Pastor Neal’s Wild Ride
Charged: Marc L. Neal, 48, senior pastor, Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, Akron, Ohio; Dominion Family Worship Center, Atlanta, Georgia; presiding prelate, Come Alive Ministry International Fellowship; with felony assault, kidnapping and abduction after a repo man tried to repossess his Lexus. Neal reportedly hit the gas and peeled out with Ken Falzini clinging to the hood of the car, hitting speeds up of to 60mph as he raced through the streets, zig-zagging widly as he tried to throw the repo man to the ground — and reportedly laughing when he threatened to take Falzini out on the interstate. In Neal’s defense, his attorney said it was “disrespectful” to try to repossess Neal’s car at the church on a Sunday morning. (Falzini said he had no other address for Neal.) Neal has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Story: CUCollector.com, February 11, 2011; AkronNewsNow.com, March 7, 2011
Remember Colin Howell, the Northern Ireland Baptist lay preacher and dentist 
Defrocked: Franklin E. Huntress, Jr., 77, retired Episcopal priest, by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, who “relinquished his priestly orders rather than face a church trial” (COE Newspaper) “after a church investigation into allegations that he abused children in separate incidents 20 years apart”; the investigation “uncovered the fact that Huntress had been arrested on charges of child sexual abuse in England in 1994.” Story: 
Sentenced: Jade Watson, 44, former evangelist, Church of England’s “Church Army,” former prison chaplain, Winchester Prison, Hampshire, England, & wife & mother of two, to eight months after pleading guilty to “misconduct in a public office.” Watson had had sex with ex-con Daniel Thornton; after Thornton was sent back to jail, Watson smuggled vodka, a cell phone, and muscle-building energy bars into the prison for Thornton. Per Sify News: “Watson claimed she was blackmailed into doing it after she was persuaded to text a photo of herself in her underwear to his mobile phone, and her husband Peter, who is also a Church Army member, is standing by her.” Story: 
Arrested: David Lee Edward Mitchell, 64, “former evangelist” & current head of the Refreshing Springs Christian Fellowship, Charleston, South Carolina, and charged with two counts of practicing law without a license. Accused of providing legal advice to prison inmates (and charging them for it), Mitchell is being held on a $150,000 bond. WCSC reports: “Court documents reveal that Mitchell was convicted in 2005 of forgery and grand larceny and was paroled in 2007.” Story: 
Guilty: Albert Odulele, 47, Nigerian-born evangelical founder & senior pastor, Glory House Churches International, London, U.K.; “prosperity gospel” televangelist; board member, Christian Life Centre UK, Churches in Community UK (CIC); affiliate of B.A.S.I.C. Trust International, Elisha Project (Uganda), Crenshaw Christian Centre (USA); T.D. Jakes Ministries (Jakes is the rabidly homophobic Trinity Broadcasting Network televangelist whose 
Convicted: Ricardo Avalos Maffey, 44, pastor, Apostolic Christian Church, San Clemente, California, of five felony counts of lewd conduct with a child & one felony count of contacting a minor with intent to molest. Sentencing is scheduled for April 15, 2011, when he will face up to six years (just six years?!) in the can. Story: 
Guilty: Barbara D. Whitt, 68, of embezzling some $1.5 million from First Baptist Church, Morristown, Tennessee, where she was the church’s financial secretary for 47 years. Whitt, who doctored more than 1,600 checks written on the church’s bank account in order to make them out to herself, pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering. Her son, Michael Dean Whitt, 42, who, Knoxnews.com reports, “deposited money embezzled from the church into prepaid cards and took other steps to avoid currency transaction reports,” pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to launder money. Story: 
Forty-seven-year-old Thomas Charles Wilson, admissions director of 
Charges dropped: Randy Carl Russell, 52, pastor, Weches United Pentecostal Church, Grapeland, Texas, who was arrested last month and charged with a “terroristic threat” after allegedly threatening to kill “someone” among the family of his 17-year-old daughter’s boyfriend, with whom his daughter was staying. Story: 
