Catholic parish in Missouri raided after child porn downloads (via Raw Story )

Federal and state authorities on Tuesday raided a Catholic parish in Independence, Missouri as part of an investigation into child pornography. A spokesperson for the Catholic Dioceses of Kansas City-St. Joseph said that investigators tracked down child porn downloads to an IP address used by an unsecured…

 

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According to the EEOC’s suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma (Civil Case No. 4:12-cv-00330-JED-FHM), Voss Lighting advertised a vacancy for an “operations supervisor” position at its Tulsa location through the website of a Tulsa-area church attended by the incumbent supervisor. Edward Wolfe, who had prior operations management experience, learned about the vacancy and applied for the position although he did not himself attend the church. Voss’s incumbent supervisor met with Wolfe and casually gathered personal information about his religious beliefs and practices. Notwithstanding the fact that Wolfe provided his resume and other job-related information, the supervisor forwarded only Wolfe’s personal religious information to the branch manager and recommended that he be hired.

When the branch manager formally interviewed Wolfe, the majority of the job interview concerned Wolfe’s religious activities and beliefs, the EEOC said. For instance, Wolfe was asked to identify every church he has attended over the past several years; where and when he was “saved” and the circumstances that led up to it; and whether he “would have a problem” coming into work early to attend Bible study before clocking in. According to Wolfe, the branch manager expressed dissatisfaction with his truthful responses to the religious questioning.

At the time Wolfe was interviewed, Voss had no viable candidates for the position being filled. Despite being considered qualified for the position, Wolfe was denied employment on the basis of his religious beliefs, the EEOC charged. Voss continued to seek applicants and eventually hired an individual whose religious ideology matched that of the company and its leadership.

In addition to the $82,500 payment to Wolfe, the consent decree settling the suit, which must be approved by U.S. District Court Judge John Dowdell, also requires Voss Lighting to undertake specified company-wide actions designed to prevent future religious discrimination, including the posting of an EEOC notice specifically prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of religion at all its 21 locations spanning 12 states, re-dissemination of anti-discrimination policies; periodic reporting to the EEOC of specified hiring information; religion-neutral job advertising; and the training of management on religious discrimination.

“Refusing to hire a qualified job applicant because his religious beliefs do not comport with those of the employer’s leadership is illegal, even if the for-profit company purports to have a religious mission or purpose,” said Barbara A. Seely, regional attorney of the EEOC’s St. Louis District Office.

It’s Called a Theocracy:

“The evidence in this case suggested widespread religious discrimination throughout the company, not just its Oklahoma locations. The EEOC is optimistic that the corporate-wide remedial actions agreed to by Voss Lighting will put an end to the role religion plays in its decisions affecting applicants and employees. If not, we will be back in court again.”

Voss Lighting, with over 200 employees, specializes in the sale of lighting products and does business throughout the United States.

The EEOC St. Louis District Office is responsible for processing charges of discrimination, administrative enforcement, and the conduct of agency litigation in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and southern Illinois, with Area Offices in Kansas City and Oklahoma City.

Eliminating barriers in recruitment and hiring, especially class-based recruitment and hiring practices that discriminate against racial, ethnic and religious groups, older workers, women, and people with disabilities, is one of six national priorities identified by the Commission’s Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP).

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the Commission is available on its web site at www.eeog.gov

Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Related posts:

1. EEOC Sues Tulsa Lighting Supplier for Religious Discrimination
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• “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

Returning US cardinal faces abuse probe call (via AFP)

Pope Francis must redouble efforts to excise the “cancer” of sex abuse, a US victim said Thursday after winning a $1 million payout — and urged the new pontiff to defrock the cardinal involved. Retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was stripped of his duties in January after files were published…

 

Related:

• “L.A. Archdiocese, Cardinal Mahony, Bishop Thomas Curry, et al., Sued for Trafficking in Child Sex Abuse,” March 15, 2013

Related posts:

1. Cardinal Mahony Bilked the Dead for Sex Abuse Payouts
2. Cardinal Mahony Says He’s A “Scapegoat,” Compares Himself to Jesus & Mary
3. Sacked, Sort Of: Cardinal Roger Mahony
4. L.A. Archdiocese, Cardinal Mahony, Bishop Thomas Curry, et al., Sued for Trafficking in Child Sex Abuse
5. Abuse Victims Welcome Pope’s Retirement

We hope you understand, and thank you for sticking with us.

Your pals at ConBab

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Charged: Robert A. “Bob” Buss, 49, catechist (religion teacher), St. Anthony’s Catholic Parish, Dubuque, Iowa; member, (typically homophobic) St. Anthony Knights of Columbus Council 8384; and missionary to Haiti; with misdemeanor dissemination of obscene material to a minor; i.e., sending nude pictures of himself to a 16-year-old Haitian boy he met on one of his youth mission trips. The Telegraph-Herald reports: “Police said they were provided email records, Facebook messages and photos that had been sent between Buss and the male, who is now 18 years old, but was 16 at the time Buss allegedly started sending photos in 2011. The photos that were emailed showed Buss nude.

“The email dated Sept. 6, 2011, includes a message that states, ‘Be careful with these please.’” KCRG reports that, according to authorities, Buss has admitted to sending the nude photos as well as engaging “in sex acts with the teen.” Buss is married (his wife also teaches catechism) and the father of four; the youngest (and the younger of Buss’s two sons) is about the same age as the alleged victim. Story: Telegraph-Herald, March 12, 2013; KCRG (with video), March 12, 2013. See also: thebussfamily.com

Charged: Lisa Franklin, 44, former substitute teacher, Sacred Heart School (site empty as of this writing), Newburgh, New York, with raping a child, a now-13-year-old boy (whom Franklin also tutored at home) who was 12 when Franklin allegedly began having sex with him. Story: YNN.com, March 15, 2013

Charged: Epifanio “Pete” Nevarez, 58, volunteer girls’ softball coach, St. Didacus Catholic School, Sylmar, California, with four felony counts of oral copulation with a child under 14 — a girl who attends St. Didacus. Nevarez is currently in custody in lieu of $400,000 bail; a preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 29, 2013.

In 1995, Nevarez’s wife (since 1972) and mother of his four children disappeared and has never been found. According to the LAPD: “On January 17, 1995, at approximately 5:00 pm, Sandra Nevarez, a 41 year old resident of Sylmar (at the time of missing), was last seen walking around the shopping center at 13227 Gladstone in the Sylmar area. Her physical condition at the time was unknown.”

“Later that evening,” the Los Angeles Times recalled in 1997, “Joseph, now 18, and the couple’s oldest child Anthony, now 25, searched for their mother at the laundry. The brothers discovered the neatly folded laundry inside the trunk of their mother’s car, a small pool of blood on the ground under the rear bumper and her purse nearby with its contents still inside.” Pete Nevarez, noted the Times, was “a truck driver for 20th Century Fox studios in West Los Angeles who was questioned by Los Angeles Police Department detectives early in the case but never charged.” Story: Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1997; CBS Los Angeles, March 14, 2013

On trial: Matthew David O’Meara, former chaplain, Perth College (an Anglican K-12 day and boarding school for girls), Mount Lawley (Perth), Western Australia, charged with four counts of possession of child pornography “after USBs were found containing photos and videos of young girls on them at Perth College,” reports PerthNow. “A trial over the matter last year resulted in a hung jury and, in this trial, Mr O’Meara has maintained his plea of not guilty, claiming someone set him up with the images.” Story: PerthNow, March 14, 2013; PerthNow, March 15, 2013

Charged: Aaron Edwin Springer, 27, former youth pastor, Lancaster First Assembly of God (Facebook), Lancaster Township, Pennsylvania, with first-degree misdemeanor corruption of a minor, a 16-year-old girl who belonged to his church youth group. WHTM reports: “According to the [criminal] complaint, Springer admitted that he engaged in sex with the teen approximately 10 times. The incidents occurred at the church and in Springer’s vehicle while it was on church property between November 2011 and July 2012, the complaint states.” A hearing is scheduled for March 22, 2013. Story: WHTM, March 6, 2013

Springer’s Tumblr profile states: “I am a follower of Christ, a husband, a father, a leader, a pastor, a speaker, and a bunch of other things too random to list… I’m passionate about change – change centered around a relationship with Christ.” His site at aspringer.magnt.com adds: “I work with students and love being involved with marketing, social media, psychology, leadership and advising. I’m passionate about seeing people’s lives changed through the grace of God. I’d love to help you in any way I can, feel free to contact me…” His Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Vimeo accounts have all been deleted.

A comment which appears to have been written by Springer in response to an essay, “What to Say to a Friend Having an Affair,” reads in part: “[G]race without truth is weak at best. … I understand grace and redemption and forgiveness, but their [an adulterer's] spouse might not see it the same way, or their children, or anyone else intimately involved. Doesn’t it seem rock bottom experiences happen when people have no one to turn to? Aloneness? … I don’t encourage ostracizing these hurting people [adulterers], but rather exposing them to truth and grace – combined. … But I wouldn’t be too quick to brush away reminders of consequences. It’s not our job to bring the hammer down, but the hammer will come down one way or another.” Another comment states: “Maybe I’m just upset at how desensitized we have become to divine consequences. I mean shouldn’t ‘thou shall not commit adultery’ still carry some weight?”

Sentenced: Barry Welton Thomas, 53, founder and pastor, Shiloh Baptist Church, Lake Charles, Louisiana, to five years in prison, less three years suspended, plus $200,000 in restitution, after pleading guilty in September to second-degree battery, according to media reports. Thomas was arrested in 2009 after shooting up a mobile home — where Thomas had been smoking crack with eight other people — and wounding two men. Reports American Press: “Addressing the court, Thomas said he was not happy about what had happened and called it a ‘bad character move.’ He said that when the crime occurred, he had been up for a few days doing drugs.” Story: KPLC, June 23, 2009; KPLC, April 28, 2010; American Press, March 14, 2013; KPLC, March 14, 2013

Charged: Artelino Vallada, 36, pastor, Jesus Christ the Open Door Church, Toronto, Ontario, with four counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference, and two counts of invitation to sexual touching, according to the Toronto Police Service. Vallada ia accused of sexually assaulting four women and girls between the ages of 14 and 21; police believe there may be more victims. Story: Toronto Police Service, March 15, 2013

Related posts:

1. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 13, 2013
2. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 10, 2013
3. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 12, 2013, Part 2
4. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 12, 2013, Part 1
5. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 14, 2013

We swear we did not go looking for War-On-Drugs hypocrites today — they’re just popping up right and… well, actually, only on the Right. As soon as we finished telling you about Lake Forest city council member Peter Herzog, a real hard-ass on medical marijuana, who was busted on a DUI charge, up popped Steve Katz.

Katz is a Republican New York Assemblyman who sits on the state’s Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (at least, for now), and who voted against a 2012 bill to legalize medical marijuana.

On March 14th, reports the New York State Police (who seem to be stuck in the 1930s, spelling “marijuana” with an “H”), Katz was cited at 10:00 in the morning “for the violation of Unlawful Possession of Marihuana” after stopping him for going lickety-split up I-87. “After noting the odor of marihuana, a New York State Trooper found Katz in possession of a small bag of marihuana. Mr. Katz was released on an appearance ticket to appear in the Town of Coeymans Court on March 28th.”

But, wait! There’s more! A veterinarian in private practice (he owns the swank Bronx Veterinary Center), Katz was forced last year to explain, as Joe Coscarelli put it, “why he put a dead German Shephard in a dumpster and was accused of assaulting a Chihuahua.”

(The former, he told City & State, started out in his trunk — where it began “to ooze on my daughter’s Barbie doll collection” — and the latter, he said, was simply “the meanest dog you’ve ever seen.”) Arrested in each incident, Katz was let off the hook both times. (Mused Coscarelli: “Katz’s explanations sound more than acceptable, but the stories, in all of their absurdity, are not likely to stop coming up — just ask Mitt Romney.”)

