Black Collar Crime Round-Up: May 11, 2012
Abram Harker Jeffs • Gordon Moon • Terah Rawlings • Cary Wayne Rhodes
Sentenced: Keith James Boyd, 44, pastor, Open Door Apostolic Church, Slidell, Louisiana, to three years in prison after his conviction of carnal knowledge and indecent behavior with a juvenile; i.e., engaging in a three-month sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl. At Boyd’s sentencing, Judge William “Rusty” Knight quoted 1 John 1:9. Story: Times-Picayune, May 10, 2012
Sentenced: Brian Brijbag, 36, former “well-known” youth pastor, First Baptist Church of Brooksville, Florida, and former radio ministry host (“Fire Escape Radio,” WWJB); to three years’ probation, sex offender counseling, and a fine of $964, after pleading no contest to one of two counts of child abuse — i.e., sex with a 17-year-old female member of his church. However, reported the Tampa Bay Times at the time of Brijbag’s arrest, during one sexual encounter in his church office, “Brijbag and the girl were not alone, according to a Brooksville Police investigation. They were engaged in a three-way sexual encounter with an 18-year-old female church member, police Chief George Turner said. … The 18-year-old was not arrested. It is not illegal in Florida for someone up to age 24 to have consensual sex with someone older than 16.” By pleading no contest, Brijbag, who was originally charged with two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, “avoids prison and avoids having his name added to the sex offender registry” and faces “no formal conviction, no formal finding of guilt and no admission of guilt,” reports Hernando Today. Brijbag, the father of three children and married at the time of his arrest to the daughter of a Southern Baptist minister, appears to have abandoned the ministry and is currently attending the University of South Florida. Story: Tampa Bay Times, January 26, 2008; Florida Baptist Witness, April 1, 2008; Hernando Today, April 13, 2011; Tampa Bay Times, April 14, 2011; Hernando Today, October 12, 2011; Hernando Today, May 11, 2012; Tampa Bay Times, May 11, 2012
New details: Robert C. Christian, a.k.a. “Pastor Bob,” 61, pastor, Heritage Congregational Church, Spokane, Washington; former volunteer chaplain, Spokane County Sheriff’s Department; graduate, Bethel Theological Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota; and former Toledo, Ohio, police officer; who turned himself in to police after an arrest warrant was issued May 4th on a charge of indecent exposure. The Spokesman-Review reports that Christian allegedly exposed himself to a former church member — a 72-year-old woman — “after showing up at her home in a long orange skirt and telling her … he’d lost a bet and had to wear a skirt for the day.” After the pastor used the woman’s bathroom, she “saw Christian’s erect penis sticking out the front of the button-up skirt, police allege. The victim said her cultural beliefs prevent her from making allegations against people in positions of authority,” and that “she feared she’d face problems if she accused a pastor of such a thing. She also feared investigators would defend Christian because of his position as a chaplain with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.” She finally talked to police after telling another pastor about the incident. Story: Conservative Babylon, May 5, 2012; Spokesman-Review, May 7, 2012
Arrested: Tammy Faagata, 39, assistant coach at Cardinal Newman (Catholic) High School, Santa Rosa, California, and Aaron Averbuck, 43, “who also goes by the name Komodo Tamakoa, variously described himself as a coach and an employee of the Oakland Raiders, NASCAR, the Playboy mansion and celebrities he supposedly worked for as a bodyguard,” reports SFGate; on suspicion of grand theft and burglary after “allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from people by promising discounts for electronics and trips to sports events but never delivering the goods.” Story: SFGate, May 10, 2012
Conviction upheld: Abram Harker Jeffs, 40, of member of the Warren Jeffs branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), of child sexual assault following his marriage to a 15-year-old girl. Convicted in 2010, Jeffs is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence. Story: Deseret News, June 2, 2010; Salt Lake Tribune, May 10, 2012
Charges dropped: Gordon Lamont Moon, 43, Mormon bishop and vice president, Duchesne County School Board, Duchesne, Utah, whose trial was set to begin June 1, 2012, on charges of felony witness tampering and failing to report suspected sexual abuse of a child. Moon was accused of attempting to prevent a 16-year-old girl from going to police to report an alleged sexual assault by another Mormon teenager, a boy. Reports the Mormon-owned Deseret News: “On Thursday, Judge Lyle Anderson dismissed those charges in the middle of a hearing at the request of Duchesne County Attorney Stephen Foote. The prosecutor’s request came after Moon testified under oath that he should have handled his interview with the girl differently and should have contacted a legal hotline operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The decision to dismiss surprised Moon and his attorney.” Story: Conservative Babylon, February 17, 2012; Conservative Babylon, February 24, 2012; KSL, May 10, 2012
Not guilty plea: Terah Rawlings, 32, Hilltop Baptist School (operated by Hilltop Baptist Church), Colorado Springs, Colorado, to eight felony counts of child sexual abuse by a person in a position of authority and one count of promoting obscenity. Rawlings is accused of carrying on a sexual relationship with a former student, a 15-year-old boy. In February, Rawlings’s uncle and the former senior pastor of Hilltop Baptist, Franklin “Wayne” Knight, 63, pleaded guilty to being an accessory to a crime and failure to report suspected child abuse; i.e., covering up his niece’s alleged affair with the boy. Still facing cover-up charges are Rawlings’s father, Raymond “Allen” Knight, 57, Hilltop associate pastor and the school’s athletic director, and Hilltop Baptist School principal Jan Ocvirk, 51. Story: Conservative Babylon, February 29, 2012; KRDO, May 10, 2012
Guilty plea: Cary Wayne Rhodes, 57, mayor, Taylorsville, Georgia, and chief financial officer, Taylorsville Baptist Church, to one count of computer and electronic exploitation of a child, with two counts of attempted child molestation dismissed. At the time of his arrest in October, 2011, the FBI reported that Rhodes was taken into custody “by FBI agents and task force officers after coming to the attention of undercover officers on the Internet,” and charged with “attempted aggravated child molestation and violation of the Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Act after having attempted to meet with a minor child” — who Rhodes thought was a 14-year-old girl — “for purposes of having sex. He was met instead by FBI agents and task force officers of the FBI’s Northwest Georgia Safe Child Task Force, where he was arrested.” Story: FBI, October 28, 2011; Daily Citizen, May 11, 2012; Daily Tribune News, May 11, 2012
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