Black Collar Crime Round-Up: July 28, 2012
Monsignor William Lynn • Kareem J. Moore • Brenda Viars
Sentencing set: John A. Astorga, 37, former youth minister, Bethel Assembly of God , Wetumpka, Alabama, for July 31, 2012, following his conviction of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse against two children. Astorga faces one year and a day to ten years in prison for each count. The Madison County Record adds: “In addition to the convictions for which Astorga will be sentenced in Elmore County, similar crimes are being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office for charges against Astorga in Madison and Cullman counties. Most recently, Astorga was indicted June 22 by a grand jury in Cullman County for one count of first-degree sexual abuse. Charges also are pending against Astorga for three counts of first-degree sexual abuse involving three victims in an indictment returned in December of 2010 by a Madison County grand jury.” Story: Madison County Record, July 26, 2012; Montgomery Advertiser, July 26, 2012
Sentencing deal accepted: Anita Collins, 67 or 69 (depending on the source), former accounts payable clerk, Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, of four and a half to nine years in prison as recommended by prosecutors for allegedly embezzling nearly $1 million from the Archdiocese. The New York Post reports that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone accepted the deal, but “chided” prosecutors, who had said previously that “they’d go no lower than six years,” and called Collins’s actions “not only a crime, but a sin.” In June, The New York Daily News quoted Assistant District Attorney Amy Justiniano: “She held herself out to be a religious woman going to church every day. Yet, behind their backs she would lie and steal” — and reportedly spent “$18,000 of the ill-gotten gains on furniture at Bloomingdales … blew $23,000 on clothes at Barney’s, another $14,000 at Brooks Brothers, and $19,000 at an Irish gift shop.” The Post adds: “Collins had been convicted of grand larceny in 1999 for stealing from a previous employer, but the archdiocese never did background checks when hiring her, authorities have said.” Story: New York Daily News, January 30, 2012; CBS, February 1, 2012; New York Post, July 20, 2012
Trial date set: Mason Joel Davidson, 23, former Christian camp counselor, Baptist Camp Peniel, Yarmouth, and Kingswood Camp, Kentville, both in Nova Scotia; and employed or formerly employed by various other youth-oriented organizations; for November 1, 2012, after pleading not guilty “to accusations he exposed himself to one child and touched another for a sexual purpose,” according to the Chronicle Herald, which also notes that Davidson “did not attend Yarmouth provincial court Tuesday, where lawyer Chris Manning entered the pleas on his behalf.” Story: Conservative Babylon, July 11, 2012; Conservative Babylon, July 13, 2012; Chronicle Herald, July 27, 2012
Charged: John Lanza, pastor, and Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church, Lower Swatara Township, Pennsylvania, with false imprisonment and simple assault, following a March incident in which a church youth group of teenagers was reportedly ambushed, tied up, blindfolded, threatened with a semiautomatic rifle by an off-duty police officer, thrown in a van, interrogated, and taken to the home of their pastor, who appeared to be assaulted by the fake assailants — all as a purported lesson in “Christian persecution.” Several children, including a 14-year-old girl whose mother filed a police report, were reportedly traumatized by the event. AP reports that Lanza “said the goal of the exercise was to prepare the youth for what they might encounter as missionaries in foreign countries. He didn’t disclose the names of those involved but said the mock kidnappers included an off-duty police officer and a retired Army captain.” Conviction of false imprisonment of a child can result in up to ten years in prison. Story: Conservative Babylon, March 26, 2012; AP, July 27, 2012
Sentenced: Monsignor William Lynn, 61, highest-ranking Roman Catholic official so far to be convicted (in June, on one count of child endangerment) for his active involvement in the ongoing church sex-abuse scandal (i.e., covering up the sexual assault of children), to three to six years in prison. Story: Conservative Babylon, March 22, 2012; Conservative Babylon, May 7, 2012; Conservative Babylon, June 17, 2012; Conservative Babylon, June 22, 2012; NPR, July 24, 2012; Al Jazeera, July 25, 2012
Arrested: Kareem J. Moore, 36, middle school football coach and Christian summer camp counselor, Victory Christian Center School (which believes “that education in America should be based upon Biblical principles, and the Christian spirit, which made this country great,” and “that the use of the Bible is paramount in the development of strong character,” with “a strong academic program with subjects being taught from a Biblical perspective”), Charlotte, North Carolina, on suspicion of felony indecent liberties with a student and misdemeanor dissemination of material harmful to a minor — reportedly a girl under the age of 15. Story: Fox Charlotte, July 22, 2012
Sentenced: Brenda Viars, 59, co-pastor with “Brother” Mickey Viars, All for Jesus Church of God, Bristol, Tennessee, and televangelist, “King’s Servants TV Program,” (Living Faith Television), to 300 hours’ commnity service and six years’ probation after entering an Alford plea in April to two counts each of physical abuse or gross negligence of an impaired adult and willful abuse, neglect or exploitation of an adult. In February, 2011, authorities, acting on a tip, founds Viars’s diabetic husband and her 92-year-old mother living behind the church in an apartment “overrun with mice, roaches and gnats,” as well as dead rats and odors described as “urine, feces, rotting food, rotting meat.” TriCities.com adds: “Viars must also undergo a mental evaluation and maintain a full-time job as part her sentence, according to WJHL-TV Channel 11. Her probation officer will monitor her living conditions every month, and she will apply for judicial diversion, a type of probation which, if completed, may result in the removal of the charges from Viars’ record.” Story: Conservative Babylon, April 18, 2012; TriCities.com, July 25, 2012
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