to a woman and dominating women sexually or otherwise; sexual harassment is taking that (thinking) to an extreme,” Berdahl says. “It’s possible there’s a rare woman who might get off on dominating a person like that but men are socialized from the age of 3 to think of themselves as being ‘a real man,’ defined as dominating women.”
In her research, she says, she’s found that the most common way a woman would harass a man is to question his manhood. For many men, she says, being scorned as “feminine” or “weak” is too humiliating to report.
Another source of limited data on women harassers: Law firms that specialize in employment law and sexual harassment cases, such as Perona, Langer, Beck, Serbin, Mendoza & Harrison in Long Beach, Calif.
Todd Harrison, a partner in the firm, estimates he handles about 150 cases of employment law a year, and about 65% of them are sex harassment cases. Of those, 10% — or less than 10 cases per year — involve women as the accused harassers, he said.
“Sexual harassment is not just about sexual innuendo or jokes or pats on the butt, it’s about power and intimidation, so the cases I’ve handled (involving women harassers), it’s normally a woman in a control position and using that power to intimidate men,” Harrison says.
“Sometimes there are sexual overtures, inappropriate touching without consent, offers for quid pro quo or sex for promotion,” he added. “A lot of times it’s a powerful woman in an organization who will talk down or treat a man different from his female counterparts.”
But men can be reluctant to come forward to complain due to fear of mockery, he says. Men may also buy into the notion that female-on-male harassment isn’t even possible.
“Embarrassment is always an issue,” Harrison says. “Societal norms say men are supposed to be able to handle this. But we have men (clients) who say, ‘It’s just not fair. We’re always accused of it, here’s a situation where we’ve been victimized by a person in authority.’ ”
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— Maria Puente, USA Today, Women are Rarely Accused of Sexual Harassment, and There’s a Reason Why, December 18, 2017
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.
Nicole Marie Andrews, a volunteer youth worker at The Church at Canyon Creek in Austin, Texas and a teacher at Cedar Park Middle School, was arrested Tuesday and charged with the sexual assault of a child.
Kate Winkle and Brittany Glas, reporters for KXAN, write:
A former teacher in Leander Independent School District was arrested Tuesday on charges of having an improper relationship with a Vandegrift High School student whom she met at a church where she volunteered.
At the end of October, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office began investigating an alleged sexual assault and improper relationship involving Cedar Park Middle School’s sixth-grade teacher Nicole Marie Faires Andrews. She was arrested on Dec. 12 after authorities said she had an ongoing romantic relationship with a 16-year-old boy she met at The Church at Canyon Creek, where she was a volunteer youth administrator.
Records show Andrews, 31, started teaching English/Language Arts at Cedar Park Middle School in August of 2015. The district said she resigned on Nov. 6, 2017.
According to court documents, the boy admitted that Andrews had sexual contact with him 11 or 12 times, as well as sending a naked photo of herself, over the summer.
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The senior pastor of The Church at Canyon Creek, Monty Watson, said in a statement, “Our hearts go out to the victim and the family, and we ask for prayer for all involved. We are working with the authorities and fully cooperating with this investigation.”
Andrews has been charged with sexual assault of a child, which is a second-degree felony.
