Black Collar Crime Round-Up: August 27, 2010
Jason Bolton • Lawrence Brown • Christopher Furey
Gernard Jones • Terry L. McDowell
Rodney Stewart • Edward Webb
Because we could spend 24/7 tracking the sins 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.
Sentenced: Michael Louis Anthony, 43, former youth minister, Calvary Chapel, Longview, Washington, to five years for a year-and-a-half sexual affair with a teenage girl, which began when she was 15. The girl told police she had had sex with Anthony “at least 200 times,” including in the lobby of the chapel. Anthony was caught by police with his half-clothed victim in a parked car. Anthony also said the girl’s parents “were aware of the relationship.” Anthony pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree rape of a child, third-degree child molestation and first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor under his supervision. He has “waived extradition to Oregon, where he faces another sex charge with the same victim.” Story: KATU, April 28, 2010; TDN.com, August 24, 2010
Awaiting trial: Quincy Arnold, 50, former pastor, New Life Deliverance Ministries, Inc., Winder, Georgia, on charges of “insurance fraud, vandalizing a place of worship, first-degree arson” and conspiracy, stemming from the arson fire that gutted his own church in December, 2005. Guilty: Maurice Arnold, 25, Quincy Arnold’s son, believed to have been asked by his father to set the fire. Guilty: Bruce Edward Smith, 48, of Monroe, Georgia, believed to have been enlisted to help set the fire by the junior Arnold. Story: Online Athens, June 10, 2010; Claims Magazine, July 9, 2010; Augusta Chronicle, June 15, 2010; InsuranceSpecialists Blog, June 16, 2010
Guilty: Irvin “Pete” Baldwin, 81, former pastor and Sunday school teacher, Mechanicsville, Virginia, of three counts of soliciting sex from a minor — actually a detective posing as a 13-year-old girl — on the Internet. The jury deliberated a mere 15 minutes before delivering the verdict, and then recommended Baldwin be sentenced to 90 years in prison. Leaving the courthouse, Baldwin told reporters: “My offense was speaking to a 42-year-old man who was not even very good looking anyway on the Internet.” Sentencing is scheduled for November 15, 2010. Story & video: WTVR, August 19, 2010; NBC29.com, August 20, 2010
Arrested: Jason Bolton, 32, youth minister, Potomac Crest Baptist Church, Woodbridge, Virginia, and charged with sodomy (despite the fact that Virginia’s sodomy law is unconstitutional per Lawrence v. Texas, 2003) and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, stemming from an alleged sexual relationship with a teenage girl. Story: Associated Baptist Press, August 12, 2010
Arrested: Lawrence Brown, associate minister, Starlight Missionary Baptist Church, Slidell, Louisiana, and charged with offering $100 to a 15-year-old girl for sex. Story: St. Tammany News, August 1, 2010
Charged: Christopher William Furey, 43, “Kids’ Pastor,” Emmanuel Fellowship, Cottonwood, Arizona, with five counts of sexual conduct with a minor, six counts of sexual abuse, four counts of luring a minor for sexual exploitation and four counts of stalking. His alleged victim is a 16-year-old girl. Story: Camp Verde Bugle, August 23, 2010
Guilty: Gernard Jones, 19, to lewd battery of a 12-year-old girl. Jones had been arrested and charged along with his uncle, Clevon Ghent, volunteer minister at Born Again Church of God and Christ, Auburndale, Florida; Ghent was convicted of three counts of sexual activity with a child the day before Jones entered his guilty plea. Story: Conservative Babylon, September 5, 2009; September 11, 2009; August 26, 2010; TheLedger.com, August 26, 2010
Charged: Terry L. McDowell, 48, pastor, Gateway Southern Baptist Church, St. Louis, Missouri, with one count of child molestation in the first degree. Per the St. Louis County Police, the “investigation began on Monday, May 17, 2010, when St. Louis County Police Detectives received a hotline referral from the Missouri Department of Social Services Jefferson County Children’s Division concerning the victim, under the age of 4 years old. The victim reported that between January and May of 2010, the suspect, a trusted family friend, had touched her inappropriately while she was alone with him at his home. The suspect’s residence is in St. Louis County although the victim lives in Jefferson County. The suspect and his wife have been babysitting the child for the last two years.” More: Associated Baptist Press, August 25, 2010
Charged: Rodney Stewart, 43, traveling evangelist and pastor, Broadview Heights Baptist Church, Broadview Heights, Ohio, with “importuning, possession of criminal tools and disseminating materials harmful to a juvenile,” after being caught in an online sting. Franklin County sheriff’s deputies posed as a 15-year-old girl and her 36-year-old mother, with whom the county prosecutor says Stewart engaged in “sexual, very sexual conversations” — which Stewart saved and stored on his computer — and to whom Stewart sent a photo of his “private parts.” Prosecutor Bill Mason stated that he was “startled” by the case, simply because Stewart is a minister. Story: Video, Fox8 News, August 24, 2010
Charged: Edward Webb, 66, former pastor, United House of Prayer for All People, Charlotte, North Carolina, with indecent exposure and “committing a sex act at Freedom Park in Charlotte.” Police say this wasn’t Webb’s first arrest for such charges, and that he “confessed to doing the same thing in a Harris Teeter parking lot a couple months ago, but was not caught.” Story: Charlotte Observer, August 26, 2010
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