That wasn’t the end of Katz’s veterinary-related troubles; in 2012, the state dissolved his corporation because he failed to file tax returns for two years.

And then there was the big, fat tax lien resulting from his own “unpaid income taxes, interest and penalties from 1985, 1986 and 1987.”

Meanwhile, he let his vet license expire. He finally renewed the license, but as of March 15, 2013, the official record for Bronx Veterinary Center P.C. reads: “Current Entity Status: INACTIVE – Dissolution by Proclamation / Annulment of Authority (Jan 25, 2012).”

That must mean being a New York state assemblyman is a meaningless position: “Our community has been stricken with an increase in drug use and drunk driving by our youngest citizens. This comes from a lack of jobs and volunteer opportunities. I’m working with many groups to get these kids off the streets and into meaningful positions.” — Steve Katz campaign flyer. Click for source.

But, wait! There’s more! LoHud.com reported last year:

Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Yorktown, Westchester County, has compared Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to Joe Paterno’s cover-up of Jerry Sandusky’s child abuse, but Katz himself fought, and later settled, a sexual-harassment case against him and his animal hospital. Gannett’s Albany Bureau reported today that in 2002, a former female employee at Katz’s Bronx veterinary office sued Katz and his business after she claimed a co-worker sexually harassed her and that Katz didn’t investigate. She was fired a month after she brought her concerns to Katz, court papers said.

The case was settled for about $105,000 in 2006 after Katz, of Yorktown, tried to dismiss the lawsuit, the records showed.

Geez! Anything else? Yep — he’s a bona fide Teabagger.

Figures. Yep.

Oh, and here’s the video we promised:

Related posts:

1. Dear Mr. Katz: Not Wanting to Pay Taxes Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Have to Pay Taxes
2. Steve Wise: Assistant Boy Scoutmaster Busted for Child Pornography (with News Videos)
3. Republican New Jersey Assemblyman Bob Schroeder Charged with Writing Nearly $400,000 in Bad Checks
4. Steve Nunn Arrested for Pointing Gun at Cops, But Not for Murder of Ex-Girlfriend… Yet
5. New Jersey Assemblyman & “Rising Republican Star” Daniel Van Pelt Gets 41 Months for Bribery & Attempted Extortion

Moral apex: Busted on a DUI after reportedly blowing a whopping .18 BAC, more than twice the legal limit of .08. When you hear what he’s accused of doing, you’ll wonder how he managed to keep from killing himself and everybody else whose path he crossed. Sez (or said) the ever-entertaining Orange County D.A.’s Office:

Peter Alan Herzog, 57, Lake Forest, is charged with one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol and one misdemeanor count of driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent or more with a sentencing enhancement allegation for having a blood alcohol level of .15 percent. If convicted, Herzog faces a sentence ranging from probation up to six months in jail. …

At approximately 8:15 p.m. on Nov. 17, 2012, Herzog is accused of making a left turn from Portola Parkway onto Lake Forest Drive and driving on the wrong side of the road. The defendant is accused of driving over the center median to get back on to the westbound lanes. Herzog is then accused of making a wide left turn from Lake Forest Drive on to Regency Lane and hitting the right side of the curb. The defendant is accused of crossing into the opposing lane of traffic swerving back and forth across lanes until he arrived at his home.

Motorists reported the driving to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, who investigated this case, and arrested the defendant at his home. The defendant is accused of displaying objective signs of intoxication including bloodshot and watery eyes, slurred speech, strong odor of alcohol, and unsteady balance. At approximately 10:30 p.m., the defendant is accused of having a blood alcohol content of .18 percent.

So, you’re ragging on the guy just because he’s a Republican? Where’s the hypocrisy? Oh, did we forget to mention…? During his 2011 mayoral stint, Herzog led the charge to ban (and shut down existing) medical marijuana dispensaries in Lake Forest — a city all too eager to comply with the U.S. DOJ’s sweeping, indiscriminate crackdown on California dispensaries (and attack on “states’ rights”; as you probably know, the fed is blithely ignoring the fact that medical pot has been legal in California since 1996 — and voter-approved, for all you federalists out there — no matter how fervently the Lake Foresters continue to prepend the word “illegal” to every mention of marijuana dispensaries).

Oh! I see what you mean! We thought you would.

Where things stand now: Arraignment, originally scheduled for March 14, 2013, has been pushed back to March 28th.

Memorable quote:

“I don’t believe there is another community in the nation that has invested the time and resources to fight the battle against illegal marijuana stores like the City of Lake Forest. The City is greatly appreciative of the United States Department of Justice and US Attorney André Birotte Jr.’s assistance in this serious problem. …

“Despite an Orange County Superior Court judgment issued last April ordering their closure, the City has been unable to close these businesses because of the dispensaries’ legal maneuverings and delays at the appeals court level. …

“The City Council has been unanimous in its stand that there is no place for marijuana businesses in our community. We refuse to compromise the City’s quality of life by allowing these illegal drug outlets to continue.”

— Then-Mayor Peter Herzog
“US Department of Justice Announces Support to Lake Forest
to Identify and Remove Commercial Marijuana Operations”
City of Lake Forest, October 7, 2011

(Find more crowing about denying MJ to sick folks in the city’s press release archive.)

Memorable observation (Remember, we didn’t write it, and we don’t necessarily agree with it — certainly not the bit about giving anyone a lethal injection — it’s just a most memorable observation):

“What a hypocritical drunk whose piosity is only exceeded by his stupidity ! This self-righteous simpleton personally led the effort to illegally deny ‘safe & legal access’ to medical marijuana patients in Lake Forest,defying state law with a religious fervor ! This futile effort has cost local taxpayer’s over a million dollars as the city refuses to abide by the law & has appealed their loss in the Appellate Court to the State Supreme Court ! Every elected official in California takes an oath to uphold all the laws of the state,not just the ones that they like & Peter Herzog’s vindictive attack on cannabis patients constitutes malfeasance in office ! When he couldn’t get his way in state court he appealed to the federal government to help him circumvent & violate state law another obvious act of malfeasance ! Further any elected official who conspires with the federal government to usurp the will of the voters,legislators & state law is guilty of treason against the state – a potential death penalty offense ! Let’s remove this chronically inebriated cretin from office,have a public trial & give him a lethal injection now ! Ironically a study in the August issue of The Journal of School Health found that alcohol is in fact the ‘gateway drug’ not marijuana,so Peter Herzog has been guzzling the real culprit all along ! Karma’s an unforgiving bitch & Peter Herzog is a reprehensible (reader’s choice of adjectives) ! Enough is enough,Lake Forest deserves far better than Herzog !”

— Reader comment, “Bong Sativa”
“Lake Forest Councilman Hit with DUI Arrest”
Lake Forest Patch, December 3, 2012

Suggested Bible readings for Mr. Herzog:

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

— Genesis 1:29

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

— Proverbs 20:1

Related posts:

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2. Peter Jung-Joo Kim
3. Stephen Green, “British Version of Peter LaBarbera,” Said to Be Wife Beater
4. Dead Catholic Radical Republican Hypocrite of the Month: Tom Fuentes (R-AllegedClosetCase, Calif.)
5. Child-Raping Pastor Oscar Perez Perez Gets the Max: 330 Years to Life

The latest lawsuit alleging a decades-long conspiracy to facilitate and cover up priests’ sexual abuse of children was filed Tuesday in Superior Court, as the Catholic Church’s conclave met to elect the new pope, who was chosen on Wednesday.

The 18-page complaint names names, including former Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, Bishop Thomas Curry, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but the only defendants are Defendant Does 1 through 1,000, church officials and dioceses that allegedly participated in the shuffling of predatory priests from parish to parish, including across the U.S.-Mexico border.

The four Juan Doe plaintiffs claim they were sexually abused by a priest in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese stripped Cardinal Mahony, its former archbishop, of his public duties after it was revealed that he plotted to conceal child sexual abuse by priests, according to the Los Angeles Times.

More on Mahony and Curry:

• “Sacked, Sort Of: Cardinal Roger Mahony,” February 1, 2013

More on Eleuterio Ramos:

• “Dead Catholic Radical Republican Hypocrite of the Month: Tom Fuentes (R-AllegedClosetCase, Calif.),” May 31, 2012

According to the Superior Court complaint: “The Catholic bishops in the United States, Mexico and other Latin American countries have long facilitated the sexual molestation of children by engaging in the international trafficking of known child molesting priests. The bishops have done so to prevent the priests form being prosecuted and to avoid scandal. The bishops have subjected Catholic families and children in these communities to known pedophiles, counting on the devotion and reverence in the communities to keep any further abuse by the priests secret.

“Father Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera (hereafter ‘Father Aguilar-Rivera’), a priest at San Sebastian Martyr church in the town of Cuacnopalan, Puebla, Mexico, sexually molested numerous children in 1986. When the abuse became known in the community, a group of parents physically confronted Father Aguilar-Rivera. Local police became aware of the incident.

“Father Aguilar-Rivera sought the assistance of his bishop, defendant Doe 6, then the bishop of defendant Doe 5, a Roman Catholic Diocese in Tehuacan, in Mexico. Defendant Doe 6 and defendant Doe 5, despite being aware that Father Aguilar-Rivera was accused of molesting numerous boys, facilitated the transfer of Father Aguilar-Rivera to Los Angeles and the defendant Doe 1 Archdiocese. Defendant Does 5 and 6 also counseled Father Aguilar-Rivera to have psychiatric help because of the incident. In January and March of 1987, using coded language used by the bishops to facilitate the international transfer of child molesting priests, defendant Doe 6 informed Cardinal Roger Mahony and the defendant Doe 1 Archdiocese that there were accusations of Father Aguilar-Rivera molesting children.

“Despite this knowledge and these warnings, Cardinal Mahony and defendant Doe 1 Archdiocese assigned Father Aguilar-Rivera as an associate pastor at defendant Doe 2, a Catholic parish in a predominantly immigrant Hispanic community known as Rose Hill, just east of downtown Los Angeles. Immediately after his arrival, Father Aguilar-Rivera began having altar boys and students from the parish school come to his rectory bedroom. This conduct was known by defendants and their employees at defendant Doe 2, including a parish secretary. This conduct was known by the defendants to be strongly suspicious of child sexual abuse.”

A 2000-Year Catholic Tradition:

Rather than investigate complaints against the priest and report him to law enforcement, the Archdiocese reassigned him to another parish several miles away, the complaint states. At the new parish, Aguilar-Rivera continued to pull children out of classes and bring them to his bedroom. He also kept in touch with children from his former parish and their families, according to the complaint.

“In January of 1988, several children form defendant Doe 2 parish complained to their parents of Father Aguilar-Rivera’s abuse,” the complaint states. “On Jan. 8, 1988, the parents reported these complaints to the parish school teacher, principal and priest pastor of defendant Doe 2. Instead of immediately contacting police, defendant Doe 1 Archdiocese was contacted. In the morning of Jan. 9, 1988, Bishop Thomas Curry, who was then the Vicar for Clergy of defendant Doe 1, instead of contacting police, or even waiting for police to be contacted, personally met with Father Aguilar-Rivera in his rectory bedroom at St. Agatha Catholic parish. Curry actively aided and abetted Father Aguilar-Rivera’s flight from justice by informing Father Aguilar-Rivera of the complaints against him, telling him police would be in contact, telling him he would be in a lot of trouble and encouraging Father Aguilar-Rivera to leave Los Angeles. Father Aguilar-Rivera informed Curry he would leave Los Angeles and go to Mexico that day. By the end of the day, Father Aguilar-Rivera had fled California and was in Mexico. Two days later, the principal of defendant Doe 2′s school, a nun, contacted law enforcement.

“When the Los Angeles Police Department began investigating Father Aguilar-Rivera and the complaints, defendant Does 1-4 obstructed the investigation by refusing to provide to police the names of altar boys at Defendant Does 2-4. Eventually, without assistance from the defendants, police interviewed not less than 26 children who had been abused by Father Aguilar-Rivera during his 9 month stay in Los Angeles.”

