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.
Chrystal Frost, a teacher at Crenshaw Christian Academy in Luverne, Alabama, stands accused of having sex with two minor students.
An Alabama math teacher at a private Christian school is accused of having sex with two teenage boys who had both been her students, according to an arrest warrant obtained by Fox News Digital.
Chrystal Frost, 35, a married mother of three, resigned last month from Crenshaw Christian Academy, known as Home of the Cougars for its football team, after she was allegedly caught exchanging explicit photos with a student on Snapchat.
“Frost sent an obscene photo and asked that the student send a photo from the abs down,” according to a police report.
The school received an anonymous tip that a 15-year-old student, identified as GT, had a “nude breast photo of the math teacher on his phone,” which he had shared with some classmates.
An administrator confronted Frost, who allegedly “admitted to a different photo she sent to the cheerleaders where she pulled her Nike shorts up high allowing her butt cheeks to show, took the picture and sent it as a joke.”
Frost resigned Aug. 24, and the next day, the school reported the incident to the Luverne Police Department, which launched an investigation.
A student told police that GT had shown him the breast photo and then dropped a bombshell. He said GT and the teacher had been intimate.
In an Aug. 29 interview, GT admitted that his teacher sent him the lewd photo and then offered him sex. They met on a piece of land owned by his family in Pike County at least four times for the sick trysts.
On another occasion, when he went to feed the dogs as part of his chores, she met him and “performed oral sex on him” in a car. The student said he put an end to the disturbing relationship in early summer.
Police tracked down a second teenager, a 16-year-old student identified as AP, who was Frost’s student the prior school year. Frost allegedly used the same tactics to prey on him.
After he started homeschooling, Frost allegedly sent him a photo of her breasts before asking if he knew a place to have sex, the police report said.
The two met on a farm only once, where they allegedly had oral sex and intercourse. “The teacher made no conversations with him from arrival to ending of the sexual contact,” the report said. After the encounter, Frost allegedly sent two more lascivious photos and then blocked him from Snapchat.
In a police interview, Frost allegedly confessed to the depraved conduct and was arrested.
She is charged with traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act, electronic solicitation of a child, two counts of a school employee engaging in a sex act, and two counts of a school employee distributing obscene material to a student.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Delfino R. O’Day-Figueroa, the former pastor of Song Nulife Gospel Oasis in Wausau, Wisconsin, was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor church girl. O’Day-Figueroa was also convicted in 1995 of sexually assaulting children. He was convicted again in 2008 on similar charges. He was a registered sex offender at the time he was pastoring Song Nulife.
The girl described the man as “Pastor Ray” and said he was a leader at Song Nulife Gospel Oasis, a church that was located on Scott Street in the Landmark Building and held worship services on Saturday mornings for several years. The girl was unaware that the man, identified by police as Delfino R. O’Day-Figueroa, is a lifetime sex offender registrant with a prior felony conviction for assaulting children, and said she believed he was a pastor there until roughly 2019.
The Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry shows O’Day-Figueroa, 53, was convicted in 1995 in Milwaukee County of second-degree sexual assault of a child. Online court records also show a 2008 conviction on fourth-degree sexual assault charges in Marathon County. He is also known by the name Delfino Figueroa.
The alleged victim, now 18, spoke to police in August after O’Day-Figueroa approached her at a store where she works as a clerk. She told investigators that the abuse began in 2014 and continued for several years and began after her father had medical issues and O’Day-Figueroa began coming to her home to help the family. The alleged victim and several of her friends frequently stayed at O’Day-Figueroa’s home, where he lived with a woman he claimed was his wife, court documents state.
The alleged victim’s father told police he stopped the visits after learning from a neighbor that O’Day-Figueroa was a sex offender.
On Nov. 3, prosecutors filed charges of repeated sexual assault of a child against O’Day-Figueroa. He is being charged as a persistent repeater, because he was previously convicted of a serious child sex offense. Because of that factor, O’Day-Figueroa could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In July 2023, O’Day Figueroa was convicted of sexual assault and is awaiting sentencing.
Delfino R. O’Day-Figueroa was convicted by a jury in July following a three-day trial. Jurors deliberated for about three hours before finding him guilty of repeated sexual assault of the same child, involving at least three violations, according to online court records.
….
