Black Collar Crime Catch-Up 2010, Part 1
John Gochani • Audrey Beidleman Grabarkiewicz and Sarah Jane Lindsay
Here we catch up with the Conservative Babylon Class of 2010 — some Babylonians we covered previously, some we missed entirely, but all of whom deserve recognition (read: exposure) as holier-than-thou right-wingers who can’t seem to live up to the impossible “family values” standards they demand of everyone else. (No, we don’t know how many parts there will be to our year-end catch-up.) In no particular order…
OK, the Wanted Posters Didn’t Say “Dead or Alive,” But Still…
“Reverend” “Flip” Benham, anti-choice (and virulently homophobic) extremist founder of Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue), was convicted in November of stalking abortion doctors in the Charlotte, N.C., area, after putting out “Wanted” posters with the doctors’ names and addresses, and leading protests in front of the homes of several. Sadly for the sane world, Benham got two years’ probation instead of a nice, lengthy prison sentence.
For a Moment, We Thought This John Was a Jane
John Kameron Erbele first entered our radar in September, 2009, when the then-35-year-old senior pastor of LifePrint Church, Prior Lake, Minnesota — and husband and father of three — was busted along with 15 other stupid idiots in an undercover prostitution sting at a St. Paul hotel. After an initial plea of not guilty, Erbele turned around and struck a deal, pleaded guilty, and got off with a year’s probation, enrollment in “john school,” and a few hundred bucks in fines. He’s no longer pastor at LifePrint Church, which, as of February, alluded to Erbele’s process of “restoration” — which is christianist code for “Let’s everybody pray that he’s forgiven, which’ll make us look real big-like — but we’re not letting this dude preach again.”
If ExtenZe Doesn’t Work, A Four-Foot Video Screen Will Definitely Increase the Size of That Certain Part of a Man’s Body
David Esarey, former youth minister, Stepney Baptist Church, Bridgeport, Connecticut, apparently had a little trouble with the concept of “abstinence only” — your fiancée’s refusal to have sex with you before marriage does not mean she stays celibate while you get to have sex with anybody else… especially a 15-year-old you’re supposed to be “counseling.” But that’s exactly what David Esarey did, earning himself a six-year, all-expenses-paid stint behind bars.
He started coming on to his teen target via email and Facebook, getting her to send him naked pictures of herself, and “in turn, sent her a naked photo of his genitals. His photo was shown to the jury on a 4-foot television screen during a session that his wife attended.” [Connecticut Post, March 24, 2010]
Yes, that same fiancée did marry him — although prosecutor Cornelius Kelly “pointed out that the same weekend he was preparing to ask Arla to marry him, Esarey was having sexual conversations with the victim over the Internet.” [Connecticut Post, May 14, 2010]
Ultimately, Esarey talked the girl into touching and at least one “sex act,” in a storage area at the church, and in his apartment.
Too Cheap to Buy His Dope on the Street Like Everybody Else?
It’s not unusual for a pastor to visit a homebound parishioner — until he’s caught stealing her Hydrocodone, the powerful prescription painkiller best known by the brand name Vicodin. Thirty-five-year-old Greg Scott Glover, pastor of ConnectPoint Church in Spokane, had been visiting a church member regularly for some six months; when she suspected Glover was stealing her drugs, a friend set up a hidden camera to record Glover’s actions. When the lady had the goods on him, she called police. On October 15th, the cops busted Glover on his next scheduled visit; he was carrying 14 of the little white dolls, the same number missing that day from the woman’s pill bottle. Last we heard, Glover’s arraignment was scheduled for November 8th.
No, the Woman Wasn’t the One Full of “Evil Spirits”
In February, during a purported “cleansing ceremony,” Zimbabwean Zion Church of Christ pastor John Gochani, 65, ordered a female parishioner to remove all her clothes save for her underwear, then beat her mercilessly with a switch. “In his defence,” reported The Zimdiaspora, “Gochani told the court that it was their church’s belief to assault patients when driving away evil spirits. When he was asked whether the evil spirits had gone, he said they had not, but were going to be driven away after another assault if she had not reported the matter to the police.” Convicted, he was sentenced to 105 hours of community service — at a primary school.
Proof That Teenage Boys Will Tap Anything
Audrey Beidleman Grabarkiewicz, 44, a preschool teacher at Lake Bowen Baptist Church Daycare in Boiling Springs, South Carolina, and her pal Sarah Jane Lindsay, 42, a teacher at Boiling Springs Elementary, were busted in September for throwing booze-and-drug-fueled sex parties for teenagers.
Grabarkiewicz, who is thought to have limited sex to boys over 16 (the age of consent in S.C.), was charged with 10 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and was immediately fired from her job at the church. Her husband Eddie Grabarkiewicz wisely filed for divorce and has requested full custody of the couple’s three children (ranging in age from seven to 12).
Lindsay, who is believed to have had sex with a boy of 14 (or younger), was charged with nine counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and criminal sexual conduct with a minor; she quit her job before she could be fired.
Meanwhile, Grabarkiewicz has kept up a bizarre strings of posts on Facebook, many of which have been preserved, with fitting commentary, at FITSNews. Most ironic: As of this writing, Grabarkiewicz is pushing a Facebook campaign: “Let’s join forces as Christians and start a Jesus Christ revival! Press like if Jesus is your Savior!!!”
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