Black Collar Crime Round-Up: September 14, 2010
Donald Crosby • Crystal Faulk
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.
Arrested: William Bendert, pastor, King of Kings Lutheran Church, Lake Orion, Michigan, in an online sting. An FBI agent posing as an 11-year-old girl and her mother says Bendert offered “sexual training” to the fictitious 11-year-old, the complete details of which are spelled out in the agent’s affidavit (which also mentions that two of Bendert’s previous AOL accounts had been terminated for transmitting child pornography), available from The Smoking Gun. See also: MLive.com, September 13, 2010; WXYZ.com, September 13, 2010
Sentenced: James Briton, a.k.a. James Britton, a.k.a. John Britton, 72, retired minister, Wear Valley Christian Centre, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, U.K., and former youth worker, Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church in Lincoln, to four and a half years after pleading guilty to seven counts of indecent assault and two counts of indecency against a nine-year-old boy, as well as one count of indecency against a second boy, all committed between 1975 and 1976. At Briton’s sentencing, the prosecutor recounted the nine-year-old’s attempt at suicide “to try to stop what was happening to him.” Story: Northern Echo, September 14, 2010; This is Lincolnshire, September 14, 2010
Sentenced: Robert Cowan, 66, deacon and Bible study teacher, Baptist Church of Cool, California, 30 years to life for five counts of lewd or lascivious acts against two sisters, both under 14. Story: Auburn Journal, September 9, 2009; Sacramento Bee, September 3, 2010
Arrested: Donald Crosby, 36, founder and pastor, Kingdom Builders Church of Jesus Christ, Macon, Georgia, for disorderly conduct and for picketing without a permit. Crosby has been protesting the Warner Robins High School’s sports team name, the Demons, as well as the school’s devilish mascot, because he thinks students are being taught to “praise demons.” So far, Crosby — who on his church’s Web site seems not to know if he worships “Jesus or Allah,” and once prayed: “I got people saying because I’m black I’m God.” — has been arrested twice. As for his crusade to exorcise the 60-year-old school’s name and mascot, Warner Robins administration and students alike are generally ignoring his tirades, and his picket signs, which bear such catchy slogans as “Demons don’t like me because I’m Christian” and “Home games will have to be played in Hell.” Story: 13WMAZ.com, August 9, 2010; Macon.com
Charged: Crystal Faulk, 48, with embezzling some $68,000 from the church where she worked as a secretary, Mountain View Baptist Church, Boiling Springs, South Carolina, through the fraudulent use of a church credit card and a bank account to buy clothes, pay personal bills, and eat at restaurants. She admitted to a TV reporter that she was sorry and had “made a huge mistake.” Story: WYFF4.com, September 8, 2010; WSPA.com, September 8, 2010
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