Backstory:
• “Sacked, Sort Of: Cardinal Roger Mahony,” February 1, 2013
• “Cardinal Mahony Says He’s A ‘Scapegoat,’ Compares Himself to Jesus & Mary,” February 25, 2013
• “Black Collar Crime Round-Up” (Michael Stephen Baker), March 14, 2013
Courtesy of the Wisconsin Gazette:
March 14, 2013 — The former pastor of a northwest Indiana megachurch is scheduled for sentencing today for persuading a 16-year-old girl to engage in a sexual affair with him by telling her that Jesus desired it.
Jennifer Carroll, the lieutenant governor of Florida who shot back at rumors she was a lesbian by implying that she’s not ugly enough to be a black lesbian, is no longer lieutenant governor of Florida, having “abruptly resigned on Tuesday, the result of a criminal investigation into an Internet sweepstakes company for which she once served as a consultant,” according to the New York Times, which notes: (more…)
Claims to fame: 65-year-old founder and former pastor, Living Word Fellowship of Santa Clara, St. George, Utah; right-wing extremist; one-time Republican candidate for Utah’s 2nd District; repeat GOP delegate; ex-U.S. Marine; Vietnam veteran; husband; father of five; grandfather of 18; convicted child molester
Moral apex: Sexually molested at least four young girls as young as ten years old, all relatives, under the guise of having them to his home to give them a “Godly upbringing.” (Family members (more…)
Guilty pleas: Wesley Joseph “Joe” Wingo and his wife, Linda Wingo, founders, now-defunct Angel Food Ministries, and pastors, Emmanuel Praise Church (a.k.a. Emmanuel Praise Global Ministries), Good Hope, Georgia; and their son, Andy Wingo, the church’s associate pastor and chief operating officer and AFM’s Director of Pastoral Relations; to 40 out (more…)
Backstory: “Anti-Gay Cardinal Keith O’Brien Quits Following Allegations He Tried to Fool Around with Other Priests,” February 25, 2013
Boy, if only things moved so quickly in the Catholic church in the U.S. as they do in Scotland, we might not have so many pervy priests running around loose — or pedo-protecting cardinals running off to Rome to elect a new Pope: (more…)
Guilty plea: Charles Agbu, 58, pastor, Pilgrim Congregational Church, Carson, California, “to conspiring with doctors, the operators of fraudulent medical clinics, street-level patient recruiters, and others to defraud Medicare of more than $11 million,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Copping to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of money laundering, Agbu “faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine” at his scheduled sentencing on May 16, 2013. Co-conspirator Dr. Juan Tomas Van Putten is scheduled for (more…)
“Winans took advantage of ‘good, decent, church-going people,’ said [Judge Sean Cox] in U.S. District Court before sentencing him. ‘That is very, very troubling to me… You used … churches to perpetuate this fraud.’
“Assistant U.S. Attorney Abed Hammoud said of Winans: ‘He used religion. He used the church, the good reputation of the family,’ to rob victims. … (more…)
By Chris Fry, Courthouse News Service
MANHATTAN (CN) — A New York appeals court upheld the larceny and money laundering convictions against a Republican political consultant who stole from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
During Bloomberg’s 2009 re-election bid, John Haggerty Jr. conned the New York City mayor’s campaign workers out of $750,000, which he promised would help the Independence Party fund a $1.1 million “ballot security operation.” (more…)
A guy from Minnesota named Gerard Cellette is facing a whopping 116 counts of fraud, money laundering and other highly illegal shenanigans related to what the Orange County, California, D.A. calls “the largest Ponzi scheme to be prosecuted in Orange County history.” Cellette is accused of defrauding 55 victims in California — “without ever entering the State of California,” notes the D.A. — out of $21 million. There’s a nice, long explanation below that details exactly what Cellette is accused of doing (and why, until he was extradited to California a couple of weeks ago, he’d been twiddling his thumbs in a Minnesota prison) — but first, let’s hit the convoluted backstory. (more…)
“Truthfulness is the first pillar of good character in the Character Counts program of which I have been part of establishing in New Mexico. Many of you in this chamber have joined me in declaring the annual ‘Character Counts Weeks.’ This program teaches grade school youngsters throughout America about six pillars of good character. Public and private schools in every corner of my state teach children that character counts; character makes a difference; indeed, character makes all the difference. (more…)
Two videos after the jump.
When the news broke on the 18th that Christine Shreeve Hubbs — the Livermore, California, Mormon mom who plied two young boys with gifts and then had sex with each (the first reportedly her daughter’s boyfriend, and the second reportedly a patsy used to make the first boy jealous when he started pulling away from the shameless old cougar) — had been released from prison and was busted again less than a week later on a parole violation, we had no idea what sort of violation it was. Now, we know — but the parole violation is nothing compared to the rest of the story that’s just now emerging. If this is accurate, it’s almost as sick as anything that’s come before in the Hubbs saga, and highly disturbing. (more…)
Ironically, a post we made in 2011 ended with this: “Unless something bizarre happens while she serves her sentence, this is the probably the last you’ll hear of Chrissy Hubbs until 2016 — or maybe 2013, if she’s a good girl… for a change.”
Well, she made it to 2013 without warranting a mention from us — but it looks like she just can’t stop being a very bad girl… (more…)
You’ll understand why this news makes us happy after you read the backstory — “Republican 1%-er Rita Crundwell’s Million-Dollar RV First Asset Up for Auction” — and see photos of her luxury RV, which was just the first of her ill-gotten possessions the U.S. Marshals auctioned off to compensate for a small fraction of the megabucks the former Dixon, Illinois, comptroller stole from the city over the course of 22 years (in order to support her quarter-horse training habit, among other unnecessary diversions of the Rich and Undeserving): (more…)
By Jack Bouboushian, Courthouse News Service
(CN) – Pope Benedict’s retirement plans may open him up to prosecution by the International Criminal Court for sheltering child abusers, an advocacy group said Monday.
Citing his frail health on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he will step down as pope after less than eight years in office. He is the first pope to retire in the last 600 years. (more…)
“Sometimes he would choke us, put a pillow over our faces, tie us up, use little chopsticks and knives and stab us.”
— Testimony of one of Daryl VonNeida’s victims
Bizarre. Gruesome. Avoidable. Something you won’t read in the mainstream media reports about the freakish Daryl E. VonNeida — who was convicted today of 14 charges of sexually (more…)
The phrase “bilked the dead” belongs to Wayne Besen, who found this tidbit about the recently sort-of-sacked Cardinal Roger Mahony — and it’s just so, so apt:
Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of Catholics whose faith could not be shaken: the dead. (more…)
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