Black Collar Crime Round-Up: December 8, 2009
Curtis Franklin • Jeremy Fulton • Fr. James Patrick Grady
Curtis Otha Grant • James T. Johnson • Phillip Charles Joubert
Russell Dion Lewis • Billy Masters
Joseph Kennedy Ragland • Jenifer Stitzel
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.
Captured: Robert Lee Adams, 46, pastor, Mount Calvary Tabernacle, Gastonia, North Carolina, thanks to an anonymous tip, and charged with three counts of first-degree statutory sex offense against a child (a five-year-old girl), as well as charges of statutory rape, first-degree sex offense with a child, taking indecent liberties with a child, and other sex offenses. Reportedly, neither Adams is cooperating with the investigation, giving police “the silent treatment.” Story: Gaston Gazette, December 4, 2009
Arrested: Isaac K. Aryee, 41, pastor, Praise Chapel International Ministries, Aurora, Colorado, on suspicion of sexual assault of a child.
Case to grand jury: Allison Brant, 31, former Catholic school principal, St. Mary of the Woods Elementary, Whitesville, Kentucky, accused of having a two-month-long sexual affair with 15-year-old boy. Although an arrest affidavit says she “confessed to having sex with a teen-ager during last winter’s ice storm,” Brant has pled not guilty to the sex charge, and to charges of supplying alcohol to four other teenage boys. Story: Conservative Babylon, October 12, 2009; WFIE.com, November 12, 2009
Charged: Curtis Franklin, 44, assistant pastor (and son-in-law of pastor Jack Walker), Mahwah Full Gospel Church, Mahwah, New Jersey, with sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child, involving a 15-year-old girl “on at least three occasions about six years ago,” when he was a youth minister at the church. Two days after the initial charges were filed, a second victim came forward, and Franklin was charged with “additional complaints of sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.” Story: NorthJersey.com, December 1, 2009; December 3, 2009
Charged: Jeremy Fulton, 27, youth minister, Mariners’ Temple Baptist Church, New York City, with “the violent rape” of a 12-year-old girl from his church. Story: WPIX, December 4, 2009; NY1, December 5, 2009
Charged: Fr. James Patrick Grady, 58, pastor, St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church, St. Louis, Missouri, “with three felonies for allegedly seeking sex with an underage girl,” after being caught in an FBI sting. has been suspended from his positioon at the church. His trial is scheduled to begin January 19, 2010. Story: St. Louis Public Radio, November 5, 2009; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 6, 2009
Charged: Curtis Otha Grant, 53, pastor, Open Door Baptist Church, Dothan, Alabama, and chaplain, Houston County Sheriff’s Office, who is said to have confessed to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl on several occasions between August and September, 2009. Grant has been charged with one count of second-degree rape, five counts of second-degree sodomy and five counts of enticing a child for immoral purposes. Story: Dothan Eagle, November 6, 2009
Charged: James T. Johnson, 46, founder and pastor, Olive Branch Church of Leland, North Carolina, with numerous counts of sex crimes against a child, who was reportedly still in grade school when the abuse began. Story, StarNewsOnline.com: November 4, 2009; November 10, 2009
Arrested: Phillip Charles Joubert, Sr., 48, New Light Missionary Baptist Church, Norwalk, Connecticut; pastor, Community Baptist Church; Bayside, New York; president, Baptist Minister’s Conference of Greater New York and Vicinity; and dean, Congress of Christian Education, Connecticut State Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc., and charged with raping a teenage relative. Story: 1010 WINS, December 3, 2009
Arrested: Russell Dion Lewis, 28, “worship leader” and assistant youth minister, mega-church Church by the Glades, Coral Springs, Florida, and charged with a total of 11 counts of sex abuse against a 14-year-old girl over a period of five months. Story: Associated Baptist Press, December 1, 2009
Returning to prison: Billy Masters, 66, preacher, Harvest Baptist Church, Kilpatrick, Georgia, convicted in 2001 sodomy against three boys under the age of 12, and arrested again in May, 2009, charged with first-degree sexual abuse of another boy under 12, for 15 years after violating probation. In a plea agreement, the more recent charge was dropped. Story: WHNT.com, May 22, 2009; AL.com, May 22, 2009; WAAYTV, November 4, 2009