O’Day-Figueroa will be sentenced Sept. 5 by Circuit Judge Scott Corbett.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Michael Fisher, a youth pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to twenty-seven months in prison for sexually assaulting a minor teen girl.
A former youth pastor at a Halifax-area Baptist church has been found guilty of sex charges involving a victim who was 17 at the time of the crimes.
Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Darlene Jamieson delivered her verdict Monday in the case of Michael Oliver Fisher, who was found guilty of sexual assault and sexual interference.
The victim is 29 now and testified against Fisher, 40, at his trial last month.
The woman told the judge that she considered Fisher to be a mentor and spiritual adviser. The two first met when she was 14.
At that time, Fisher was the youth pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Hammonds Plains, northwest of Halifax.
It wasn’t until she turned 17 that they had a series of sexual encounters from January to July 2008 at his apartment in New Minas and at a house in the Halifax area.
Fisher testified in his own defence and disputed the notion that he was in a position of trust over the girl. He also said she initiated all of the sexual activity.
Jamieson had doubts about Fisher’s testimony.
“I find large portions of Mr. Fisher’s evidence to be inconsistent, implausible and evasive,” the judge said in her decision.
“For example, in relation to questions as to whether he considered himself an adult after two years of college in Bermuda and four years of university in Halifax [when he was age 25], his response was that he wouldn’t classify himself as an adult or as a youth and that he would not use such terminology.”
After the verdict, Crown prosecutor Rick Woodburn said the trial was not a “credibility contest.”
“But when you looked at Mr. Fisher, you found him to be very evasive and not truthful in his answers,” said Woodburn outside court.
“And on the other hand, the complainant was very credible and quite accurate with her memory of the events that took place.”
In November 2020, Fisher was convicted and sentenced to twenty-seven months in prison.
A former youth pastor at a Halifax-area Baptist church has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for sexual interference involving a 17-year-old girl.
At his trial, the court heard that Michael Oliver Fisher began grooming the girl when she was just 14 and by the time she was 17, contact between the two involved kissing, massages, nudity and eventually sexual assault.
The victim, who is now an adult, testified it was her first sexual experience and she had assumed that the first man she kissed would be the man she would eventually marry. Fisher, 41, is 12 years older than the woman.
The offence occurred in 2008 when Fisher was a youth pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Hammonds Plains, N.S. He was fired from that job and subsequently lost a job as a youth counsellor at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., when the charges were laid.
Fisher was found guilty last December. The sentencing was delayed almost a year by an accident involving one of the lawyers, an illness and COVID-19.
Prior to his sentencing Tuesday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court, Fisher addressed the judge.
“Everything about my involvement was wrong,” he told Justice Darlene Jamieson. “My choices placed her in a situation she should never have been in.
“I feel ashamed of what I did and how ignorant I was.”
Fisher’s lawyer had suggested that the victim had started the behaviour by kissing him. Jamieson dismissed that idea.
“He cultivated the relationship and used his position to sexually exploit a young person,” the judge said in her sentence. “Her participation simply does not matter.”
The woman testified at Fisher’s trial, but did not return to court for his sentencing. Instead, she had a victim impact statement read into the record by the Crown.
“I felt like the shell of a person whose worth and innocence had been taken,” she wrote. “Michael ensured that I isolated myself by telling me to keep everything with him a secret.”
….
In addition to the prison term, Fisher’s name will be placed on the national sex-offender registry for 20 years and his DNA will be recorded in a national data bank.
A former Upper Hammonds Plains pastor is appealing his conviction and sentence for sexually exploiting a member of the church’s youth group.
Michael Oliver Fisher, 42, was found guilty in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax in December 2019 on charges of sexual exploitation and sexual assault, for engaging in sexual activity with the girl over a five-month period in 2008, before she turned 18.
Justice Darlene Jamieson sentenced the Dartmouth man to 27 months in prison on the sexual exploitation charge last November after staying the other charge.
The judge said Fisher used his position of trust as youth pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church to build a relationship with the girl starting when she was 15.
“It is clear that Mr. Fisher groomed (her) in order to sexually exploit her,” Jamieson said. “Mr. Fisher, as her youth pastor, youth leader and mentor, was responsible for (her) well-being when she was with him. … He was responsible for leading her on the right path, not on a path to satisfy his own sexual desires.”
Fisher told the court at sentencing that he knew everything about his involvement with the girl was wrong and he was sorry for his actions.
