Black Collar Sex Crime Round-Up: October 5, 2009
Bishop Raymond J. Lahey • King Street Pentecostal Church
Robert Lee Adams Reaves • Ronald William White
Jose Marc Flores Pereira
Because we could spend 24/7 tracking the sex crimes of right-wing religionists (especially “youth pastors”) and never get caught up. Of the following, the more interesting cases will probably end up with their very own Conservative Babylon entries.
Hearing postponed: Dale Giffin, 60, former pastor, Zion Lutheran Church, Youngstown, Ohio, indicted in February, 2009, on six counts of rape (i.e., repeatedly raping a female parishioner between 1993 and 1996). A hearing on admissibility of evidence was postponed indefinitely after his defense attorney argued that the charges should be dismissed because the sex was consensual, not forced. Nevertheless, “Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Northeastern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, said, based on her investigation, that she finds the accusations against Giffin ‘very credible,’ and that she does not believe the relationship was consensual.” Giffin pled not guilty to all charges. Story: WKBN, February 21, 2009; February 28, 2009; Vindy.com, September 20, 2009; September 23, 2009
Charged: James Ray Guerrero, 50, who hosted “Bible study meetings” at his Westminster, California, home, with seven felony counts of lewd acts upon a child younger than 14 and one felony count of distributing pornography to a minor. The two alleged victims are relatives of Guerrero’s, “both 11 years old when the molestations began [between 2006 and 2008],” and Bible students of Guerrero’s. Story: Orange County Register, September 10, 2009; Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2009
Charged: Lee and Polly Haynes, Ouachita Parish, Lousiana, with three counts each of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, after “sheriff’s deputies accused a Monroe couple of allowing their [three] juvenile daughters to be touched inappropriately by a religious leader,” one Rev. James Ford. Story: News Star, October 3, 2009
Charged: Raymond J. Lahey, 69, former Roman Catholic bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, with possession and importation of child pornography. Found with “images of concern” on his laptop computer during a search at the Ottawa airport September 15, 2009, Lahey disappeared for ten days before finally turning himself in to police. Curious details surrounding Lahey include: reports that police knew about Lahey’s alleged predilection for child pornography some 20 years ago; Lahey’s unprompted apology for the sex-abuse crimes of a former priest in his own diocese — despite his 1982 testimony on behalf of a priest on trial for sexual abuse, and against the victim; and the shocking reponse of Lahey’s archbishop, Anthony Mancini, who has had “enough” of sex-abuse charges against priests (as if the victims are to blame for accusations, and not the priests for failing to live up to “inhuman expectations”). Story: Canwest News Service, September 30, 2009; Edmonton Sun, October 1, 2009; Globe and Mail, October 1, 2009; CBC.ca, October 2, 2009; Leon J. Podles, October 2, 2009; Letter, Anthony Mancini, Archdiocese of Halifax (PDF), October 2, 2009; Catholic News Service, October 3, 2009; Toronto Star, October 3, 2009; Canadian Press, October 5, 2009. Note: While we don’t normally cover Catholic priests here at ConBab, simply because there are just too many of them to follow (plus, they’re well-documented elsewhere), this is a very high-profile case. We’ll follow up only with major developments — and, of course, when a verdict is reached.
Sued: King Street Pentecostal Church, Oshawa, Ontario, for $2.3 million by Sarah Parsons, 23, who “alleges she was victimized by the pastor, Brian Andrew Klein, of Whitby, between 2002 and 2004 … claiming the [church] administration was negligent in failing to prevent the abuse. Also named as a defendant is Sarah Klein, Brian Klein’s wife.” Klein “vigorously” denies the allegations. NewsDurhamRegion.com, September 25, 2009
Trial postponed: Robert Lee Adams Reaves, 43, former minister, Cedar International Fellowship, Durham, North Carolina, accused of murdering 21-year-old Latrese Matral Curtis (”stabbed nearly 40 times in the head, neck, chest and stomach”), a married woman allegedly involved in an adulterous affair with Reaves’ roommate, Steven L. Randolph, in a “jealous rage” after Randolph rebuffed his advances. After Reaves dismissed his court-appointed attorneys in order to defend himself, a judge reappointed the attorneys, and pushed Reaves’ trial back to an undisclosed date (jury selection was due to begin September 28, 2009). Reaves “has said he was at a church function the night Curtis was killed. Prosecutors have said police can prove he was not there.” Reaves has been charged with sexually abusing young boys before, and was convicted in South Carolina in 1988. Story: WRAL.com, December 5, 2008; NCWanted.com, September 21, 2009
Sentenced: Ronald William White, 25, a U.S. citizen “described by both his mother and his girlfriend as a missionary who travels the world teaching religion to young children,” to 20 months (less the seven months he’s already spent in custody, for which he was given “double-time credit of 14 months”) in a Canadian jail after pleading guilty to one count of importing child pornography. White, believed to have traveled to Canada to meet a friend he had met online, was caught at the Winnipeg airport February 14, 2009, by customs officers who found “4,900 images of child pornography, 10,700 images of child nudity and about 19,000 more images of [clothed] children” on his laptop computer, the “overwhelming majority” of which were “of young males under the age of five,” while “some images were of babies,” and others showed ‘extreme sex acts.’” Story: CBC.ca, September 9, 2009; Winnipeg Free Press, October 2, 2009; Edmonton Sun, October 2, 2009
Not Sex, But Too Good Not to Share:
Surrended to authorities: Jose Marc Flores Pereira, 44, a Bolivian preacher who, armed with a fake bomb (a “smiling Flores Pereira told reporters after his arrest … ‘It was three juice cans that I filled with sand and put some little colored lights on’”), hijacked an Aeromexico flight bound for Mexico City from Cancun, in order to save Mexico from an earthquake. After a godly “revelation” of disaster, he felt compelled to warn Mexican President Felipe Calderon of the quake, due to hit September 9, 2009, or “9/9/9,” which, upside down is, of course, “666.” Story: Vos Iz Neias, September 10, 2009; AFP, September 12, 2009
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