Indicted: Joseph Kennedy Ragland, 47, former pastor, Book of Acts Church of God in Christ Jesus, Angier, North Carolina, on multiple counts of sex crimes against a 16-year-old girl. The alleged assault occurred in April, 2009, after Ragland reportedly advised the girl’s parents “that the girl needed counseling.” He was arrested and charged in May, and released on $35,000 bond. Story: WRAL, May 1, 2009; CrimeShadows News, May 3, 2009; WTVD, November 11, 2009
Charged: Jenifer Stitzel, 34, preschool teacher, Seventh-day Adventist Central Valley Christian School, Tangent, Oregon, with two counts of third-degree sex abuse involving a 14-year-old eighth-grader, after the boy’s parents discovered “X-rated” text messages on his phone, allegedly from Stitzel, who is “also suspected of kissing the boy and having sexual contact with him on and off school grounds.” Story: Oregonian, December 3, 2009
Related posts (automatically generated):
- Black Collar Sex Crime Round-Up: September 16, 2009
- Black Collar Crime Round-Up: November 2, 2009
- Black Collar Sex Crime Round-Up: September 5, 2009
- Black Collar Sex Crime Round-Up: October 2, 2009
- Black Collar Sex Crime Round-Up: October 12, 2009
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ALthough the “key bishop” of the child abuse scandal in Ireland will resign and even though “the head of the Irish Church, Cardinal Sean Brady, and Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin will meet with the Pope next week at the Vatican to discuss the report on abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese,” the question arises whether and to what extent this will help the victims and their families who have been deeply and emotionally traumatized, not to forget the alienation from God in society caused by such “STALWART DEFENDERS” of religious faith! Wouldn’t it be about time to ask where the responsibility for all this lies? Enforced celibacy has no biblical foundation at all! Why was it instituted in the first place? And why was such a perversion covered up for so long by an organization that claims to be the guardian of Christian ethics and morals? And why was this allowed by the authorities for so long? Were church and state in each other pockets?
May we hope that the discussion with the Pope at the Vatican next week will HELP clear up ALL THE TRADITIONS AND PRACTICES, DOGMAS AND RITES, that CONTRADICT the teachings of the greatest Prophet of all times, Jesus of Nazareth? AND PERHAPS, WHILE THEY’RE AT IT, start compensating for ALL THE wrongs DONE OVER THE ages?! What would Jesus of Nazareth say if He came to the Earth and saw what the church – which claims to speak for Him – has made of His life’s work?
A move has been made by a small group of people against such shameful sham Christianity. They’ve put out a website and call themselves “The Free Christians for the Christ of the Sermon on the Mount in All Cultures Worldwide.” At this website they announce a lawsuit against the Catholic Church – of all places, in Germany, a bastion of the Catholic institution! And the sexual abuse of young people is one of the reasons they give for having taken such a step. As they put it, they do not want to remain silent anymore on the “brazen labeling fraud,” with which Christ is mocked and His name abused to such an extent. They demand that the Archbishopric in Freiburg, headed by Zollitsch, and representing the Catholic Church in its totality, be enjoined from calling itself “Christian.”
As a Christian, I fully support this and consider it high time that someone calls a spade a spade. Nothing against the sincere folk and priests who work hard and honestly, upholding the ideals of a Christian life. But as an institution, it has taken on a life of it’s own, and one could indeed ask if there is anything Christian about it! I commend the courage of these people to call the Church to task. Perhaps your readers would like to check them out: http://www.christus-oder-kirche.de/christ-or-church/index.php
Its difficult for me to bad mouth the work of the Catholic Church as nobody or organization will feed,clothe and shelter more people today than they who represent the Catholic Church will…That being said I have no moral issue with castrating a Priest who gets caught with his hands on a child and even though I am full of sin I am willing to cast the 1st stone.