“I know that my choices placed her in a situation that she should never have been in, as someone who was not a grownup,” he said. “They resulted in great pain to her and her family and so many other people over the years, and I regret that she had to deal with that.”
But in his notice of appeal filed in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, Fisher threw his trial lawyer, Michelle James, under the bus.
Most of his 14 grounds of appeal allege ineffective representation or, as he calls it, “misrepresentation.”
Fisher claims his lawyer was unprepared for trial and neglected to prepare him for the hearing “despite multiple asks” or call witnesses to rebut Crown evidence.
He criticizes the lawyer’s cross-examination of the complainant and says she neglected to “seriously consider” her motive.
Fisher says the lawyer also didn’t seriously consider his concerns about whether he was fit to take the stand at trial because his father was undergoing amputation at the time, and his concerns about “potential biases of the court.”
He claims the judge placed an “undue burden of proof” on his testimony.
Fisher, who filed his notice of appeal from the Springhill Institution, is asking that his conviction be overturned and a new trial ordered. If the conviction stands, he does not specify how he wants the sentence changed.
A date has yet to be set for the appeal to be heard.
The complainant’s identity is protected by a publication ban. She testified at trial that she met Fisher at the church when she was 14, joined the youth group when she was 15 and began attending its leadership meetings after she turned 17.
She said she had late-night and early-morning video chats and phone calls with Fisher and told the court she trusted him with everything and considered him a gift from God. He began telling her he had feelings for her, loved spending time with her and wanted to hug her.
While cuddling and watching a movie in February 2008, she said she gave Fisher a light kiss on the lips and it was like an explosion happened. She said the relationship quickly progressed to full nudity, sexual touching, oral sex and, by May 2008, intercourse.
Fisher was working part time at the church while attending university. He became a full-time employee in June 2008 after graduating from Acadia Divinity College and was ordained in November 2009.
The church fired Fisher in 2014 after receiving a complaint from the young woman. She went to police in 2016 and Fisher was charged in 2017.
At sentencing, prosecutor Rick Woodburn recommended three years in prison. James requested a conditional sentence of 12 to 15 months.
The judge said a conditional sentence would not provide adequate denunciation and deterrence. “Incarceration is the only suitable way to express society’s condemnation of Mr. Fisher’s conduct,” she said.
She ordered Fisher to register as a sex offender for 20 years and prohibited him from having firearms for 10 years. He also had to provide a DNA sample for a national databank.
The disposition of Fisher’s appeal is unknown.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Terry Reed, pastor of Vessels of Christ Ministry in Terrytown, Louisiana, stands accused of raping and sexually molesting two teen boys.
A pastor and registered sex offender pleaded not guilty Friday to raping and molesting two teenage boys that authorities say he preyed on through the church he operated out of his Terrytown home, according to Jefferson Parish court records.
Terry Reed, 63, was charged Thursday with two counts of third-degree rape and four counts of molestation of a juvenile.
Investigators allege Reed coerced the teens, telling them that sexual activity with him would provide them with the “covering of Jesus” and “help them become a man,” according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The first victim, now 19, contacted the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in June and revealed that Reed had been sexually abusing him since he was about 16, according to court records. They met through Reed’s church, Vessels of Christ Ministry, authorities said.
The alleged rapes occurred between 2020 and 2023, with other sexual interactions reported as far back 2019, according to authorities.
A second alleged victim, a now-29-year-old man, came forward after Reed’s arrest on June 29, the Sheriff’s Office said. He, too, reported sexual abuse at Reed’s hands between 2010 and 2011, when he was about 15, according to authorities.
Reed is accused of fondling the second victim, showering naked with the teen and other sexual activity, court records said.
In a similar case, Reed pleaded guilty to molestation of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile in 2017, Jefferson Parish court records said. He was sentenced to five years of active probation after he admitted to inappropriately touching and sleeping naked with a 15-year-old boy.
Reed completed his probation for that conviction in 2022 but must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, authorities said.
The 2017 case, however, wasn’t the first time Reed faced allegations of inappropriate behavior with a minor. In 1997, he was convicted of indecent behavior with a male juvenile and was sentenced to five years of probation, Jefferson Parish court records said.
Reed is a frequent flyer when it comes to sexual abuse allegations and convictions.