After he returned to Mexico, Father Aguilar-Rivera was allowed to continue working at several parishes, where he sexually molested more children, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs say the priest was finally defrocked in Mexico in the summer of 2009.

“Father Aguilar-Rivera used his position of trust and authority to manipulate plaintiff, who was between 12 and 13,” one Juan Doe claims. “Father Aguilar-Rivera had plaintiff and plaintiff’s family visit defendant Doe 3 for masses officiated by Father Aguilar-Rivera. At these masses Father Aguilar-Rivera had plaintiff serve Mass as an altar boy. Starting on or after June of 1987, Father Aguilar-Rivera repeatedly sexually molested plaintiff in the sacristy of defendant Doe 3 before and/or after masses. Plaintiff was both terrified of Father Aguilar-Rivera’s conduct and frozen because of his obedience to and reverence of Father Aguilar-Rivera.”

One plaintiff, who says he has been on active military duty since he turned 18, claims he was 7 at the time of the abuse. The other alleged victims were 9, 12 and 11.

The plaintiffs, who say they were sexually molested in 1987, claim they suppressed memories of the sexual abuse and started abusing drugs and alcohol as young adults to cope with the trauma.

They claim the defendants helped Father Aguilar-Rivera flee form justice, refused to cooperate with investigators, lied to law enforcement and the press, and tried to pacify victims to duck legal action.

“The defendants, as with other Roman Catholic institutions, have systematically for many years thwarted investigations of pedophile priests, while simultaneously attempting to pacify their victims and families through use of church loyalty,” the complaint states. “This has routinely included steering victims of abuse and their families to counselors loyal to the church, while at the same time failing to inform those victims and their families that they have legal rights and that there are statutes of limitations that could preclude later bringing an action. When such victims unknowingly wait until their limitations have expired, the defendants and other Roman Catholic entities have then argued for dismissal of the victims’ case because statutes of limitation have expired.

“The international trafficking of known child molesting priests between California and Latin America has been engaged in by bishops for many years. Father Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera is one of a long string of known pedophile priests that bishops in Los Angeles and California have knowingly accepted from Latin America or sent to Latin America. Such other priests include Father Willebaldo Castro, Father Fernando Lopez, Father Gustavo Benson, Father Eleuterio Ramos, Father Jose Chavarin, Father Gerardo Beltran, Father Xavier Ochoa, Father Luis Jaramillo and many others.”

The victims claim the defendants knew or should have known of Father Aguilar-Rivera’s “dangerous and exploitive propensities,” but gave him access to children anyway.

They add: “Father Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera was able, by virtue of his unique authority and position as a Roman Catholic priest, to identify vulnerable victims and their families upon which he could perform such sexual abuse; to manipulate his authority to procure compliance with his sexual demands from his victims; to induce the victims to continue to allow the abuse; and to coerce them not to report it to any other persons or authorities. As a priest, Nicholas Aguilar-Rivera had unique access to a position of authority within Roman Catholic families like plaintiffs’. Such access, authority and reverence was known to the defendants and encouraged by them.”

The plaintiffs claim the defendants’ failure to discipline and report Aguilar-Rivera is consistent with their pattern of protecting offending clerics from prosecution and keeping a lid on the church’s sexual abuse scandal, at the expense of victims.

They seek an injunction and damages for negligence, negligent supervision, hiring and retention, breach of fiduciary duty, failure to warn, and sexual battery.

They are represented by Anthony De Marco of Pasadena.

Related posts:

1. Cardinal Mahony Bilked the Dead for Sex Abuse Payouts
2. Sacked, Sort Of: Cardinal Roger Mahony
3. “Apostle Tito” Sentenced to Life for Child Sex Trafficking
4. Eight New Sex Abuse Lawsuits Against Philly Archdiocese
5. Engelhardt & Shero Convicted in Philly Abuse Trial

On March 5th, we wrote about William Steven “Bill” Albaugh (left), the Maryland Roman Catholic deacon allegedly stupid enough to store child porn on his Verizon cloud account. Now ABC2 reports discovering that Albaugh’s son-in-law, 31-year-old Daniel William Garrett (right) — “who angrily defended” Albaugh — is himself a convicted sex offender. Sheesh!

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4. Dead Catholic Radical Republican Hypocrite of the Month: Tom Fuentes (R-AllegedClosetCase, Calif.)
5. Bristol Palin’s Flop Reality Show Sued… Again

Settled: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles for $9.99 million to resolve four sex-abuse cases, including that of former priest Michael Stephen Baker, who was convicted of molestation in 2007, reports NBC Los Angeles, which notes that in 1986 Baker met with Cardinal Roger Mahony — who was “particularly hounded by the case” in the days leading up to his resignation — “and confessed to molesting two brothers for nearly seven years. … Mahony sent Baker for psychological treatment but eventually put him back in ministry, where he molested again.

“Baker returned to ministry the next year with a doctor’s recommendation that he be defrocked immediately if he spent any time with minors. Despite several documented instances of being alone with boys, the priest wasn’t removed from ministry until 2000. Around the same time, the church learned he was conducting baptisms without permission. In 2007, Baker was sentenced to 10 years and four months in prison. He was paroled in 2011 and is alleged to have molested 20 children in his 26-year career.”

Story: NBC 4, January 20, 2006; San Gabriel Tribune, November 18, 2007; City of Angels, July 7, 2009; AP, September 19, 2009; Whittier Daily News, September 25, 2011; AP, October 5, 2011; NBC Los Angeles, January 22, 2013; NBC Los Angeles, March 12, 2013. See also: Assignment Record, Bishop Accountability

Banned: Angela Calcagno, 25, former preschool teacher, Centerpointe Christian Preschool (which “strive[s] to provide children with a greater awareness and understanding of the way God created them by incorporating Bible stories and Biblical truths into our daily activities along with tangible learning opportunities”), owned and operated by Centerpointe (Presbyterian) Church (“experiencing the joy and love of Jesus”), Pleasanton, California, by the state from working at any licensed daycare facility in California, and deemed a “threat to the health and safety of the clients in care.” Calcagno is accused of tying up a two-year-old girl’s wrists and ankles with masking tape because the girl refused to take a nap.

KGO reports: “The incident happened months ago but only recently came to light when Calcagno” showed a cell-phone photo she took of the girl in her bound state “to other staff members, including the child’s mother” — who is also a teacher at Centerpointe — “at a social gathering.”

NBC Bay Area reports that on Tuesday, “the preschool and church released a three-page statement detailing past violations citing four prior Class-A violations,” including the Calcagno case, as well as a teacher leaving “diluted bleach spray within reach of children”; “bleach and detergent … left on the floor in the laundry room”; and “improper supervision … when a 17- year-old was left in a supervisory role over children.” Story: Pleasanton Patch, March 11, 2013; KGO, March 12, 2013; NBC Bay Area, March 12, 2013; San Jose Mercury News, March 12, 2013; SFGate.com, March 12, 2013

Calcagno’s now-deleted bio page on the school website stated: “My name is Angela Calcagno. I have been working at Centerpointe Christian Preschool since June 2008 and absolutely love it! I am currently attending school at Cal State East Bay in Hayward where I am finishing up my B.A. in Psychology and then ultimately my M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy. I grew up in the Bay Area and went to Valley Christian for elementary, junior and high school. I spend my free time hanging out with friends and family, babysitting and spoiling my cat, Skeeter. I feel truly blessed to get to be a part of so many amazing children’s lives on a daily basis and be part of such a wonderful preschool.”

Arrested: Julio Cesar Guarin-Sosa, 43, Roman Catholic priest from Colombia who has been assisting at St. Anne’s Parish, Lodi, California; on multiple charges, including one count each of annoying/molesting a victim under the age of 18, false imprisonment and illegal entry, and two counts of sexual battery, according to a Sutter County inmate record. KXTV reports that while sheriff’s investigators claim Guarin-Sosa French-kissed a a 16-year-old-girl, the priest only “admits he kissed her near her mouth,” and “never tried to do nothing sexual with her.”

The station notes: “The allegations stem from an incident at a private home in Yuba City on Saturday where the priest had been called to perform a private mass. Guarin-Sosa said he was asked by the family to speak to one of children privately. He and the girl went into a bedroom where they sat on a bed and held hands in prayer, he said. After talking for about 15 minutes, Guarin-Sosa claimed they stood up, he hugged her and kissed her on the side of her cheek near her mouth.”

Guarin-Sosa is currently in custody in lieu of $250,000 bail. The Diocese of Stockton — which reportedly failed to perform a background check on the priest (“Instead,” reports KCRA, “it relied on a letter of recommendation from a bishop in Colombia”) — issued a statement: “As a result of the charges, Father Guarin’s permission to exercise ministry in the Diocese of Stockton has been revoked. His diocese in Colombia has been informed.” Story: Appeal-Democrat, March 12, 2013; KXTV, March 12, 2013; KCRA, March 12, 2013

New details: Eusebio Martinez, Roman Catholic priest, Holy Family Catholic Parish, Edinburg, Texas, who was charged last week with misdemeanor criminal mischief after a family captured images of a man appearing to be Martinez drilling holes in the tires of their car. ValleyCentral.com reports that a newly-released probable cause statement says Martinez “was stalking Martin Villanueva by sending him text messages telling him where he was at and even installed a GPS tracking system under his wife’s car without their consent.”

As for the suspected reason, Casey Michel of Hair Balls (Houston Press) sums it up: “It all pointed to a friend-cum-vagrant, a priest, Eusebio Martinez, who believed that he and Villanueva should maintain more than a simple pastor-parishioner relationship. … Villanueva won’t detail the conversation the two had in early 2010, but, according to Valley Central, Martinez wanted something more than a platonic relationship the two had developed. According to Villanueva, Martinez insisted on saying ‘”I love you” and wanting me to kiss him when we said “hello” or “goodbye.” I stopped talking to him … I don’t feel like I’m a man no more. I don’t want to be friends no more.’ And so, Villanueva went off in search of a new church. And as he was sampling McAllen’s different options, someone kept turning his tires to Swiss cheese.”

Meanwhile, reports the Brownsville Herald, Martinez is now a “person of interest” in “five cases of arson that targeted the homes that [Villanueva] was building as part of their family business, Villanueva Construction.” Story: Conservative Babylon, March 7, 2013; ValleyCentral.com, March 7, 2013; Brownsville Herald, March 8, 2013; Hair Balls, March 11, 2013; ValleyCentral.com, March 12, 2013

Sentenced again: Vincent Mercer, 66, Roman Catholic priest (Dominican Order), Black Abbey, Kilkenny, Ireland; former headmaster, Newbridge College, County Kildare; and already twice-convicted pedophile; to just 18 months in jail (three years, minus 18 months suspended) after pleading guilty to 15 (out of an original 39) counts of sexual assault on a teenage boy, committed between 1986 and 1994.

In 2003, Mercer pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault on a 13-year-old boy at Newbridge during the 1970s, and was sentenced to a mere six months; in 2005, he was convicted of 13 counts of indecent assault committed against eight young boys, also during the 1970s, and received nothing more than a suspended sentence of three years. The Provincialate Dominican Order admitted it knew of abuse allegations against Mercer in 1995, but did not notify the Gardai (the Irish police) “until 2003, when further victims came forward,” reported TCM.ie in 2005. Story: TCM.ie, March 1, 2005; Kilkenny People, November 21, 2012; Irish Times, February 23, 2013

Charged: George Spencer , 48, associate pastor, now-shuttered Greater Works CME Church, Kansas City, Missouri, with three counts of first-degree child molestation, two counts of sexual misconduct involving a child, one count of first-degree statutory sodomy and one count of forcible sodomy, according to the Kansas City Star. Spencer, who was captured in New Orleans, “allegedly groped and sodomized a 13-year-old girl in February 2012. … In a later interview with child forensic investigators, the girl repeated the story and said that Spencer had told her that he had ‘nasty … dreams about her’ and that he could ‘get in a lot of trouble for this.’” The Star also found that Spencer was sentenced to prison twice in the 1990s, for aggravated sexual battery and taking aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Story: Kansas City Star, March 12, 2013

Charged: Gregory Sweeney, 56, youth minister (until his arrest), Christ the King Catholic Church, South Bend, Indiana; “facilitator and co-developer for Notre Dame’s STEP program online course ‘Youth Ministry 101′”; previously, coordinator, youth and at-risk ministries, St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, South Bend, and youth ministry coordinator, Ss. Simon & Jude Cathedral , Phoenix, Arizona; with performing sexual conduct in front of a minor, a felony.

