Black Collar Crime Round-Up: January 17, 2011
Jason LaPierre • Jonathan Tyler Giles
Felipe DeJesus Coronel Pacheco and Luis Angel Tovar Cisneros
Enoc “Tito” Sotelo • Samuel Shamba Warlick • James M. Wilson
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: Robert Michael Black, former pastor, New Home Baptist Church, St. Joseph, Missouri; girls’ basketball coach, Fort Osage Youth Basketball League; husband; father of three; to five years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of attempted enticement of a child. Black was arrested in an online sting after exchanging sexually explicit photos and attempting to arrange a “date” with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl, who turned out to be an undercover detective. Story: Conservative Babylon, August 13, 2009; Kansas City Star, January 14, 2011
New charges: Jason Robert Bourque, 20, described by his mother as a “good Christian young man,” and Daniel George McAllister, 22, Southern Baptist church youth group members, who were sentenced to life in prison for setting a rash of church fires in and around Tyler, Texas; Bourque, on three additional counts of arson, and McAllister on two additional counts. Story: Conservative Babylon, December 28, 2010; Conservative Babylon, January 10, 2011; KLTV, January 12, 2011
Guilty: Jonathan Tyler Giles, 26, husband and former youth minister, Spring Creek Baptist Church, Clarksville, Tennessee, of two counts of statutory rape and one count of solicitation of statutory rape. Arrested in 2009, Giles was originally charged with “three counts of statutory rape by an authority figure, sexual battery by an authority figure and two counts of soliciting a minor.” His victim was a girl, between the ages of 15 and 16 during the year-long period Giles abused her, who belonged to Giles’s church youth group. Giles is due to be sentenced March 10, 2011. Story: The Leaf-Chronicle, January 15, 2011
Charged: Jason LaPierre, 35, co-senior pastor (along with his wife, Tammie LaPierre), River Church, Hudson Falls, New York, with multiple charges including second-degree grand larceny for allegedly embezzling more than $400,000 from his former employer, Hudson River Community Credit Union in Corinth. LaPierre’s lawyer says his client stole “only” about $4,000. Story: PostStar.com, January 12, 2011; PostStar.com, January 13, 2011; WNYT (with video), January 13, 2011
Indicted: Felipe DeJesus Coronel Pacheco, 55, pastor, and Luis Angel Tovar Cisneros, 28, associate pastor, Ministerios Epicentro Donde Nace La Bendición, Austin, Texas, on charges of selling “numerous fake green cards and Social Security cards to illegal immigrants,” as well as additional charges for Coronel of “making a false statement to immigration officers by failing to disclose a conviction for cocaine possession on an application for naturalization in November 2009.” Tovar is also accused of being in the United States illegally. Story: San Antonio Express-News, January 6, 2011
Convicted: Enoc “Tito” Sotelo, 51, former pastor, Salvation Army, Plainfield, New Jersey, of 17 counts of theft by deception and one count of conspiracy to commit theft by deception, and his wife, Vereli Sotelo, 37, of six counts of conspiracy to commit theft by deception. The Sotelos bilked numerous immigrants out of thousands of dollars each in a scam in which they promised to help the immigrants obtain green cards. The Sotelos are both scheuled to be sentenced April 29, 2011; Enoc Sotelo could get up to 90 years in prison and Vereli Sotelo up to 30 years. Story: NewJerseyNewsRoom.com, January 14, 2011
Arrested: Samuel Shamba Warlick, 39, of Oviedo, Florida, former Presbyterian missionary who “participated in activities or was employed” by “Camp Westminster, Conyers GA; Day camp and US AID in Kinshasa, Congo; Winter Park Presbyterian Church, Orlando FL; Boy Scout troop, Orlando FL; Presbyterian College, Clinton SC; Mission volunteer, Shadowcliff Life Center, Grand Lake CO; … Volunteer in Mission, Glasgow Scotland, Time for God program at YMCA; Park Lake Presbyterian Church, Orlando FL,” on charges of possession and distribution of child pornography. The Sentinel notes: “When agents searched his home Friday, Warlick told them he has possessed child pornography for the past 10 years and that he prefers boys who are between 13 and 16 years old. He also admitted to posing online as a 16-year-old boy, with the goal of persuading boys to send him nude photos of themselves.” Warlick’s arrest came just months after he was named by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in a 2010 report accusing him of sexually abusing children at a church mission in the Congo during the 1980s, when he was about 16; however, that report and his arrest for child porn are unrelated. Story: Final Report of the Independent Abuse Review Panel – Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), October 11, 2010; Presbyterian Outlook, October 11, 2010; Presbyterian Outlook, October 13, 2010; Orlando Sentinel, January 14, 2011; ClickOrlando.com, January 14, 2011; Orlando Sentinel, January 14, 2011; Presbyterian Outlook, January 15, 2011
Not guilty plea: James M. Wilson, 44, former pastor & principal, Terrill Road Christian Academy, Moberly, Missouri, to one count of kidnapping a 16-year-old girl, whom Wilson is accused of taking from the school and bringing her to a motel in 2008. December marked the second time Wilson had been indicted on charges related to the same case. Story: Conservative Babylon, January 12, 2011; Moberly Monitor-Index, January 17, 2011
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