A Terrytown pastor convicted and later pardoned of sexually abusing a teenage boy 17 years ago has been arrested, again, on similar charges. The Rev. Terry Reed, 54, of 503 Marlin Court, was booked Saturday (Dec. 13) with indecent behavior with a juvenile and sexual battery, according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office arrest report.
Reed is accused of abusing a 15-year-old boy whom he had taken in, according to the report. Reed slept naked with the teen and had inappropriate contact with him. The teen told investigators he was also forced to shower with Reed and wash the pastor, the report said.
In the initial sentence order, the judge barred him from any contact with minors, though it appears Reed later tried to appeal that portion of the sentence. Reed was also prohibited from participating in any programs with his church, including counseling.
Reed received an automatic first offender pardon in December 2002 after completing his probation, court records said.
Authorities were called to Reed’s Marlin Court home on June 30, 2002, to investigate the bizarre deaths of his adopted son, Christian Reed, 13, and a cousin, Jamichael Spencer, 12. A relative discovered the fully-clothed boys submerged in a hot tub inside the house.
The Jefferson Parish coroner’s office determined the boys died of electrocution complicated by elevated body temperatures and blunt force trauma, Chief Death Investigator Mark Bone said. A defective electrical extension cord that powered a nearby radio or television was stapled to the hot tub.
The boys’ bodies bore the signs of beatings, including older bruises and fresh welts on their arms, legs and buttocks. An 18-year-old woman who was described as their caretaker admitted whipping the boys as punishment.
Though the coroner’s office decided on a cause of death, investigators never made a determination on whether the boys’ deaths were accidental or homicides, according to Bone.
The Sheriff’s Office closed the investigation into their deaths, but continued to look into the disciplinary beatings the boys received, according to a report published by The Times-Picayune in 2002.
Reed was never a suspect in either investigation, said Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office. The department did arrest an unidentified woman in the physical abuse case. It’s not clear if it was the woman who had admitted whipping the boys.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Myron Mooney is the pastor of Trinity Free Presbyterian Church in Trinity, Alabama. Free Presbyterians are the Presbyterian version of Independent Fundamentalist Baptists (IFB). Staunchly Evangelical, Calvinistic, and separatist, Free Presbyterians believe women should be silent in church and wear head coverings. In 2017, Mooney made the news with his unwavering support of Roy Moore. When asked about his name being on the letter of support for Moore, Mooney stated:
I’m proud to have my name on that letter.I don’t put any stock in (these accusations) because of the timing.
According to Mooney, his wife said the recent coverage and outrage over Moore’s scandalous behavior with underage girls is akin to being raped:
Here’s what my wife has to say about rape right now. My wife says the state of Alabama is being raped by Washington and being raped by the country with these allegations.
According to the Decatur Daily, Mooney believes that Moore’s opponents have been working for months to orchestrate an attack against Moore. Specifically, Mooney blames the Democrats. I am always amused when Evangelicals resort to wild conspiracy theories to explain reports of immoral or criminal behavior. Does Mooney really believe that there is some nefarious force behind nine women accusing Moore of creepy, criminal sexual misconduct? Imagine how many people it would take to pull off such a large-scale left-wing conspiracy. Occam’s razor applies here. The shortest answer is likely the truth; and the truth is that 30-year-old district attorney Moore had a perverse, stalker-like obsession with teenage girls; and that this obsession resulted in inappropriate sexual behavior.
According to Mooney, if the sexual misconduct claims are true, then the girls making them should be held accountable for not coming forward sooner. Ever the Fundamentalist, Mooney has a proof-text to justify his slut-shaming:
If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:23,24)
She is then as guilty as the person that is said to have done the molestation The guilt is shared.
Pause for a moment and let Mooney’s abhorrent viewpoint sink in. Are you angry? Sick to your stomach? I know, I am.
Deuteronomy 22:23,24 teaches that if a woman is walking down the street in a city and a man rapes her, and she doesn’t cry out for help — meaning she must have really “wanted” it, then she should be executed along with her rapist. In other words, God says the rape victim is just as guilty as her rapist. Why? Because she didn’t scream loudly enough for someone to hear and come and rescue her.