The South Bend Tribune reports: “Prosecutors say he has masturbated in front of a teen for several years. … The teen told police of often seeing Sweeney naked and watching pornography on his laptop, according to charging documents. … Detectives interviewed Sweeney, who they say told them he has been addicted to pornography for the past 20 years, charging documents say.” Sweeney — who is believed to be married and the father of a teenage son (who participated in Sweeney’s youth group) — is scheduled for his first court hearing March 26, 2013.

A statement from pastor Neil Wack issued March 11th reads in part: “Our youth minister was arrested this past week by the South Bend Police. When I learned of his arrest, he was immediately placed on unpaid administrative leave from Christ the King Parish. As of today, his employment here has been terminated. Like all of you, I am shocked and saddened to learn about this. … However, you do need to know this: I am not aware nor have I been told from any person about information that would indicate anyone has claimed to have suffered any harm as the result of anything parish related.”

While all traces of Sweeney’s existence have been wiped from the church website, many crumbs remain, including this unfortunately-worded item from August, 2012 (cache): “Next Sunday is our annual Picnic Mass. … Greg Sweeney has been working with a great group of people to make the picnic better than ever. He assures me that there will indeed be both corn and sausage aplenty.” Story: South Bend Tribune, March 12, 2013

Related posts:

1. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 13, 2013
2. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 5, 2013
3. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 12, 2013, Part 2
4. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 10, 2013
5. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 12, 2013, Part 1

Thus, certainly unfairly but most unashamedly, we’re happy to see him up on charges of anything else — that’s how bugged we are that he’s been allowed to walk around free all these years (since 1985, when he was paroled, having nearly avoided prison altogether; his lawyer argued that his massive, and asthmatic, 565-pound bulk should amount to a get-out-of-jail-free card).

All this makes us very happy to report that Jojo was indicted today — on charges that have nothing to do with molesting little girls, thank goodness. Of course, everybody is innocent until proven guilty — but if Jojo is convicted, we’re guessing he might not only lose his freedom again, but his restaurant, too.

Is this the right attitude to have? Of course not. But if a bad man doesn’t get what he deserves for one thing, maybe they can get him on something else. Think Al Capone (although Jojo is no Al Capone) — they couldn’t nail him on murder, so they got him for tax evasion — or Frank’s (John Garfield) words at the very end of The Postman Always Rings Twice. (If you haven’t seen it, we won’t ruin it for you; we’ll only tell you it’s a must-see.)

Read the backstory on Jojo, and then get the latest facts straight from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, below — and then see if you don’t feel the same way we do:

• “Joseph ‘JoJo’ Giorgianni,” January 24, 2008

• “Raided: Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, Brother & Child Molester Joseph ‘JoJo’ Giorgianni,” July 18, 2012

Giorgianni, 63, of Ewing, New Jersey; Manfredo, 65, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey; and Dimatteo, 31, of Trenton, originally were charged by complaint, filed September 10, 2012, with one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone. The indictment returned today adds four additional counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute oxycodone against Giorgianni, three additional oxycodone distribution counts against Manfredo, and two additional oxycodone distribution counts against Dimatteo. Giorgianni, a convicted felon, is also charged in the indictment with possessing four firearms.

According to the indictment and other documents filed in this case:

Giorgianni, Manfredo, and Dimatteo conspired and agreed with each other and Giuseppe Scordato, 47, of Hamilton, New Jersey; Ralph Dimatteo Sr., 62, also of Hamilton; and Charles Hall, III, 49, of Trenton, to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone. Jojo’s Steakhouse, a restaurant that Giorgianni owned and that Mary Manfredo operated, served as a front for this drug distribution organization and a clearing house, where prescription pain pills were stored, provided to individuals such as Anthony Dimatteo and Giuseppe Scordato, and where narcotics proceeds were returned.

Hall previously pleaded guilty to an information in which he admitted his involvement in the distribution of oxycodone with Giorgianni, Manfredo, and Anthony Dimatteo. Scordato and Ralph Dimatteo are released on bail pending the charges contained in the criminal complaint.

The narcotics conspiracy count contained in count one of the indictment and the four distribution counts contained in counts two through five each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and $1 million fine.

The firearms count contained in count six carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Trenton Resident Agency, Newark Field Office, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge David Velazquez, with the investigation leading to today’s Indictment.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric W. Moran and Matthew J. Skahill of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Trenton and Camden, respectively.

The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey, March 14, 2013

Related posts:

1. Raided: Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, Brother & Child Molester Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni
2. Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni
3. Romney-McCain-Whitman Donor James Catledge Indicted In Alleged $90M Ponzi Scheme: He’s Rich, He’s A Republican, He’s An Eagle Scout… And He’s A Mormon
4. Gerry Heck, Who Lost Republican Primary to Ted Klaudt, Indicted for Child Sexual Abuse
5. Mormon Proposition 8 Donor Eugene Ballantyne Indicted on New Child Porn & Exploitation Charges

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.

Jack Schaap, 55, who became leader of the 15,000-member First Baptist Church of Hammond, Ind., in 2001, pleaded guilty to transporting a minor across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Yesterday, federal prosecutors filed letters Schaap sent the girl in U.S. District Court as part of the government’s sentencing memorandum, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.

“In our ‘fantasy talk,’ you have affectionately spoken of being ‘my wife,’” Schaap wrote in one letter. “That is exactly what Christ desires for us. He wants to marry us + become eternal lovers!”

In a letter from the girl to Schaap, she wrote, “You told me that I was sent to you from God, I was his gift to you.”

The memorandum includes evidence that Schaap encouraged the girl to talk to him past romantic relationships and treat him as a friend. They called and texted each other frequently, including 662 times during the month before the affair was discovered.

According to government filings, Schaap convinced church employees into helping him transport the girl across state lines by telling them he needed time alone with her due to her “extremely vulnerable state.”

During their affair, Schaap took the girl to his personal property in Crete, Ill., as well as his cabin in Cadillac, Mich.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster wrote in the sentencing memorandum that Schaap started grooming the girl in April 2012 after an administrator at her church-run school emailed Schaap saying that she was “frightened, confused and emotionally traumatized” and in need of guidance.

The incident apparently isn’t the first scandal involving clergy connected to First Baptist Church of Hammond. In an article that appeared in Chicago Magazine last December, Bryan Smith wrote, “Multiple websites tracking the First Baptist Church of Hammond have identified more than a dozen men with ties to the church — many of whom graduated from its college, Hyles-Anderson or its annual Pastors’ Schools — who fanned out around the country … racking up a string of arrests and civil lawsuits, including physical abuse of minors, sexual molestation, and rape.”

Smith’s article went on to quote members of First Baptist’s congregation expressing shock and dismay at the sometimes graphically sexual sermons that Schaap delivered.

The above work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Related posts:

1. Jack Schaap Expected to Get 10 Years in Prison, Must Register as Sex Offender
2. Breaking: Jack Schaap Indicted for Taking Minor Across Statelines for Sex, Signs Plea, Due in Court 9/19
3. Jack Schaap Ousted from First Baptist Church of Hammond; Police, FBI Involved
4. Jack Schaap: She Was 17; Church Bets On No Charges, Yet Criminal Investigation Ongoing
5. Jack Schaap Polishes His Shaft

Ms. Carroll, 53, the first African-American woman to serve as lieutenant governor in Florida, had soared in state Republican politics in the past decade. But her tenure as lieutenant governor has been marred by scandal and poor judgment, and Ms. Carroll was increasingly viewed as an embarrassment to the man who chose her for the job. Gov. Rick Scott. He remains unpopular in the state and is expected to face a tough re-election battle.

Gee, anybody who could be an embarrassment to walking, talking embarrassment Rick Scott must be even worse than we thought!

Related posts:

1. Is Married-With-Children Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll A Closeted Lesbian?
2. Jennifer Carroll: “Black Women That Look Like Me” Aren’t Lesbians (And Married Women Don’t Have Affairs)
3. He’s Out! Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy Quits in Disgrace
4. Bush’s Iraq War-Pusher David Petraeus Quits CIA, Admits to Shagging Bit-O’-Fluff on the Side
5. He’s Outta Here! Santorum Can Go Spread His Pre-Vatican II Sharia Law Elsewhere

Charged: Wendel Palmer, 44, 22-year Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police officer and youth choir director, Bethuel Temple Churches of Christ Apostolic, Inc., founded by his father and now led by his brother, “Bishop” and “Presider” Winston R. Palmer, and “First Lady” Sonya Palmer, (which believes “sinner [sic] are driven by the MIND OF THE DEVIL, which in scripture is known as ‘THE CARNAL MIND’”), with first-degree child sexual abuse. Palmer is accused of molesting an 11-year-old girl repeatedly over the course of two years, beginning in 2004, inside the pastor’s office during breaks at choir practice. Story: WJLA, January 10, 2013; WUSA, January 10, 2013

Charged: Jason Lee Ray, treasurer and youth pastor, First Assembly of God, Jackson, Tennessee, with stealing money from the church over the course of a year and a half, according to WBBJ, which reports: “Officials would not reveal the exact amount taken but according to the charge it was more than $60,000 dollars. Police said the money was taken from the church’s general funds between May 2011-Dec. 2012.” Story: WBBJ, March 12, 2013

Sentenced: Robert Ruark, 65, a.k.a. “Father Silas,” 65, former pastor, Saint Timothy Orthodox Church (of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America), Fairfield, California, to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty in January to 19 out of an original 30 felony counts of child sexual abuse; Ruark molested and took lewd photos of five children as young as 13, beginning in 1994; most of the molestation took place inside the church. Story: Conservative Babylon, June 30, 2012; Times-Herald, March 12, 2013

Charged: Bruno Michael Tucci, 70, of Salisbury, Maryland; former Roman Catholic priest, defrocked in 2002 following earlier allegations of sexual abuse; former pastor, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Nesquehoning, Maryland; with one count each of fourth-degree sex offense and child abuse: custodian, according to the Ocean City Police Department, which reports: “Tucci is alleged to have brought a child to an Ocean City motel room in August of 1981. While in the motel, it is alleged the illegal sexual acts occurred. Police ask that anyone with information about Tucci, a former Priest in Allentown, Pennsylvania from 1971 until 2007, contact Detective Brett L. Case at 410-723-6632.” Story: Ocean City Police Department, January 2, 2013; Morning Call, January 3, 2013; WNEP, January 4, 2013

Arrested: Eddie Velez, a.k.a. “the Preaching Puerto Rican”; lead pastor, Visible Church, Atlanta, Georgia; former pastor, Bishop Eddie Long‘s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Lithonia, Georgia; for attacking referee Eddie Jester, who ejected Velez from his daughter’s high school basketball game in January. A video shows a man identified as Velez ramming into the ref (who says Velez pushed him in the shoulder, “smacked [him] in the chest” and called him a “punk”); the ref then grabs Velez, after which officials hold Velez back as he tries to throw a punch. Velez is facing a charge of simple battery, while Jester has been suspended from officiating. Story: WSBTV, February 22, 2013; WSBTV (with video, end of article), March 4, 2013. See also: “Black megachurch starts Hispanic outreach,” Times-News, February 21, 2007

Arrested twice: Patrick Williams, 32, boys’ basketball assistant coach, Calvary Baptist Academy, Shreveport, Louisiana; on March 8th in Shreveport and on March 9th in Bossier City, on charges of prohibited sexual conduct between educator and student. KSLA reports that investigators “believe that the alleged relationship between Williams and the student may have occurred during a period of almost two years and may have taken place in multiple jurisdictions throughout Shreveport-Bossier City.” The Shreveport Times notes: “Williams’ [first] arrest [came] a little more than a week after Calvary suspending nearly 40 students for their participation in a ‘Harlem Shake’ video on YouTube.” Story: Shreveport Times, March 1, 2013; KSLA, March 4, 2013

Charged: Piotr Zaloba, 27, teacher, St. Basil Catholic School, Edmonton, Alberta, with “sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and luring a child (x3),” according to the Edmonton Police Service. The charges stem from allegations that Zaloba was engaged in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl. Zaloba is due in court April 15, 2013. Story: Edmonton Police Service, March 11, 2013; CTV News, March 11, 2013

Related posts:

1. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 12, 2013, Part 2
2. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 10, 2013
3. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 12, 2013, Part 1
4. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 5, 2013
5. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 7, 2013

Because you haven’t heard Pat Robertson say anything really stupid since… well, since this, which happened a mere three days before the story you’re about to read: “Pat Robertson: Out! Out, You Demons of Goodwill!.”

