Black Collar Crime Round-Up: September 25, 2012
Cesar Pastrana • Ira Parmenter • Giuseppe Savaia
Hearing set: Sebastian Mbuya, pastor and “prophet,” Delivering Power Centre International, Mukono District, Uganda, for October 1, 2012, on charges of defiling a 17-year-old girl, who told police “Mbuya had threatened her with death if she resisted his sexual advances to her.” Story: New Vision, September 19, 2012
Bound over for trial: Etheridge Henry Moore, 58, former pastor, Heritage Baptist Church, Kentwood, Michigan, charged with one count of embezzling more than $100,000 from the church since January, 2010. Moore had served as pastor for some 26 years. Story: MLive.com, August 23, 2012; MLive.com, September 5, 2012
Sentenced: Michael Scott Norris, 46, former youth pastor & Bible camp counselor, Open Bible Church, Portland, Oregon, to 25 years in prison following his July conviction on ten counts of child rape and molestation committed against a 10-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother, whom he met at his church. In April, Norris was sentenced to 25-to-life after pleading guilty to 11 counts of production of child pornography involving the same children. Norris’s latest sentence will run concurrently with the sentence he is already serving. Story: Conservative Babylon, February 1, 2012; Conservative Babylon, April 7, 2012; Conservative Babylon, July 31, 2012; Columbian, September 4, 2012; AP, September 5, 2012
Sentenced: Gregory Maurice Oats, 32, pastor, Word of Faith Ministries (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Dakotas District Council Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc.), St. Paul, Minnesota, to six months in jail and 10 years’ probation after pleading guilty to one count of felony financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Oats was supposed to be providing “spiritual care” for a former (and now deceased) church deacon in his late 70s who suffered from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes and paranoid schizophrenia; as the man’s “caregiver,’ and with his power of attorney, Oats stole tens of thousands of dollars and failed to pay the man’s bills, almost getting him evicted from the nursing home Oats had put him in. Among Oats’s spending sprees were trips to Wal-Mart and Burger King. Story: BlackMediaScoop, November 9, 2011; Star Tribune, September 14, 2012; Pioneer Press, September 14, 2012
Court date adjourned again: Ira Parmenter, 33, former youth pastor, Colwood Pentecostal Church, Victoria, British Columbia; to November 1, 2012. Parmenter was charged in May with sexual exploitation of a teenager; i.e., allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female congregant. Story: Conservative Babylon, May 16, 2012; Conservative Babylon, June 22, 2012; Goldstream News Gazette, September 19, 2012
Sentenced: Cesar Pastrana, 25, former youth volunteer, NorthStar Church, Kennesaw, Georgia, to life in prison after pleading guilty to ten counts of sexually abusing nine boys, including a relative, and another during an overnight church “lock-in.” Pastrana will be eligible for parole in 30 years; if he makes parole, he will be deported back to his home country of Mexico. Story: Conservative Babylon, March 8, 2012; Conservative Babylon, May 7, 2012; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 21, 2012; Marietta Daily Journal, September 22, 2012
Sentenced: Giuseppe Savaia, 43, Roman Catholic priest, formerly of St. Claire’s Catholic Church, North Palm Beach, Florida, to 18 months’ probation, ordered into a treatment program, and ordered to pay restitution of $895 to Niemann Marcus in Boca Raton, from which he stole a picture frame. The Palm Beach Post reports that Savaia “refused to confess but agreed that a guilty plea was in his best interest.” In a separate shoplifting incident, Savaia “was placed in a pre-trial intervention program in Broward County to settle charges that he stole two $400 Italian coats from Neiman Marcus Last Call at Sawgrass Mills in December. If he successfully completes the program, the charge won’t be on his record.” Story: Conservative Babylon, July 15, 2012; Palm Beach Post, September 12, 2012
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