Black Collar Crime Round-Up: June 5, 2012
Robert Lacy / St. Andrew Missionary Baptist Church • Austin Nichols, Jr. • Matt Pitt
Charged: Gerald “Gary” Emil Anderson, 54, Mormon “priest” & stake president, Riverton, Wyoming, and former Fremont County school board chair, with four counts of felony larceny, three felony counts of obtaining goods by false pretenses, and two counts of conspiracy to commit felony larceny. Anderson is accused of embezzling more than $2.5 million from two different companies, Star-Tech, Inc. (allegedly driving Star-Tech out of business), and Precision Analysis, for which he worked as financial manager/bookkeeper. In December, a jury in a civil suit brought by the owners of the two companies found Anderson guilty of wrongly diverting some $1.5 million. The Daily Ranger reports: “Anderson also benefited his family members” — including son Scott Anderson, daughter Beth Gard and sister Karen Medow — “in the scheme by overpaying them for loans made in their names to Star-Tech, according to court documents. … Anderson also used Star-Tech money to pay for his credit card charges totaling more than $212,000 between 2004 and 2010. In his defense in the civil litigation, Gary Anderson claimed the existence of an oral agreement with Starks ‘based, in part, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints’ united order teaching’ that aims ‘to achieve equality of wealth based upon the industry of the participants,’ according to court documents in the lawsuit.” The Ranger also reports that “Star-Tech on March 29 filed a new lawsuit against wife Debra Anderson and the couple’s children, Beth Gard and Scott Anderson. The lawsuit accuses the Anderson family members of concealing or retaining stolen property stemming from the previous verdict.” Anderson is currently being held on a $250,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 6, 2012. Story: KTAK, December 22, 2011; Daily Ranger, May 31, 2012; Daily Ranger, June 1, 2012; County10.com, June 1, 2012
Convicted: Curtis Franklin, 45, former assistant pastor (and son-in-law of pastor Jack Walker), Mahwah Full Gospel Church, Mahwah, New Jersey, of second-degree sexual assault, stemming from a three-year sexual relationship Franklin, then a youth minister, initiated with a girl when she was 15. Sentencing is scheduled for September 14, 2012. Franklin’s lawyer is planning to appeal. Story: Conservative Babylon, December 8, 2009; Conservative Babylon, May 2, 2012; The Record, May 24, 2012
Sentenced: Richard E. “Rich” Jones, former youth minister, First Assembly of God, Sallisaw, Oklahoma, to a five-year deferred sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to one count of unlawful use of video equipment in a clandestine manner. “Jones was arrested Jan. 17 after a participant in a Narcotics Anonymous group found a hidden camera in the ladies restroom at the church annex,” reports the Sequoyah County Times. He will not be required to register as a sex offender. Story: Sequoyah County Times, June 1, 2012
Under scrutiny: Robert Lacy, a.k.a. Robeth Lacy, a.k.a. Roberth Lacy, 79, pastor, St. Andrew Missionary Baptist Church and and private K-12 school, Oakland, California — known for sending students as young as seven to panhandle for donations at BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) stations for five to six hours every weekday night (West Oakland is an especially dangerous, crime-ridden area of the city, which as a whole ranks regularly among the five most violent U.S. cities). Both Lacy — who has a history of legal problems, including bankruptcy and a misdemeanor theft conviction in 2007 (for collecting his dead father’s Social Security checks), while one of Lacy’s adult sons, also a teacher at the school, has a record of conviction for welfare fraud — and the school are accused of “vastly” inflating student enrollment numbers in order to receive government assistance. In addition, reports KCBS, Lacy’s current wife, Carrie Banks, “gets $100 an hour for teacher training. The pastor’s son Robert Lacy Jr. gets $40 an hour for teaching struggling students.” Lacy’s ex-wife has publicly accused the pastor of keeping all the donations collected by the children for himself, instead of building a proposed daycare center with “the pastor’s house on top.” Lacy and several other school officials are also facing allegations of physical abuse. Reports California Watch: “In separate interviews, several former students said the pastor’s son Robert Lacy Jr., and a teacher and church leader, would hit, kick and throw things at students. Nine-year-old Corey Butler said Lacy Jr. hit him with a belt on his behind and across his hand. Butler said he saw Lacy Jr. abuse other students, too. … Butler’s 14-year-old brother, Le’Gerrius Holt, said Lacy Jr. … hit him over the head with a book in class because he had called the teacher a ‘fool.’ ‘Rev. Robert said when we die — he already know we’re going to die before him — at our funeral, he’s going to go up to our parents and tell them not to cry because we’re going to go to hell,’ Holt said.” Story: In re: St. Andrew Missionary Baptist Church, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of California, July 21, 2005; U.S. v. Robert Lacy (1), June 8, 2007; U.S. v. Robert Lacy (2), June 8, 2007; California Watch, December 21, 2011; East Bay Express, December 28, 2011; KCBS (with video), June 4, 2012; California Watch, June 4, 2012; Bay Citizen, June 4, 2012. See also this MySpace page claiming abuse by Lacy and other church members, and asking for contact from “any parent, student, ex-church member that will join the group of parents that have come together to stop this manipulation and brutality. We need your story. We also need to help save the remainding [sic] minor Lacy children form the abusive hands of thier [sic] father Robert Lacy Sr.” See also: Yelp discussion, March 2010
Sentenced: Austin Nichols, Jr., 58, evangelical preacher, to 90 years in prison (three sentences of 30 years, to be served consecutively) after being convicted in March of raping his 14-year-old granddaughter three separate times in 2009. The News-Courier reports: “In seeking leniency for Nichols on Tuesday, defense attorney Garry Clem called two family members to testify on Nichols’ behalf — his wife, Martha, and his son, Curtis Nichols, father of the alleged victim. Curtis had testified at trial that he initially did not believe the allegation against his father but changed his mind after seeing a photograph [taken by his daughter] of [Nichols] exposing himself.” Also: “Nichol’s [sic] sister, Linda Gali, 50, of Ardmore, also testified at Nichols’ trial that he had sexually molested her and once raped her as a child in Chicago. However, Gali’s mother disputed her daughter’s claim after the trial.” Story: News-Courier, May 22, 2012; News-Courier, May 23, 2012
Preliminary hearing set: Matt Pitt, 28, youth evangelist & founder of The Basement ministry, Trussville, Alabama, for June 13, 2012. Pitt was arrested earlier this month and charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer. Story: Conservative Babylon, May 19, 2012
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