Is it just us, or is Pat getting weirder, faster…?

Pat Robertson: My prayers are ‘going to supply a million dollars’ to someone (via Raw Story )

On Thursday’s episode of CBN’s religious talk show “The 700 Club,” televangelist and conservative icon Pat Robertson declared that the Christian deity figure had subconsciously told him that one lucky viewer of Robertson’s program will be made a millionaire through the power of Christ. “…

 

Related posts:

1. Pat Robertson: Out! Out, You Demons of Goodwill!
2. The Hypocrisy Files: Early Signs of Pat Robertson’s Failing Memory or Was He Just Lying? You Decide
3. Pat Robertson Must Agree: Tropical Storm Isaac Is God’s Punishment to Florida for the Republican Convention
4. Randy Robertson
5. Pat Robertson’s BFF, War Criminal Charles Taylor, Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison

As you may recall, the FEC sued ol’ Water-Closet-Case last year, claiming he “converted more than $200,000 of campaign contributions to his personal use, to pay legal expenses after he was arrested in an airport rest room in Minnesota.”

And by “converted,” the FEC means “plundered his campaign treasury in an effort to stay out of jail,” as David Ferguson so aptly puts it.

Co-Starring Larry Craig:

The key point: In 2007, Craig’s lawyer said ol’ Foot-Tapper’s arrest had “no connection to his duties” — it was “purely personal conduct unrelated to the performance of official Senate duties.”

Now ol’ Wide-Stance says his trip to the toilet itself fell under his official duties (or doodies, hee hee!) as a U.S. Senator. ‘Cause, see, if trying to pick up a dude in the next stall for a zipless you-know-what was part of his job, well, then, any costs related to that — like his legal bills — could be siphoned out of his campaign funds.

Of the 2007 statement that totally contradicts this new tack, a skeptical U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said: “I’m supposed to ignore that?” (We wish we could have been in the courtroom just to see her face and hear her tone when she said it.)

Oh, Larry, we never tire of your stories. You’re like the crazy old uncle whose antics prompt endless eye-rolling at the dinner table. And you don’t see it happening, even as all those eyes are rolling so much, they’re at risk of popping right out of their sockets and landing in the mashed yams.

Related posts:

1. Larry Craig (R-WaterClosetCase, Ida.) Sued by FEC for Misusing Campaign Funds for Legal Expenses
2. Larry Craig Update, February 26, 2008: Larry Needs Interns!
3. “Dear Jesse” Director Prepping for Larry Craig Play, “Wide Stance”
4. Larry Craig (R-Ida.)
5. Larry Craig, David Vitter Co-Sponsor Ultimate Hypocrisy Amendment

Actually, we may be wrong about that — this guy might even be worse. While Ratzinger said gays were mental cases (“intrinsically disordered”), we don’t recall him ever saying marriage equality was the domain of Neanderthals. No matter; essentially branding gays children of the devil puts Ratso and this new guy on equal footing. In any case…

Bat-eared Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was reportedly the first runner-up the last time the cardinals went to all this trouble. We can see why — Bergoglio (who’s taking the name Francis, the first pope to do so) doesn’t mince words when expressing his clear disdain for gays and straight women who have the temerity to think they should be in control of their own bodies.

But, really, he saves his big guns for Teh Gheyz. To wit(less):

Argentina has been a longtime gay-friendly tourist destination, rivaling Rio de Janeiro. Nevertheless, the debate had been fierce, pitting Fernández’s government against the Catholic Church’s organized marches and verbal attacks on the bill as “a plan to destroy God’s plan,” in the words of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires. “This is no mere legislative bill. It is a move by the father of lies to confuse and deceive the children of God,” Bergoglio declared last week as the legislative debate approached its climax. The President [Cristina Fernández] responded with harsh words of her own, saying the Cardinal’s statement was “really reminiscent of the times of the Inquisition.”

— Uki Goñi
“Defying Church, Argentina Legalizes Gay Marriage”
Time, July 15, 2010

When Argentina in mid-July legalized gay marriage, the country’s Catholic bishops weren’t content to simply denounce the legislation; they used the occasion to argue for the subhumanity of homosexual men and lesbians, the way many white Southern preachers weren’t ashamed to degrade African Americans during the civil rights movement. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio not only called the new law “a scheme to destroy God’s plan”; he termed it “a real and dire anthropological throwback,” as if homosexuality were evolutionarily inferior to heterosexuality.

— Tim Padgett
“The Vatican and Women: Casting the First Stone”
Time, July 19, 2010

Bergoglio is seen an unwaveringly orthodox on matters of sexual morality, staunchly opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception. In 2010 he asserted that gay adoption is a form of discrimination against children, earning a public rebuke from Argentina’s President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

— John L. Allen, Jr.
“Profile: New pope, Jesuit Bergoglio, was runner-up in 2005 conclave”
National Catholic Reporter, March 3, 2013 (updated)

In a letter to the monasteries of Buenos Aires explaining his position, Bergoglio wrote: “Let’s not be naive, we’re not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God. We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”

Furthermore, he said the bill called into question “the identity, and the survival of the family: father, mother, and children” and said the country needed “the special assistance of the Holy Spirit, to place the light of truth in the middle of the darkness of error, to defend us against the enchantment of so many sophistries with which they seek to justify this bill.”

— Michael Kelley
“Pope Francis Called Gay Adoption A Form Of Discrimination Against Children”
Business Insider, March 13, 2013

What can we say? He’s certainly not going to be attracting any new converts who actually live in the 21st century. And he certainly won’t be winning back any ex-Catholics — at least, not any possessed of a single ounce of dignity… or love.

So there’s your new Pope, Catholic readers. He’s all yours.

Related posts:

1. The Hypocrisy Files: Cardinal Francis George, Take Two
2. The Hypocrisy Files: “Swift and Decisive Action” for Pope’s Butler, But Not for Pedophiles
3. Pope Leo VIII
4. Hilarious Headline of the Week: “Pope Benedict Denounces Religious Hypocrisy In Final Mass”
5. The Hypocrisy Files: Cardinal Francis George, Take Four

Ricky, Ricky, Ricky… Either you think you’re too clever by half (you’re not), or you really are so dumb, you think American Atheists is (yes, “is,” not “are”; it’s the name of an organization) was silly enough to pay for a platform to express your impotent dreams of a ca.-14th-century Catholic theocracy.

Either way, Ricky, you are too dumb to realize that every American in his right mind will be scared to death at the idea of a nation under your god. And that includes Catholics. Well, at least those whose names aren’t Bill Donohue.

Rick Santorum responds to American Atheists: ‘Thank you’ for billboard (via Raw Story )

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Tuesday in a fundraising email he was “thankful” that an atheist group attempting to shame him. The American Atheists purchased seven billboards in Texas to highlight what the group describes as bigotry against atheists. One of the billboards featured…

 

Related posts:

1. Stopped Clock Dept.: Rick Santorum Admits “Values” Voters Are Stupid
2. Santorum Spreads It: Tells Big Fib About UC System
3. The Hypocrisy Files: When Santorum Stuck Pennsylvania Taxpayers for His Non-Resident Kids’ Education
4. The Hypocrisy Files: Santorum Was for College Before He Was Against It
5. He’s Outta Here! Santorum Can Go Spread His Pre-Vatican II Sharia Law Elsewhere

Charged: Joel Kent Hodges, 31, former “contemporary worship leader,” Gardendale-Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, Gardendale, Alabama, with felony solicitation of a child by computer and traveling to meet a child for sex, also a felony. Story: North Jefferson News, January 2, 2013; WBRC, January 17, 2013. Just a few weeks after Hodges’s arrest, Gardendale-Mount Vernon’s pastor, Terry Greer, was arrested and charged with the shooting death of his wife. See backstory here and here.

Charges dropped: Paul Burke Johnson, 76, pastor, Calvary Baptist Church, Dunn, North Carolina, and member, Board of Ministers, Campbell University Divinity School, who was arrested in March, 2011, on four counts of misdemeanor sexual battery after allegations of “inappropriate contact between Johnson and a woman in a nursing home,” according to WRAL, which reports that the charges were dropped because an arrest warrant had not been issued prior to Johnson’s arrest. Story: WRAL, March 26, 2011; WRAL, March 27, 2011; WRAL, March 28, 2011; WRAL, March 8, 2013

Sentenced: Manford Kapyola, 50, pastor, Faith Christian Church, Blantyre (Mandala), Malawi, to four years in a maximum security prison “after he was found guilty of indecently assaulting his nine-year-old granddaughter,” according to Malawi Today, which reports: “According to records at Blantyre Magistrate’s Court, on January 11 2013, the girl’s mother found Kapyola in a toilet with the girl. After realising that his world was crumbling around him, the pastor fled and went into hiding, but surrendered to police two days later to face the charge of indecent assault.”

MT adds that the victim “said Kapyola invited her to the toilet several times, but she initially turned him down. The girl said she later succumbed and granted him his wish. She said in the toilet, the pastor gave her a hug until her mother called her name from outside. She said he struck her on the thighs with his manhood. The girl also said Kapyola told her ’tisamanene kwa makolo’ (we should not disclose this to parents).” The church’s senior pastor, Matiasi Gama, “said the church had not seen the judgement [sic] and could not, therefore, take any action against the disgraced pastor.” Story: Malawi Today, February 18, 2013

Surrendered: Fr. Jaison Kollannur, Roman Catholic priest, Jomon Thomas, Raju Thomas and Tittu Thomas, all “office-bearers” of the Kerala Catholic Youth Movement (“the official State/Regional Organization under KCBC Commission for youth … affiliated to the National Youth Body ‘Indian Catholic Movement’ (ICYM)”), Kerala, India, on charges of human trafficking. The Deccan Chronicle reports: “According to police, KCYM had taken youngsters to Spain this year and to Australia last year under various programmes. Fr. Jaison had led the groups abroad. Several youngsters had gone absconding in Spain and Australia and taken jobs there. KCYM was also set to take youngsters to Brazil next year under Fr. Jaison.”

Kollannur, explains Eurasia Review, “who was secretary of the Kerala bishops’s council youth commission, was charged [in November, 2012] as part of a ring of five people who allegedly tried to traffic 42 young Indians to Houston, Texas, under the pretext of attending a student exchange program which ended in June. ‘The accused, including the priest, faked certificates to support that 42 persons were experts working in the education sector,’ said Amose Mammen, assistant commissioner of the police Crime Records Bureau in Kochi.” Story: Eurasia Review, December 19, 2012; Deccan Chronicle, January 20, 2013

Sentenced: Charles Laub, 44, Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), Humansville (Cedar County), Missouri, to seven years in prison following his conviction on one count of attempted rape. Laub “married” a set of 18-year-old twin sisters in a religious ceremony in 2001, then kept them in a state of virtual imprisonment.

