Black Collar Crime Round-Up: August 10, 2012
Arturo Tenorio • Anthony Lynn Thibodeaux • John T. Vine
Indicted: Roberto De La Garza, 28, former teacher, Central Baptist Christian Academy (“a ministry of Central Baptist Church”). Amarillo, Texas, on a second-degree felony charge of engaging in an improper relationship with a student, an 18-year-old female with whom De La Garza allegedly carried on a sexual relationship from Valentine’s Day until late June, 2012. Story: Connect Amarillo, August 9, 2012; Lubbock Online, August 9, 2012
Guilty plea: Chad Foster, 33, former youth pastor, Community of Faith, Hockley, Texas, accused of raping a 16-year-old girl with whom he allegedly had sex numerous times during the summer and fall of 2011. The details of the plea deal have not been released. Foster — who is also facing charges of online solictation of a minor, a 14-year-old girl to whom he allegedly exposed himself repeatedly over Skype earlier in 2011, while he was a youth pastor at Southern Baptist megachurch Second Baptist Church in Houston — is currently free on bond, and is scheduled to be sentenced in December. Story: KHOU, November 4, 2011; KPRC, December 16, 2011; KHOU, December 16, 2011; KHOU, August 8, 2012
Charged: Kris Allan Gowdy, 42, former lead pastor, Kingston West Church (Free Methodist), Kingston, Ontario (where in 2001, it was reported, a youth minister was asked to reign for refusing to condemn gays); former student ministries pastor, Trulls Road Free Methodist Church, Courtice, Ontario; former director of youth ministries, Lakeview Church (also Free Methodist), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; with luring a child via computer and attempted aggravated sexual assault. Gowdy, who is reportedly HIV-positive, is accused of using the Internet in an attempt to to arrange a meeting for sex with a 15-year-old boy, who turned out to be an undercover police officer. Police said Gowdy “had an extensive social media presence,” using the profile name “collegetoy2033,” and “investigators are concerned there may be further victims.” It appears that in June, Gowdy was preparing to leave Lakeview for another Free Methodist church in Spring Arbor, Michigan.
The Free Methodist Church, incidentally, condemns homosexuality as a “sexual deviance” and “a result of fallen humanity,” comparing it to “exhibitionism, voyeurism, pedophilia, incest, zoophilia (bestiality), fetishism, sadism, masochism and transvestism,” which can be “healed” by “the professional counsel of a Christian therapist, Christian psychologist or pastoral counselor.” The church also quotes debunked, 30-year-old propaganda (still promoted by such professional anti-gay organizations as the Family “Research” Council and LifeSiteNews.com) claiming that “the average length of the marriage between two men is 1.5 years, and the men have eight other ‘partners’ each year.” Story: DurhamRegion, August 10, 2012; Panow.com, August 10, 2012; Ottawa Sun, August 10, 2012. See also: Blogspot (profile)
Arrested: Peter Petroske, 57, German-born Roman Catholic priest, Sacred Heart Parish, Dearborn, Michigan; and previously pastor of numerous other Michigan parishes; for allegedly driving drunk while naked. According to a police report, the priest told the arresting officer: “I was, uhh, hot. … I like to drive around naked.” He is due in court September 13, 2012. All references to Petroske, who has been placed on administrative leave, have been deleted from the Sacred Heart website; as of this writing, caches are still accessible. Story: Dearborn Patch, August 7, 2012; Clarion Ledger, August 8, 2012; Detroit News, August 9, 2012; APP, August 10, 2012; Press and Guide, August 10, 2012
On trial: Arturo Tenorio, 59, of Midvale, Utah, fake marriage counselor who was recommended by a local church bishop to Mormon couples, charged with two felony counts of forcible sexual abuse allegedly committed against two women under his “care.” Arturo Tenorio is the brother of Octaviano Tenorio, general authority and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to the Deseret News, defense attorney Ann Taliaferro is arguing “that what Tenorio did may have been wrong, but it wasn’t criminal. She said one of the women never objected to the touching and when another asked Tenorio to stop, he complied.” Story: Conservative Babylon, January 12, 2011; Deseret News, August 8, 2012
Arrested: Anthony Lynn Thibodeaux, 36. pastor, Fairfield Missionary Baptist Church, Fairfield, Texas, “on warrants charging sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child,” reports KWTX, stemming “from an investigation that started about three weeks ago of allegations involving inappropriate sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl.” KXXV quotes a parishioner as saying Thibodeaux has “given the church a bad name before. ‘He’s been here going on eleven years and after the first two he’s come here it’s been one thing after another.’” Story: KWTX, August 10, 2012; KXXV, August 10, 2012
Sentenced: John T. Vine, 68, former pastor, Lake Providence Missionary Baptist Church, Nashville, Tennessee; founder and former pastor, United Community Church, North Nashville; to 22 years in prison following his conviction in May of two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of solicitation of a minor. Vine repeatedly sexually abused an 11-year-old girl who attended Vine’s churches with her mother; the girl’s family called Vine “Granddad.” The Tennessean notes that, according to a police report, Vine resigned from Lake Providence Missionary Baptist “after other allegations against him emerged,” but “then became a pastor at Faith United.” Story: Conservative Babylon, May 24, 2012; Tennessean, August 9, 2012
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