Deuteronomy 22 is the same chapter of God’s inspired, inerrant, infallible Word that commands:
Women who fail a virgin test on their wedding night shall be labeled whores and executed (vs 13-21)
Women who wear “men’s” clothing are abominations (vs 5)
If a man has sex with a woman who is not engaged and they are found out, he must pay the woman’s father fifty silver shekels and marry her (with no possibility of divorce) (vs 28,29)
Mooney should roundly be condemned for what he said, but that’s not going to happen. He quoted the Bible, and dammit, God said it, and that settles it! I wonder, as I conclude this post, if, in the picture above, the tie, shirt, underwear, and suit Mooney is wearing is made of “mixed” cloth. The Bible also says in Deuteronomy 22:
Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together. (vs 11)
How dare Pastor Mooney sin against the thrice holy God and wear mixed material clothing. Surely, his fellow Presbyterians will demand Mooney be defrocked for wearing clothing God condemns. After all, God said it, and that settles it, right? If Fundamentalists such as Mooney are going to use the Bible to justify their slut-shaming, the least they can do is obey all 635 laws in the Old Testament, and not just the ones that prop up, support, and provide cover for anti-woman views.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Gary Arivett, pastor of Shiloh Apostolic Church in Henning, Illinois, stands accused of sexually molesting minor family members.
One woman is reflecting on a painful past. Now she hopes justice will be served for the Henning Pastor she says sexually abused her for years.
Last week Gary Arivett was arrested and is facing three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a family member under the age of 18. He has since been released after posting a $100,000 dollar bail.
The survivor says Arivett has been a pastor at Shiloh Apostolic Church in Henning for nearly 30 years. For her privacy, she does not want to be named, but says she and her sisters were abused for years.
“I would like him to not have access to children anymore in any capacity,” said the survivor.
She says the abuse first started for her at age 11, her younger sister was 6 years old.
“I just tried to move forward with my life and that point we hadn’t heard of anybody else having issues and so I kinda was hoping that deep down maybe he got over his sickness and maybe it was just us children, maybe it was us,” said the survivor.
But when she heard Arivett was arrested she wanted to stand in solidarity with the other survivors.
“There’s no telling how many are out there, and there is no telling how many little children in the church right now that don’t know what he is doing is wrong,” said the survivor.
That’s why Erin Morris started digging into this case.
“I was protected here as a child by all of the people that I grew up with and I want to continue to do that,” said Morris.
Morris says she heard the news about Arivett on social media and wanted to know more about the situation.
“So I made a small Facebook post and people started reaching out to me then with their stories,” said Morris.
….
“The fact that he is a pastor in a leadership position with access to as many young children with very trusting parents who aren’t aware of the monster they are allowing near there children, it needed to be public, it needs to get out there, they need to know,” said the survivor.
We did reach out to Arivett for a comment. Over the phone he said:
“First of all, the charges are unfounded. I was not forced out of the pastors position, I left on my own.”
Former Shiloh Apostolic Church of Henning pastor Gary Arivett has been given a pre-trial date of September 18th, at 11 AM in Courtroom 4A of the Vermilion County Courthouse. During his appearance on Monday (Aug 14th), Arivett waived his right to the full reading of the indictment filed against him on August 4th, and a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
Arivett faces multiple counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse with a family member, after serving for nearly three decades as pastor at the Shiloh Apostolic Church in Henning, located northwest of Route 136 and Henning Road
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Robert Lazzell, a former school principal and deacon at First Baptist Church in Danville, Illinois, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. According to the Blue Shirt Coalition — a group of school alumni and friends:
Lazzell is the third prominent former staff member to be charged with sexual crimes against minors since the late 90s.
Former First Baptist Church of Danville School Principal and Church Deacon Robert Lazzell has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to Criminal Sexual Assault against former student Michael Young.
The sentence was handed down by Associate Judge Derek J. Girton Tuesday (Aug 1st) morning, after a sentencing hearing in front of a standing room crowd in courtroom 3B. The speakers included Michael Young, and his mother and grandmother; all calling for the maximum sentence of 15 years. The defense asked for the minimum of four years.
Young, now 26, stated that the grooming, abuse, and sexual assault, and threats and bribery and efforts to isolate him from his family all began when he was an 8th grader; and that the harassment of him by Lazzell continued when he went away to college in Florida, with Lazzell trying to convince him to come to Maranatha Baptist in Wisconsin where he had gone to work.
Although the defense claimed a psychosexual examination of Lazzell claimed he was low risk for recidivism, Judge Girton looked at Lazzell prior to sentencing him and said that based on the evidence heard, the testimony given, and the pattern of his behavior towards Young for many years, he did not trust him.
The fourth person who spoke at the hearing for the prosecution was a long time friend of Young’s, as well as also a former First Baptist Church member and school student, Kate Gibson. She said after the sentencing that for students like Young and herself; that church was their entire world.
….
The 50-year-old Lazzell will be required to serve 85% of his 12 year sentence.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
In 2022, Jordan Huffman, a former youth pastor at Woodlands Church in Plover, Wisconsin, was accused of sexually assaulting a church teenager. The sexual assaults began when the boy was twelve. Huffman also worked for Forest Lakes District Evangelical Free Church of America in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Jordan Ross Huffman, 51, who is living in Satellite Beach, Florida, faces charges of first-degree sexual assault of a child, two counts of repeated sexual assault of a child, three counts of child enticement, one count of causing a child to view sexual activity and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a child.
The Portage County District Attorney’s Office filed the charges against Huffman on Aug. 5, and Portage County Circuit Judge Louis Molepske Jr. issued a warrant for him on Monday.
The Brevard County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office online records state officers arrested Huffman Tuesday. On Wednesday, Attorney Andrea Winder, of Madison, notified the court that she is Huffman’s lawyer.
According to the criminal complaint, in 2017, a couple approached Huffman, who at the time was a pastor at Woodlands Church in Plover, and asked him to mentor their 12-year-old son. The boy had started drinking and getting into trouble.
The boy told police instead of helping him, Huffman did just the opposite, according to the complaint. Huffman gave the boy alcohol, marijuana and prescription pills, according to the complaint. The boy said Huffman would drive him to a remote location at the end of a dirt road, after the boy was drunk or under the influence of marijuana, and inappropriately touch the boy with his mouth or hands, according to the complaint.
The boy said the encounters happened multiple times. He said nothing happened at Woodlands Church, other than Huffman telling the boy he had alcohol, marijuana or nicotine cartridges for him, according to the complaint. He said Huffman had sexual intercourse with him one time at Huffman’s home while his wife and children were gone.
When Huffman left Woodlands Church and took a job with Forest Lakes District Evangelical Free Church of America in Stevens Point, several encounters occurred in Huffman’s office there, according to the complaint.
The boy told police he let Huffman do these things because Huffman was his mentor and because he was drunk or high, according to the complaint. When the boy got older, he told Huffman he didn’t want to have sexual contact with him anymore, and Huffman respected the request. About six months later, Huffman told the boy he no longer wanted to hang out with him, according to the complaint.
If convicted of the charges, Huffman faces a maximum of 221 years and 9 months in prison.
Huffman is now facing new accusations of sexual assault.
Jordan Huffman, 52, of Oshkosh, faces charges of first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13, child enticement for sexual contact, and three counts of felony bail jumping.
Shortly after 1 a.m. May 19, a 12-year-old boy called 911 and told Winnebago County dispatch he had been kidnapped from an address in Appleton, was in a vehicle and the man who took him was “coming back,” according to a criminal complaint.
Dispatchers tracked GPS location from the juvenile’s cellphone and sent officers to the Econo Lodge Hotel at 2000 Holly Road in Fox Crossing, according to police.
Police conducted a traffic stop on Huffman’s vehicle, and the boy ran out of the vehicle “screaming and crying,” according to the complaint. Police took Huffman into custody.
In an interview with investigators at the Fox Valley Child Advocacy Center, the boy said he received and accepted a Snapchat friend request sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight May 18. He engaged in conversation with the other Snapchat user, during which he informed the person he was 12 years old. The person sent a nude photo, and the boy said he sent one back that he found online.
The boy said the Snapchat user stopped sending messages for a bit, then asked if the boy wanted to talk on the phone. The boy said no, and within minutes, he received a message saying “I’m here,” according to the complaint. The man was in a vehicle outside the boy’s house.
The boy said he “was confused and didn’t know how the male knew where he lived,” then realized his Snapchat location settings were on, the complaint says. He told investigators he went into the man’s vehicle, thinking they were only going to talk, then the man began driving and told the boy they were going to a hotel.
When they arrived at the hotel, the man took the car keys and checked in, leaving the boy in the car. The boy said this was when he called the police.
When the man returned, the boy said, they went into the hotel and sexual contact occurred. The boy said he faked a phone call from his mother, and told the man his mom was calling to tell him to come home. He said he called police again, pretending it was his mom, according to the complaint.
The boy said the man was beginning to take the boy back to his house when the police arrived. The boy said Huffman asked if he had “set him up,” according to the complaint.
Huffman has an open case in Portage County for which he faces one count of first-degree sexual assault of a child under 13, two counts of repeated sexual assault of the same child, three counts of child enticement for sexual contact, one count of causing a child to view sexual activity and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a child.
In that case, Huffman is accused of engaging in sexual activity with an adolescent boy he met through church over the course of multiple years.
According to a criminal complaint for the Portage County case, in 2017 a couple approached Huffman, then a pastor at Woodlands Church in Plover, and asked him to mentor their 12-year-old son who had been drinking and getting in trouble. The boy told police Huffman did not help him, but instead gave him alcohol, marijuana and prescription pills, and engaged in sexual contact with the boy.
The boy told police that Huffman on multiple occasions gave him alcohol, marijuana or pills, and while the boy was under the influence, Huffman would drive him to a remote location and inappropriately touch him with his mouth or hands. In one instance, the boy said Huffman sexually assaulted him in Huffman’s house while his wife and children were gone.
The first incident occurred when the boy was 12, and continued for a couple years, the boy said. When the boy was 15, he said he told Huffman he no longer wanted to engage in sexual contact. He said he and Huffman continued to hang out for about six months before Huffman told the boy he no longer wanted to spend time with him, the complaint says.
The Portage County charges were filed in August, after the victim came forward with information.
On June 23, 2023, Huffman pleaded guilty to two felony counts of repeated sexual assault of the same child.
A former Plover youth minister pleaded guilty Friday morning in Portage County Circuit Court to two felony counts of repeated sexual assault of the same child.
Portage County Circuit Court Judge Michael Zell ordered a pre-sentence investigation for Jordan R. Huffman, 52, who currently is in the Winnebago County Jail on a $1 million bail for unrelated charges of first-degree sexual assault of a child, child enticement and three counts of felony bail jumping.
Zell scheduled a sentencing hearing for Oct. 3.
As part of a plea agreement in the Portage County case, a charge of first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13 was dismissed. Three charges of child enticement, a charge of causing a child age 13 to 18 to view sexual activity and a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a child were dismissed but read into the record.
According to the criminal complaint, in 2017 a couple approached Huffman, who at the time was a pastor at Woodlands Church in Plover, and asked him to mentor their 12-year-old son. The boy had started drinking and getting into trouble.
The boy told police instead of helping him, Huffman did the opposite. Huffman gave the boy alcohol, marijuana and prescription pills, according to the complaint. The child said Huffman would drive him to a remote location at the end of a dirt road after the boy was drunk or under the influence of marijuana and inappropriately touched him with his mouth or hands.
The boy said the encounters happened multiple times but no incident happened at Woodlands Church, other than Huffman telling the child he had alcohol, marijuana or nicotine cartridges for him, according to the complaint. He said Huffman had sexual intercourse with him one time at Huffman’s home while his wife and children were gone.
When Huffman left Woodlands Church and took a job with Forest Lakes District Evangelical Free Church of America in Stevens Point, several encounters occurred in Huffman’s office there, according to the complaint. The assaults lasted about five years.
The boy told police he let Huffman do these things because the pastor was his mentor and because he was drunk or high. When the boy was 17, he told Huffman he didn’t want to have sexual contact with him anymore, and Huffman respected the request, according to the complaint. About six months later, Huffman told the boy he no longer wanted to hang out with him.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Jamie Flanery, a member of an unnamed Christian church in Arkansas, stands accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old church girl.
A Randolph County man was arrested after sheriff’s office investigators said he sexually assaulted a teen several years ago.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on February 28, 2023, the victim told the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office that when she was around 15-years-old, she was sexually assaulted and abused by Jamie Flanery.
A bench warrant said the incident happened around August 2012.
The victim stated that she and Flanery attended the same church and the abuse began with Flanery requesting sexually explicit photos of the victim.
The victim said several members of the church’s “youth group” were at Flanery’s house one night. When she went outside to get something, the victim said Flannery grabbed her and kissed her.
The victim then told deputies about another incident while she was leaving Flanery’s house late one night.
As she was driving, she said she received a text from Flanery asking her to pull over at a on Highway 62. The victim said after she pulled over, Flanery got into her car and began to sexually assault her.