The Daily Mail notes: “Laub was initially charged with forcible rape and sexual assault, but the rape charge was thrown out after one [of] his ‘sister wives’ said she could not remember if the 44-year-old had ever forced himself on her. … The court documents stated that the Staples twins were not allowed to refuse sex, and attempts to resist were met with force.” The Mail adds: “According to one of the wives, when she had attempted to take her daughter to a doctor for measles treatment, Laub told her: ‘God would approve of her dying rather than receiving treatment from a doctor.’” Laub fathered eight children between his two “wives.” Story: News-Leader, February 18, 2013; Daily Mail, February 19, 2013

Arrested: John K. “Jack” Lawlor, 54, Community Life Pastor, First Baptist Church, Everett, Washington; former “trainer in leadership and discipleship with other pastors and leaders,” Real Life Ministries, Post Falls, Idaho; former technical advisor, MurSea Missions (“a family formed corporation following God’s desire for us to reach the peoples living in remote islands, coastlands and waterways by providing humanitarian aid and religious outreach” — which notes his involvement with numerous church and school youth programs), Idaho / Washington; and Christian missionary to Brazil, the Marshall Islands and Fiji; in an online prostitution sting after allegedly responding to an ad on a website called Casual Encounters, then showing up to meet a 16-year-old girl and agreeing to pay her $200 to have sex with him at his home. The “girl” turned out to be an undercover police officer. Booked into King County Jail on commercial sex abuse of a minor, Lawlor was freed the next day on $50,000 bail. According to his bio now deleted from the church’s website, Lawlor is married and the father of two adult sons. Story: Seattlepi.com, February 20, 2013; HeraldNet.com, February 21, 2013

Sentenced: Samuel Lee Lyte, 72, former youth pastor, Mount Bethel Baptist Church, Big Spring, Texas, to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child, a 13-year-old girl he met through his church. The Big Spring Herald reports that Lyte was “indicted in November on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child (first-degree felony), aggravated sexual abuse of a child (first-degree felony), indecency with a child (two counts, both second-degree felonies) and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence (third-degree felony).” The “About” section on Lyte’s Facebook profile says: “I love to make people happy. And to encourage backsliders to renew their relationship with the lord.” Story: KWES, October 30, 2012; Big Spring Herald, February 20, 2013

Related posts:

1. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 5, 2013
2. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 12, 2013, Part 1
3. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 10, 2013
4. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 7, 2013
5. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: February 1, 2013

Sentenced: Matthew “Matt” Abid, 30, former youth ministry leader, Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Alpine Township, Michigan, to just six months in jail, less 34 days served, plus five years’ probation and sex-offender registration, after pleading guilty in January to second-degree criminal sexual conduct (amended from third-degree criminal sexual conduct, which is defined as “penetration”), committed against a 15-year-old girl who belonged to Abid’s “Credo” youth group. WOOD adds: “Investigators say Abid admitted to touching the teenage girl and that there were several other incidents of sexual contact between Abid and the victim after she turned 16.” Story: Conservative Babylon, September 8, 2012; Conservative Babylon, January 23, 2013; WOOD, February 19, 2013

Charged: Louis Joseph Bristol, 28, assistant hotel manager and high school youth pastor, Carpinteria Community Church, Carpinteria, California, with “multiple counts of child molestation, child rape, lewd acts upon a child and furnishing an illegal substance to minors,” according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, which reports: “The arrest follows an investigation into allegations that Mr. Bristol used his position as a High School Youth Pastor at the Carpinteria Community Church and his job as an Assistant Manager at the Holiday Inn Express in Carpinteria to commit crimes against two female juvenile victims. Detectives have reason to believe there may be more victims out there.

“Mr. Bristol met the two teenagers at church and is alleged to have sent them inappropriate text messages and photos. The investigation revealed that Mr. Bristol sexually molested and raped the victims. For one of the victims, the abuse happened on more than one occasion. The crimes took place between late 2012 and early 2013 in vacant rooms at the hotel that Mr. Bristol had access to as an employee. The investigation also revealed Mr. Bristol furnished and sold marijuana to the victims and others in the youth group. Mr. Bristol is in the Santa Barbara County Jail awaiting arraignment. His bail is set at 2 million dollars.” Story: Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, February 28, 2013

Charged: Haden Dandridge Conrad, 32, pastor, Chesapeake Avenue United Methodist Church, Chesapeake, Virginia; and (until his arrest) chaplain, Chesapeake Police Department; formerly pastor, Bethlehem United Methodist Church, Bremen, Georgia; with one count of felony computer solicitation of a child under 15 — who was actually a sheriff’s deputy posing as a 14-year-old girl in a cybercrime sting. Conrad is also accused of exposing himself and masturbating via webcam from inside a bathroom at the church. Conrad and his wife have two foster children; the children have reportedly been removed from the home.

The church’s Facebook page, Conrad’s Facebook page (cache) and Conrad’s blog have all been deleted. A cache of the blog shows Conrad’s most recent sermons; the one dated February 17, 2013 (“Tested by No. 666”) ends: “Satan does not show up with a pitchfork, he is not George Burns or Al Pacino whispering in our ear, taking delight when we choose evil over good. … This season of Lent is a time for each one of us to ask if we have given into the temptation, the temptation to serve a God of Me. I invite all of us to truly live into the spirit of this season, to challenge ourselves and be open to where the God of Thee is leading and have the courage to follow where we are called. Sometimes it does not lead us to an easy thing. The task is not always easy. The work is not always pleasant. It took Jesus to the Cross. Where will it take you? Where will it take us? And will you have the courage to go? In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.”

Story: Search warrant affidavit, February 25, 2013; Search warrant, February 27, 2013; WAVY, February 28, 2013; WTKR, February 28, 2013; WTVR, March 1, 2013; WAVY, March 4, 2013

Sentenced: Timothy Lavell Dampier, 39, minister and singer-musician at numerous Seattle, Washington-area churches and youth programs, including Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church; New Hope Baptist Church; Union Gospel Mission; Samuel House; Ruth Dykeman Children’s Center; et al.; former foster parent; and, according to a MySpace page, son of “the Late Rev Ellis Wortham Sr.,” who played at the House of Blues; to 22 years in prison following a September, 2012, guilty plea to 22 counts of sexually abusing ten boys from the age nine to age 17 between 1997 and 2011. Story: Conservative Babylon, September 16, 2012; Bellevue Patch, February 22, 2013

Charged: Michael Elder, 53, senior pastor, Cross Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with the first-degree murder of his son-in-law, Gary Davidson, 27, who had filed for divorce from Elder’s daughter. Citing a police affidavit, KOCO reports: “Just a day before the fatal shooting, Davidson called 911 to report that his father-in-law had stolen his truck. … Davidson’s estranged wife, April Davidson, had made arrangements to get their daughter in exchange for the truck. Michael Elder tagged along for the exchange. However, court documents indicate, that Gary Davidson refused to agree to the exchange. At that point, April Davidson began to drive away. Court documents indicate that Gary Davidson ran from the house, jumped in the passenger seat of the truck as it was moving and grabbed April, trying to pull her from the truck. April Davidson said that her husband had his foot on the gas while she had it on the brake. Meanwhile, court documents indicate that Elder ran along the passenger side of the truck and shot Gary Davidson as April Davidson, Elder’s daughter, yelled for help.” Story: KOCO, February 21, 2013; KOCO, February 22, 2013; KOCO, March 5, 2013

Charged: James “Alex” Gillespie, 48, music director, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Middleton, Wisconsin, with two counts of sexual assault of a child under 16. The Middleton Police Department reports: “The victim is a 14-year old boy who had been missing from his Beloit home since October of 2012. He had been living with Dennis Jenks on Raymond Road in Madison until contacted by Middleton detectives on February 13, 2013. Middleton Detectives notified Madison Police of the relationship between the victim and Jenks and then developed probable cause to charge Gillespie. Gillespie is alleged to have assaulted the victim in his Century Avenue residence.” Dennis Jenks, 44, is a Mount Horeb police officer (currently on suspension) who was charged in February with repeatedly sexually assaulting the same boy between November, 2012, and January, 2013; Jenks is also accused of taking nude photos of the boy. Story: Wisconsin State Journal, February 27, 2013; Middleton Police Department, February 28, 2013; Wisconsin State Journal, March 4, 2013

Charged: James Paul “Jim” Hadinger, 43, pastor, Faith Gospel (Independent Fundamental) Church, Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia, where he “led several youth groups at the church,” according to WSAZ; and substitute teacher (for “the last several weeks,” according to the Point Pleasant Register), Hannan Junior/Senior High School, Ashton, West Virginia; with two counts of sexual abuse by a person in a position of trust.

WSAZ reports that, according to authorities, Hadinger “became involved with the female, underage student” after meeting her at a grocery store and attending a basketball game together, after which deputies say they “drove to an abandoned house along Ball Chapel Road in Ashton where he allegedly engaged in sexual conduct with her.” Hadinger is currently in custody on $200,000 bond.

A Facebook profile features shared images titled “Liberal Hypocrites” and “The Hillbilly 10 Commandments,” and states that he is married and holds a “Master in Ministry” from Baptist College of America. “Favorite quotations” include: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything,” and “Not until I went to the churches of America and I heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good…and if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. -Alexis de Toqueville.” A recent post appearing to come from Hadinger’s wife reads: “All I can say and ask is please please, pray for my family we sure do need it!” Hadinger appears to be the father of several children. Story: Point Pleasant Register, February 22, 2013; WSAZ, February 22, 2013

Related posts:

1. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 5, 2013
2. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 10, 2013
3. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: January 22, 2013
4. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 7, 2013
5. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: February 7, 2013

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 say there were many more victims, abused “countless” times.) Pled guilty in exchange for getting one of the most serious charges reduced; tried to withdraw plea, saying he didn’t understand his rights; was finally sentenced March 8, 2013, to 15 years in prison.

So, how “extremist” is this creep? We’ll let his old campaign website speak for him (it’s offline now, but we found an archive):

Kris Lounsbury, Republican for Congress – Utah’s 2nd District
 

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Pessimism hovers like the angel of death over America. Many are speaking and acting as if the demise of the American Republic is inevitable. I say, America is sick but her sickness need not be fatal. The cure for America’s sickness is a return to the ideals that made this country great-Freedom, personal responsibility and the reliance on, and a trust and faith in, the God of our Founding Fathers, the God of the Bible. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Psalms 33:12
 

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Issues of importance – What I stand for

1. I stand for the right to life for ALL people from conception to natural death, & without regard to physical ability or health.

2.I stand for secure and defined national borders protected by personnel or fencing or a combination of both as well as the rigid enforcement of existing immigration laws that are now being ignored or bypassed. I support mandatory enforcement of the Employment Verification Program, the termination of “family services” to illegal immigrants, as well as the termination of the so-called “anchor baby” policy of granting citizenship to babies birthed in the U.S. by illegal immigrants.

3. I stand for the enacting of the “Fair Tax” (National Retail Sales Tax) to replace the income tax, social security tax, etc., as well as the IRS, its accounting requirements and its incomprehensible code.

4. I believe the battle against Islamic terrorism needs to be decisively fought and won wherever there is a clear threat, as deemed by congress, without infringement on our constitutional and God-given rights to life, liberty or property except as narrowly defined by the original intent of the U.S. Constitution.

5. I stand for reigning in our judiciary by legislative & executive nullification, if necessary, and the appointment of Judges who will commit to interpret the ORIGINAL intent of the writers of the U.S. Constitution. I am open to the idea of limiting the terms of appointed judges.

6. I stand for the returning of God-given parental rights and duties to parents in the education and care of their children, including discipline, without interference by the State except in clear and extreme cases as judged by the court through appropriate legislative guidelines. I believe there should be a separation between the schools and the State.

7. I stand for the right to own, carry and use firearms for defense of oneself, one’s family or one’s fellow citizen as well as for hunting or recreational use. Gun ownership is the final line of defense for our constitutional freedoms.

8. I stand for the necessity of constitutionally limiting spending to what is collected from taxes and other revenues.

9. I stand for the return to the appointment of Senators by the state legislatures as the original U.S. Constitution provided for.

