Black Collar Crime Round-Up: September 22, 2012
Kenneth Leonard • Anthony Martinez • Patricia Padgett
Charged: Matthew C. Davis, 26, former volunteer “youth helper” according to Grace Church of Seattle, Washington, with sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl. Seattle PI reports: “According to charging documents, Davis began sending romantic email to the girl early in 2012 and ultimately offered to leave his wife to start a new life with the girl. He is alleged to have said he would quit his job at Boeing and follow her to college.” Story: Seattle PI, September 5, 2012
Sentenced: Joshua Gardner, 29, youth volunteer, First Baptist Church of St. Francis, Minnesota, and son of “a senior minister for a Baptist church in Okinawa, where he and his wife have been missionaries since before Joshua Gardner was born,” reports the Star Tribune; to 72 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, reports the U.S. Dept. of Justice, after pleading guilty in January to sexually abusing “two boys under the age of 12, sometime between September 1997 and May 2002, on Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Japan, which as a U.S. Air Force base was in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States. At the time of the offenses, Gardner, who currently lives in Minnesota, lived in Okinawa at the time.
The Star Tribune adds: “Gardner had an ‘active religious life’ in Japan, according to the defense, and moved to California to study at a Bible college. He then moved to Missouri and then Kansas. He arrived in the Twin Cities area about four years ago and became involved at the St. Francis church, where some of his relatives were already members, said senior pastor Steve Brower. The church became aware of the allegations against Gardner late last year. Gardner’s contributions to the church have included being an usher at services, singing and being among teenagers at open gym and a church-run concession stand, the pastor said.”
FBC St. Francis is the home church of Dan and Terri Gardner, Hyles-Anderson graduates (see Jack Hyles) who have spent some 35 years as missionaries on Okinawa, where they founded Grace Baptist Church, and currently pastor Faith Baptist Church (a.k.a. Shinko Baptist Church), where they also run a children’s “camp ministry,” assisted by their son Daniel, Jr., and his wife, Heidi. We are 99% certain this is Joshua Gardner’s Facebook profile. Story: U.S. Dept. of Justice, October 3, 2011; U.S. Dept. of Justice, January 5, 2012; U.S. ICE, January 6, 2012; U.S. Dept. of Justice, September 12, 2012; U.S. ICE, September 12, 2012; Star Tribune, September 13, 2012
Charged: William C. Jackson, 57, former teacher and minister of music, Bible Baptist School, Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania, with 26 counts of sexual abuse allegedly committed against seven boys, including felony indecent assault of a person under 13, felony institutional sexual assault, felony corruption of minors, felony unlawful contact with a minor, and assorted related misdemeanor charges. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for October 2, 2012. Story: Sentinel, September 19, 2012
Guilty plea: Jan-Mikkel Jasper (known as Mikkel Jasper), 35, former youth pastor, Alpine Bible Church, Sugarcreek, Ohio; graduate, Boyce College, Louisville, Kentucky (a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary school); to one count of felony sexual battery ” through a bill of information, a process in lieu of an indictment through a county grand jury,” according to TimesReporter.com, stemming from a year-long sexual relationship he had with a teenage female parishioner. Jasper is scheduled to be sentenced in November; the prosecutor is recommending five years, but would reportedly settle for two, followed by sex-offender treatment. According to a cached page from the church website, Jasper was hired in 2001 as “a full-time Associate Pastor,” who “specializes in Student Ministry.” Before Alpine, Jasper appears to have once been middle school pastor at Little Flock Church, Lousiville. A photo believed to be that of Jasper and his wife, reportedly a one-time Christian rock singer with a “praise band” called “Eleven,” appears here. Story: TimesReporter.com, August 31, 2012; TimesReporter.com, September 10, 2012
Arrested: Kenneth Leonard , 28, youth volunteer, CrossPointe Church, Valdosta, Georgia, on ten different warrants related to allegations he sexually abused “five young men” he met through the church, while “two other potential victims recently came forward.” reports WALB. Story: WALB, September 14, 2012
Sentenced: Anthony J. Martinez, 36, former “Edge” youth minister, Santa María de la Paz Catholic Community, Santa Fe, New Mexico, to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two 15-year-old boys he met through the church youth program. Martinez is a divorced father of young girls. Story: Conservative Babylon, November 28, 2010; Albuquerque Journal, September 21, 2012
Sentenced: Patricia Padgett, 54, former accounts payable manager, Dunwoody Baptist Church, Dunwoody, Georgia, to 20 years in prison, with three years to be served inside and the remaining 17 years on probation, after pleading guilty to four counts of theft by taking; i.e., stealing more than $140,000 from the church over three years. Padgett has also been ordered to pay the church nearly $144,000. Story: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 21, 2012; WSB, September 21, 2012; AP, September 21, 2012
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