The victim said she later texted Flanery’s wife and a Randolph County area pastor, Gary Moore, about the assault.
According to the affidavit, the sheriff’s office conducted an interview with Moore about the allegations.
Moore told investigators that Flanery initally had admitted to kissing the victim.
Moore said he later reached out to Flanery, again, telling him to “swear on the word of God” and asked him if he did what the victim accused him of doing.
According to the affidavit, Moore said Flanery then told him “yes I did, but I didn’t do anything to her that she didn’t ask or she wasn’t ok with.”
On June 6, a judge found probable cause to arrest Flanery.
He faces a felony charge of first-degree sexual assault.
What I want to know is whether Pastor Moore immediately called the police upon hearing about the alleged sexual assault. Further, this assault allegedly took place in 2012. Was Flanery active in one or more local churches since the assault? Lots of unanswered questions.
Update:
In 2004, Flanery’s father, Donald, was convicted of raping a child and sentenced to thirty-five years in prison. Donald Flanery was an Evangelical pastor.
The Associated Press reported at the time:
A former pastor was sentenced to 35 years in prison for raping a young girl who said the man had told her that God approved of their sexual relationship.
A jury convicted Donald Lee Flanery, 46, on Friday, and recommended the sentence that Circuit Judge Harold Irwin imposed later that day in Randolph County, in northeastern Arkansas.
Prosecutors said Flanery, of Ravenden Springs, assaulted the Maynard girl nearly three dozen times, beginning when she was 11 and ending when she was 13.
At the time of the incidents, Flanery was the pastor of a non-denominational church known as The Family of Christ. Documents filed in the case said the assaults occurred at the church, his residence behind the church and at a new home he was building.
The girl told investigators that Flanery had told her that God approved of a man having more than one woman, despite her age.
“It was biblical,″ she said.
She also told police that Flanery was a religious man “who would go through bouts of apology,″ according to investigators.
Sheriff Brent Earley said members of Flanery’s church protested the verdict and pointed fingers at prosecution witnesses.
“They stood up and approached the witnesses and some said, `You’re going to pay for this,″ Earley said. Deputies were summoned to help with security.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Derek Taplin, an Evangelical man who attended Prairie College (formerly Prairie Bible Institute) in Canada, stands accused of sexually assaulting teen boys under his care while he was a student.
A one-time student union president at a central Alberta Bible college has been charged with multiple sexual assaults at the school, alleged crimes dating back two decades.
Acting on a Canada-wide warrant, Winnipeg police on Tuesday arrested Derek Taplin, 43, who has been charged with sexually assaulting younger non-college students under his guidance while the accused attended Prairie College in Three Hills from 2002 to 2004.
At the time he attended the college, he was also a youth group leader, said RCMP.
“He was in charge of youth groups . . . (the alleged assaults happened) in all those scenarios,” said Sgt. Jamie Day of the Three Hills RCMP detachment.
On June 10, 2021, a man came forward to report he’d been sexually assaulted by Taplin when the accused attended the college in the town 134 kilometres northeast of Calgary, said Day.
Soon after that, three other men reported similar crimes, said the Mountie, adding it’s possible there are other unknown victims of Taplin.
“If someone’s out there, struggling and wants to tell their story, we’re here to help them,” said Day.
Day said some of the assaults occurred on the campus of the college, whose website says its educational programs are “all soaked — not sprinkled — with the Bible.”
“There were multiple assaults on each (victim),” Day said.
“They could have also happened in private settings, it didn’t have to happen on a (college) outing.”
Taplin was not employed by the college at the time of the alleged assaults, said RCMP.
All the victims at the time were classified as youths, he said, and one source said they were junior high students and not college attendees.
The accused was a student at the college from 2001 to 2004 and was president of the student union until he was banished from the role “because he wasn’t a model citizen but it had nothing to do with these alleged sexual assaults,” said college President Mark Maxwell.
….
The complexity, logistics and age of the alleged crimes explains why charges were laid nearly two years after the first complaint, said Day. Some of the victims and witnesses no longer live in Alberta “and we’ve had to confirm a lot of information and a lot of background,” he said.
Taplin is charged with four counts each of sexual exploitation of a young person, sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching.
He’s in the process of being returned to Alberta, said RCMP, where he’ll make a yet-to-be scheduled court appearance in a venue with close proximity to Three Hills.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