10. I stand with those who want the U.S. to get out of the U.N. and to get the U.N. out of the U.S.

11. I stand with those who want to investigate, audit and eventually disband the Federal Reserve and allow the market to rule the economy.

12. I stand for the provision of the full benefits that were promised to Social Security recipients, but future retirees should be given the choice to financially plan for their own retirement.

Insanely Ironic Quote
Letter to the editor mocking the sentencing of anti-government, Posse Comitatus-related, “township movement” leader Walt P. Mann III, who was convicted in 1986 of mail fraud, wire fraud and willful failure to file income tax returns:

It’s about time someone did something about that criminal Walt P. Mann III and 28 years in prison is none too much for him.

Can you imagine someone having the gall to publicly accuse the IRS of criminal activity just because they can and do seize and sell property without trial, or just because each year they can and do force millions of American citizens to forfeit their rights to privacy of papers and effects (Amendment 4, U.S. Constitution) and their right against self-witness (Amendment 5, U.S. Constitution) when they fill out the 1040 confession form? Everyone knows how fair, understanding and law-abiding the IRS is.

Can you imagine someone having the gall to call the judges criminals just because they ignore the U.S. and Utah State Constitutions, which they swore an oath to uphold? Or just because they would not allow him a jury of his peers and would not allow him to share with the court-hired token jurists their rights and duties to judge not only the facts but also the fairness and applicability of the law in question?

Yes, and it’s a good thing they don’t let him out of jail to see his wife and kids, because he sounds like a desperate character. Anyone who would call the sheriff’s department and ask if there was a warrant out for his arrest and then tell the sheriff where he could be found — he’s got to be one desperate character.

Oh yeah — I read the day after Walt’s conviction that a child molester was convicted. The paper said he could get four or five years, but we have to be lenient on those “sick” people. He couldn’t help himself and he’s real sorry (sorry he got caught). Does this prove that it is almost six times worse to talk against the IRS or the government than it is to rape and ruin a child’s life?

Meanwhile, whatever they do I hope they don’t let that tax rebel out from behind bars. He might even exercise his constitutonal rights of free speech and all the rest of those radical rights he keeps talking about. We can’t have the “general” public knowing their rights, can we?

— Kris Lounsbury
St. George
“Tax protester was denied
rights at trial, reader says”
Deseret News, September 26, 1986

Lists among his “achievements and awards”: “Sat on a Evolution vs. Creation panel at Dixie State; Wholeheartedly involved with pro-life movement”.

(Here’s another, still-working site for a campaign that apparently never got off the ground: “Kris Lounsbury for Utah 75!! Capture the Future.”)

Yep, that’s pretty extremist, all right. Yes, yes, it is. And that list doesn’t begin to illustrate the depth of his extremism on every issue. Let’s look at just a few quotes from a single blog post from Lounsbury’s 2006 campaign site to demonstrate his deep and abiding loathing of Islam; it’s typical of his, uh, “passion” for just about every other point on his “What I Stand For” list above:

… If we start with the faulty presupposition that Islam is basically a ‘religion of peace’ that has been hijacked by a few ‘radical’ Islamists, then our proposed resolution to the problem of Islamic terrorism will reflect that erroneous thinking. …

It would be hard to find any legitimate historian who would dispute the fact of Islam’s brutal and bloody history. Those who would try to gloss over this history by pointing to periods in Christian history like the Inquisition or some of the excesses of the Crusades need to think about the absurdity of ethically comparing these two religions. Islam has been rightly described as a religion which is ‘bloody on its borders and bloody on the inside also’. …

The problem with the comparing of the actions of some Christians in the past with Islam in both the past and the present is that Christianity has a ‘self-correcting’ system in its Holy Scriptures. In other words, although some might misunderstand or misuse the Bible in a way that appears to justifies violence, rape, and slavery, it is impossible for this thinking to be consistently held in the belief system of Christianity because the warp and the woof of the system will not allow that thinking to have permanent sway. By contrast, the warp and the woof of the Islamic writings both in the Koran and in the Hadith are FULL of commands to violence and subjugation of non Islamic nations and peoples. The Koran cannot correct this problem of Islamic terrorism because terrorism is an integral part of the Koran, the Hadith and the Islamic religion.

So, how do we then deal with ‘radical (consistent) Islam’? In three words; Containment, isolation and justice. …

Immigration from Islamic countries by those who embrace Islam should be curtailed or ended unless or until they forsake their persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters in their countries and NO Muslim should be granted citizenship unless he (she) is willing to swear allegiance in the name of their god, Allah, to this country and the principles embodied in our Constitution. It also seems insane to provide a college education and advanced degrees to those who would come here from hostile Islamic countries.

— Kris Lounsbury
“Radical Islam or Consistent Islam?”
March 6, 2006

And lest you think he doesn’t hate gay folks: “In January 2009,” wrote Joe.My.God., Lounsbury “posted a recording of a sermon calling for imprecatory prayer curses against President Obama. … Lounsbury rails against the repeal of DADT, saying that “you have no idea how vicious these homosexuals can be.’”

More ranting from his Facebook profile (where he’s got zero friends):

“I used to think Ron Paul was a raving radical. Now he makes such perfect sense–What a stooge I was! “
 

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“The non-theist has no science that proves HOW the universe came into existence in the first place–Not to mention the question of WHY? The non-theist cannot answer the question of how life came from non-life, how information came to be, how there can be any freedom, responsibility, purpose or meaning in a strictly material universe. And yet, they sure don’t want them ignrant Christians talking ’bout the far more reasonable and feasible origin of the cosmos in which an eternal God spoke into existence all that is and in which an eternal God breathed into inanimate material to create life. The non-theist is so bankrupt in his thinking that he can’t even provide a consistent rationale for logic, reason and rationality in his world-view. The Biblle rightly says, ‘The fool has said in his heart there is no God.’ God help the generation of children that can only be legally taught that they are evolved from a pool of slime!! To quote a curator of a secular museum, ‘Evolution is a fairtale for adults.’”
 

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“If Obama started a military conflict with Iran shortly before the election he would probably be unbeatable–Lord help us and protect our troops from this act of wickedness. Bring our troops home from the God forsaken countries of Afghanistan and Iraq.”
 

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“Sadly, I can hear Obama’s next state of the union speech–’I was elected again to finish the work that I started 4 years ago’ (to destroy our Republic). God save us from a man who thinks he IS God and one who thinks he’s going to BECOME God.”
 

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“I guess I don’t understand how informing a woman with an ultrasound regarding her decision to allow her unborn baby to live is somehow against women.”
 

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“My degree is in the psychological ‘sciences’. Having been exposed many times to people who speak and believe this kind of stuff I am convinced that they are motivated by a defense mechanism triggered by a helplessness and frustration with our civil government. … From a Biblical perspective I would say that we have rejected God’s laws and therefore we are suffering the consequences of that rejection.”
 

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“When these political hacks oppose legislation that would help to keep SS and Medicare solvent, I think they should have the decency to explain how this ponzi scheme can continue without running out of ‘money’ and bankrupting the US. I’m not going to hold my breath that these cowards will ever produce anything that even approaches a realistic plan. They are winy, gutless, clueless, selfish narcissists.”

Memorable quote:

“I pray for them [Lounsbury's victims] almost every day, that God … would put this back onto me and take it from them. This was me. This was my sin. … I just ache inside when I think about the hurt I’ve caused.”

— Kris Lounsbury at sentencing

Memorable response:

“Who is Kris Lounsbury? … I don’t believe half the stuff that comes out of his mouth. He puts on an act. It’s been talked about that Kris confessed. … That’s hooey. That’s not true. [The victims] came forward. … After getting caught he’s all apologies and contrition.”

— Deputy County Attorney Brian Filter, not buying Lounsbury’s spiel

Memorable observations:

“… Kris Lounsbury is a regular hard working American and he is an example of the American political process at its finest. … I appreciate people like Kris that stand up and offer thermselves as servants to our country without motives for fame, fortune, and power.”

— “pramahaphil”
“Kris Lounsbury for Congress”
green jello, January 27, 2006

“No one could ever come close to Kris Lounsbury,a man who means what he says. How much does he means to the people he has lead to the path of GOD? (everything) He brings hope where there is none.Of all this world there is only one Kris and that is sad because no one comes close to his pure heart,and love.GOD can do what no one thinks can be done.I love you,as many do thank-you for being you Kris Lounbury.You changed my life,as you have changed so many lives with the gift of bring GOD into lives.You are one of a kind.”

— Comment, “Anonymous”

“What do you think of him now? the pervert!!!”

— Comment, “Blogger Rudy”

Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Lounsbury:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

— 2 Peter 2:1

Related posts:

1. Meanwhile, Pot Smokers Rot Behind Bars While Boy-Rapist Daniel Earl Webster Gets Early Release (Even His Pastor is Shocked)
2. Child-Raping Pastor Oscar Perez Perez Gets the Max: 330 Years to Life
3. Edison Misla Aldarondo: Child Rapist Jokes Around at Basketball Game, Announces Plan to Write Book, Dodges Questions on Political Comeback
4. Trial’s On for Amish-Mennonite Pastor Accused of Aiding International Child Abduction of Isabella Miller-Jenkins
5. Texas Baptist Pastor William Frank Brown Arrested for Child Sexual Abuse

Angel Food Ministries, founded in 1994 and shut down in 2011, was a Christian nonprofit organization structured on purchasing food in bulk and selling it at “deep discounts” to anyone who wanted to buy it. As BCNN1 put it in 2009: “[H]eading the $137 million Angel Food Ministries nonprofit, [Joe Wingo] feeds more than 500,000 families a month. That is a good thing, say even critics whose allegations of financial misdeeds helped put Wingo and his family under a federal investigation. The bad is that the Wingos have gotten rich helping the poor.

“Two dissident board members of Angel Food told the FBI that Joe, wife Linda and sons Wes and Andy have charged $852,000 on company credit cards, made millions, and used the agency as a personal bank. The FBI and IRS raided Angel Food’s offices in Monroe on Feb. 11. A nonprofit spokesman said the agents are looking into one or more unnamed employees’ possible financial misdeeds.” BCNN1 adds: “Wiretapped phone conversations caught Wingo describing himself as a ‘bull— artist.” He talked of wanting to pay off his house and live the country-club life.”

Staunch Republicans all (Andy Wingo is even a Swiftboater), Joe Wingo was also accused of using some $20,000 in AFM money to back a local candidate for sheriff.

Angel Food Ministries has, predictably, been sued by numerous vendors who were stiffed, while paying the Wingos immense salaries; Joe Wingo “earned” more than $588,000 in 2006 alone; the family raked in a total of $4.5 million between 2006 and 2009. Despite their great wealth, Joe Wingo had the audacity to request — and was refused — a public defender.

Ironically, one of the last entries accessible on the now-dead wesbite of the Wingos’ other son, Wes, is a post titled “Throw Down the Stones—Let the Rocks Drop!” which reads in part: “‘I can’t go to church, it’s full of hypocrites,’ is a statement often heard and said. But have you really considered what it means to be a ‘hypocrite’? The harshest words spoken by Jesus were directed toward hypocrites… ‘Hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs’ He said, ‘—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity …’ (Matthew 23:27, NLT). … No doubt there are hypocrites in churches, just like there are liars, murderers, back-biters, adulterers, covetous people … SINNERS in churches! Why is that so? Because sinners live among us — they are us!”

Sources: BCNN1, March 21, 2009; York Daily Record, June 19, 2009; U.S. Attorney’s Office, December 2, 2011; Georgia Parole Review (top of page 8), Winter, 2011; Charity Rating Guide & Watchdog Report, August, 2012; York Daily Record, February 20, 2013; Peachtree Corners Patch, February 27, 2013

See also: Pastor Wes Wingo’s Covenant Corner (archived); AFM-related documents, docstoc.