Convicted: Colin Haag, Jr., 34, unordained preacher who served as pastor or in other positions of authority at several Baptist churches (which apparently did not check his credentials) in five different states, including Columbia Union Church and Lighthouse Church in Addison, Maine, of two counts of kidnapping, and his girlfriend, Amanda Cyphert, 35, who posed as Haag’s wife, of criminal restraint by a parent. Haag and Cyphert illegally removed Cyphert’s two young daughters from their home in South Carolina, and moved from state to state for more than two years to hide them from the children’s biological father. One Colin Haag, Sr., a.k.a. Carl Davis, Sr., had been found wandering the streets of Jonesport, Maine; Haag, Sr., told police Haag, Jr., and Cyphert had also held him captive in the basement of each of the couple’s hideouts; Haag, Sr., then led police to a motel in Maine where the couple were currently holding the children. At last report, Haag, Sr., had been taken to a homeless shelter, while the children are now with their father in Florida. Haag and Cyphert, who are also suspected of theft from at least one church, are scheduled for sentencing February 16, 2011. Story: 
Sentenced: Loren Ankarlo, 53, former pastor, City on the Hill Church, Boulder, Colorado, to four years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of some $1 million. In December, co-conspirator Kevin Lauritsen, 50, was also sentenced to four years. Story: 
Sentenced to life again: Jason Robert Bourque, 20, described by his mother as a “good Christian young man,” and Daniel George McAllister, 22, Southern Baptist youth group members, after pleading guilty to a rash of Texas church fires. Bourque and McAllister will serve their sentences concurrently with the life sentences they received in January for five other church fires. Story: 
Charged again: Royce C. Shorter, 53, founder & executive director, Royce C. Shorter Ministries; pastor, Ecclesia Community Church; founder, Northwest Connection Community Choir; owner, N-Time Music Productions, Renton, Washington; volunteer program supervisor, Washington State Department of Corrections; with with two counts of third-degree rape and one count of third-degree child molestation related to five incidents of rape of a 15-year-old girl who was taking lessons at Shorter’s music studio. According to the Seattle PI: “Senior Deputy Prosecutor Carol Spoor noted that Shorter was convicted of statutory rape in 1985 after he was caught having sex with a 12-year-old girl he met through a choir group. Spoor also told the court Shorter was charged and acquitted of having molested a 15-year-old girl in 1993.” Shorter’s next court appearance is scheduled for February 17, 2011. Both the Web site of 
Sentenced: Daron Mark Crown, 25, youth pastor, First Baptist Church, Salmon Arm, British Columbia, to “a nine-month conditional sentence [which means Crown will not be incarcerated for the nine-month term; instead he will serve his sentence in the community under a number of conditions ... [including] having no contact with the victim and remaining under house arrest except for employment or approved absences] and one year of probation after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl he met through church work”; Crown “must also provide a DNA sample and be registered with the sex offender database for a period of 10 years,” according to the Salmon Arm Observer. “Crown’s wife,” notes Castanet.net, “was reportedly pregnant when the relationship with the minor began in February 2010.” Story: 
Sentenced: James Cox, 70, former church deacon & executive director, Honey Creek Episcopal Retreat Center, Waverly, Georgia, to five years’ probation, a $1,000 fine and banishment from Camden County and four surrounding counties, after pleading guilty to second-degree cruelty to children. Cox was originally charged with sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography in 2007, “after church officials reported finding photographs of nude girls on his computer.” Story: 
Charged: Jeffrey Lynn Crosley, 35, former youth minister, Jesus Messiah Evangelical Free Church, Hanover, Pennsylvania, with multiple counts of sexual abuse allegedly committed against two teenage boys, including rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault and statutory sexual assault. Since his arrest, police say he has “admitted to having sexual relationships with approximately 10 boys between the ages of 12 to 13.” Police also say Crosley’s home computer contained images of child pornography; additional charges are expected to be filed. A hearing is slated for February 9, 2011. Story: 
Hearing waived: Dino Cardelli, 49, anti-gay founder & former senior pastor, Calvary Chapel of Arcata, California, charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse against two minor girls, including one of his own adopted daughters. Since Cardelli’s re-arrest for violating a court order to refrain from contact with one of his two alleged victims, his son turned over Cardelli’s laptop computer to the District Attorney, as well as social-networking information that appears to confirm Cardelli’s prohibited contact with the alleged victim via Facebook. Cardelli’s arraignment is scheduled for February 14, 2011. Story: