Black Collar Sex Crime Round-Up: October 8, 2009
Father Cesare Burgazzi • Simon Bussie • Peter Hedge
Steven Bruce Joplin • Trinity Lutheran Church
Jesus-Tattoo Man
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.
Arrested: Michael Lowell Barnes, 64, former Roman Catholic priest, while awaiting extradition to Maryland on charges of child sexual abuse, with multiple counts of similar crimes. Story: WBOC.com, October 6, 2009
Pre-trial hearing set: Monsignor Robert Borne, 61, of Pembroke, Ontario, facing “19 charges, including gross indecency, sexual exploitation, indecent assault male and breach of trust, in connection with incidents that are alleged to have occurred between 1977 and 1993,” for November 17, 2009. Story: Conservative Babylon, June 6, 2009; Daily Observer, October 7, 2009
Arrested: Father Cesare Burgazzi, 51, Vatican priest, after leading police “on a high speed car chase leaving three officers injured” — and two police cars wrecked — “after being caught in a red light zone.” Story: Daily Mail, October 3, 2009
Arrested: Simon Bussie, 44, of Jemison, Alabama, pastor, Eagles Cove Revival Center and operator of the church’s Eaglet’s Nest Daycare, which he ran with his wife), charged with three counts of sexual abuse and one count of sodomy against an 11-year-old girl — which initial reports (we cannot confirm) identified as Bussie’s own daughter. Story: NBC13.com, October 6, 2009; AL.com, October 6, 2009
On trial: Peter Hedge, 47, curate, St. Margaret’s Church, Thornbury, Bradford, and vicar, Holy Trinity Church, Queensbury, U.K., facing 33 counts of indecent assault on boys under age 16, and three counts of rape. An apparently grossly misinformed attorney has framed part of Hedge’s prosecution as “plying some of the boys with cannabis until they became addicted and smoking the drug with them before sexually assaulting them” (as if one could become “addicted” to marijuana). Hedge is also accused of paying off the boys to keep them silent. Story: Telegraph & Argus, October 7, 2009; Calverley Today, October 7, 2009; Yorkshire Post, October 7, 2009
Charges certified: Steven Bruce Joplin, 59, former education director, Christ United Methodist Church, Staunton, Virginia, facing seven counts of aggravated sexual battery involving five children between the ages of 10 and 12. Joplin’s case now goes to a grand jury, scheduled to convene sometime in October, 2009. Joplin, who confessed to molesting the children, “reportedly told Staunton police that he had made some ‘bad choices,’ and said strain in his marriage was partly to blame.” Story: Conservative Babylon, September 16, 2009; NBC29.com, October 6, 2009; News Virginian, October 7, 2009
Sued: Trinity Lutheran Church, Davenport, Iowa, by a man who claims “the church did not respond properly when its then-pastor was accused, and then convicted, of sexual abuse in the mid-1980s.” Former pastor Paul Faga (who is not named as a defendant in this suit) “was convicted of third-degree sex abuse and lascivious acts with a child in 1986.” This is the second such lawsuit filed against the church. Story: Quad-City Times, October 7, 2009
Clergy or Not, We Just Couldn’t Resist the Jesus Tattoo:
Arrested: Unidentified man, 33, with tattoos of Jesus and “praying hands and demonic goblins,” after exposing himself to a woman in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. He “was running around an apartment complex on Shell Avenue screaming when he noticed a woman he thought he knew sitting outside… After calling to her a second time, he realized she wasn’t the woman he thought and so he unzipped his pants and exposed himself to her.” Well, of course — what else does one do in such a situation? Story: nwfdailynews.com, October 2, 2009
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