Related posts:

1. Hypocrite of the Week: Toothless Mississippi Guy on Food Stamps (With the Dogs Lying Around in the Garbage)
2. All in the Mormon Family Mortgage Fraud
3. Phoenix: Unbearably Whiny Christian “Martyr,” Michael Salman, Wife & Bro Get Probation for Healthcare Fraud
4. Pentecostal “Biker’s Church” Youth Minister Laura Lee Salazar Cops Plea to 15 Counts of Sex With Kids, Gets 12 Years… Sort Of
5. “Sovereign” Mother of John the Baptist and Brother Jerry Love Pleads Guilty to $100 Million Tax-Fraud Scheme (And Then There’s the Chimp…)

Charged: Glenn Douglas Barton, 62, senior pastor, Calvary Way MInistries, a Pentecostal church which also operates Calvary Way Academy, a pre-K-12th school, as well as a daycare program, Kilgore, Texas, with aggravated sexual assault of a child. Barton is accused of sexually assaulting the alleged victim over a period of four years, beginning when the child was younger than 14 years old. KLTV reports that the “investigation included recorded audio conversations between the victim and Barton. The [arrest] affidavit states that Barton is recorded as saying,’I expect you to do what we’ve always done and that’s cover for each other.’ The statement was followed by Barton asking the victim if he was being recorded. It was enough information to put Barton behind bars in Rusk County.”

The church website states: “Rev. Glenn D. Barton was raised in the church that stood on this piece of ground. After answering the calling on his life to preach, at age 33 he nursed then-Emmanuel Gospel church back to health. During this time he and childhood friend, Wilma Meyer, were reintroduced and later married. In 1986, the Bartons and their young daughter, Krystal, headed for New Mexico, then Washington, and finally Idaho, where they started churches, fostered home missions’ works, and in general, spread the truth and love of Jesus. Finally, they settled back in Kilgore, and in 1999 were again voted in as the pastors and kept the doors of Calvary Way from closing.” Story: KETK, March 4, 2013; KLTV, March 5, 2013; Longview News-Journal, March 5, 2013

Sentenced: Richard Bellingham, a.k.a. Richard Lyons, a.k.a. Richard Goldstein, 57, former senior member of the now-shuttered Church of Our Saviour, Concord Township (Concordville), Delaware, to 18 to 36 months following a guilty plea in December to four counts of indecent sexual assault without consent and two charges of corrupting the morals of a minor, according to Main Line Media News. Bellingham was arrested in June, 2012, on multiple charges of repeated sexual abuse and extreme physical abuse — including “up to 50 lashings with a leather belt or piece of rubber hose” — of four girls, aged four to 15, during the 1980s. One alleged victim stated that the abuse was “basically a daily occurrence for six years.” Story: Conservative Babylon, July 1, 2012; Main Line Media News, March 6, 2013

Guilty plea: Joseph Finnigan, 73, former deacon/pastoral associate, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Grand Haven, Michigan, to two counts of larceny after stealing some $20,000 from church collection plates over two years. The plea deal guarantees a charge of felony embezzlement will be dropped if Finnigan remits $120,000 in restitution before his sentencing date of April 22, 2013. Story: MLive.com, November 12, 2012; WZZM, March 1, 2013; WWJ/AP, March 2, 2013

Arrested: Thomas Allen Houle, 46, member, board of directors, St. Croix Catholic School, Stillwater, Minnesota, and girls’ softball coach, St. Paul Catholic Athletic Association, “for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover police officer” during a prostitution sting that netted 19 arrests — including that of Hill-Murray School football coach Mark Mauer — according to the Stillwater Patch, which reports that, like Mauer, Houle allegedly “responded to an ad police placed in the escort section of the website backpage.com.” Story: Stillwater Patch, February 28, 2013

Charged: Nathan Andrew Leuthold, 37, of Peoria, Illinois, believed to be a Hyles-Anderson alumnus, and described by GateHouse News Service as a “Baptist missionary who traveled frequently to Lithuania over the past 15 years with his wife and children to start churches and sports- or music-centered outreach efforts,” with the first-degree murder of his wife, Denise Leuthold, 39, who was found shot in the head inside her parents’ home on Valentine’s Day; Nathan Leuthold is accused of staging the scene to look like a burglary gone wrong. The Times-Bulletin notes that the “Leutholds had been back in the United States for more than a year, living with Denise Leuthold’s parents, while Nathan Leuthold traveled the country raising money for additional missionary work overseas.”

CINewsNow.com reports that during a March 7th hearing, “prosecutors revealed Nathan Leuthold had a relationship with a young Lithuanian student currently living in Chicago.” Peoria police detective Jason Leigh “described Leuthold’s relationship with the 20-year-old Lithuanian student the couple sponsored, Aina Dobilaite. He said after being kicked out of a Florida Christian College for an inappropriate relationship with Nathan Leuthold, she moved to Chicago where he shared a bank account with her and funded 90 percent of her living expenses.” Leuthold is currently in custody on a $2 million bond.

Denise Leuthold’s obituary notes: “Denise was a 1992 graduate of Faith Baptist Christian School in Pekin. She was a member of LaMarsh Baptist Church in Mapleton.” (The couple’s missions, however, were sponsored by other churches, including First Baptist Church of Clinton and Cornerstone Baptist in Groveland, where Denise Leuthold’s funeral was held.) “She and her husband served as missionaries in Lithuania since 1998. While Denise enjoyed many things, her greatest joy was that of being a wife and mother.” The youngest of the Leutholds’ three children is of preschool age.

Story: Journal Star, February 15, 2013; Journal Star, February 15, 2013; Denise L. Leuthold obituary, February 17, 2013; Journal Star, February 18, 2013; GateHouse News Service, March 6, 2013; CINewsNow.com, March 6, 2013; CINewsNow.com, March 7, 2013. See also Nathan Leuthold’s Facebook profile.

Arrested: Ted Simpson, 83, Roman Catholic priest, Church of the Holy Ghost and Mary Immaculate, a.k.a. Olton Friary, and school governor, Our Lady of Compassion Catholic Primary School, Solihull, West Midlands, England, on suspicion of sexual activity with a minor. Story: Birmingham Mail, March 7, 2013

Charged: Carole Lynn Spivey, 51, former bookkeeper, Callie Self Memorial Baptist Church, Greenwood, South Carolina, accused of stealing more than $100,000 from the church. Story: Index-Journal, March 7, 2013

Related posts:

1. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 5, 2013
2. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 7, 2013
3. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: February 7, 2013
4. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: February 19, 2013
5. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: February 25, 2013

“My cousin at the time, he was 18, my son was 15, and I had walked in the room on him, um, um, givin’ oral sex to my son, and, um, I started whoopin’ my son, and — and as a result of me whoopin’ him, I’m the one got in trouble as a result of me whoopin’ him. The fire … police department told me that it was consensual. But they was commitin’ a homosexual act in my house, and you know, we totally against it.

“So I whooped my son and, like, three or four months later, um, they came and arrest me, for abuse, uh, they arrest me for assault, uh, assault on somethin’, domestic violence assault or somethin’.

“So I’m dealin’ with that issue [unintelligible] whippin’ my son. But, CPS had got involved in it because my son had — my mama had took my son to the hospital, and she had to go to the hospital that night because I had, uh, took him to her house that night to get him outta my house ’cause I didn’t wanna look at him, ’cause I was just so angry with him at the time. But, she had took him to the hospital ’cause she had seen, like, a little blood on his boxers, so she thought that my cousin had winged [?] him doin’ anal.

“So, anyway, she took him to the hospital … and they seen the whoops on his arm, um, that’s when the police came over here.

“Even that day, when the police officer came out here, he — he told me, outta his own mouth, ‘If it was me, and I walked in on my child,’ he said, ‘parent to parent, I woulda shot ‘im — I probably woulda shot both of ‘em.’ He said, ‘But with the law, you not allowed to put whoops on ‘em. You can whoop ‘em, but you not allowed to leave any marks on ‘em.’”

In an update, CBSDFW.com reports: “Chief Dan Dennis with the Forest Hill Police Department spoke with CBSDFW Thursday evening, defending his officer. ‘Miss Moore’s statement of the officer’s alleged inappropriate comments are simply untrue. The conversation was recorded. The officer’s conduct was entirely professional. The Forest Hill Police Department does not discriminate against any citizen based on sexual orientation.”

Oh, and If Miss Moore can’t remember what charge has been leveled against her (“assault, uh, assault on somethin’, domestic violence assault or somethin’”), it is “assault with bodily injury to a family member.”

Related posts:

1. The Texas Christian University 17
2. The Hypocrisy Files: Homosexuality Is Not A Choice — Belief Is
3. Texas Baptist Pastor William Frank Brown Arrested for Child Sexual Abuse
4. The Hypocrisy Files: “They Don’t Address the Things That Are Really Wrong”

Sued: Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries (“a non-profit organization committed to sharing the gospel of the love of Jesus Christ by providing hope to the hopeless, abused, disadvantaged and homeless … help[ing] them to become faithful Christians discipled into a local church”; member, Association of Gospel Rescue Ministries [AGRM]) and its CEO, Chad Audi, by one Charlotte Davies, who claims Audi raped her “‘countless’ times and threatened her and her son,” according to Courthouse News Service, which reports:

“In her complaint, Davies says she began working for Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries (DRMM) in 2011 as Audi’s executive assistant.” Davies claims that while in his car, Audi “forcibly kissed plaintiff,” who “pushed Dr. Audi away, yelled at him to ‘stop’ and slapped him,” after which “Audi grabbed plaintiff by the hair and yanked telling her ‘no bitch is going to hit me.’ During a meeting a few days later, Davies says, Audi ‘went into his private bathroom, came out, locked the door to his office, ripped plaintiff’s panty hose off and forcibly had intercourse with plaintiff, raping her.’”

The suit goes on to claim: “For the next thirteen (13) months defendant, Dr. Audi forcibly raped plaintiff countless times between two times a month and five times a week.’” Davies also claims Audi told her “that her son would be in danger if she reported the rapes and sexual assaults to the police or if she quit.” Davies “seeks exemplary damages for sexual harassment, hostile work environment, assault and battery, outrage, humiliation and emotional distress.” It should be noted that Audi has not been charged with any crime. Story: Courthouse News Service, March 6, 2013

Defrocked: Three Roman Catholic priests, Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts, who were removed from their ministerial duties following “credible allegations of abuse” dating back to 1988, but not stripped of the priesthood until late 2012. A press release from Diocese Bishop Robert J. McManus states:

“David Blizard was removed from ministry in 1988 by Bishop Timothy Harrington following the determination of credible allegations of abuse having occurred in the 1970s and 80s. Blizard has not had faculties as a priest since 1988. He was ordained in 1974 and served in the following parishes: St. Roch, Oxford; Our Lady Immaculate, Athol; Christ the King, Worcester; Holy Angels, Upton. He was in residence in various parishes while assigned to the Catholic School Department from 1983 – 1988.

“Thomas Kane was removed from ministry in 1993 by Bishop Timothy Harrington after learning of credible allegations of abuse which had occurred in the 1970s and he has not had faculties to serve in priestly ministry since 1993. Kane was ordained in 1969 and was resident in various parishes while continuing advance studies in psychology. These included St. Mary, Uxbridge, St Joan of Arc, Worcester followed by assignment to the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville. He was serving as an associate pastor at Sacred Heart in Gardner beginning in 1992 when he was placed on leave.

“Robert Shauris was removed from ministry in 1995 by Bishop Daniel Reilly after learning of credible allegations of inappropriate behavior in the 1990s and subsequently learning of credible allegations of abuse dating to the 1970s and 1980s. Shauris has not had faculties to serve in priestly ministry since then. Shauris was ordained in 1974 and served as an associate at St. Mary, Uxbridge and was in residence at Immaculate Conception, Fitchburg, St. Anthony of Padua, Fitchburg, and Our Lady of Fatima, Worcester during teaching assignments at St. Bernard Central Catholic High School (CCHS), St. Peter-Marian CCHS and Anna Maria College.”

The statement notes that the “laicizations” of Kane and Shauris were voluntary, and adds: “Although the decisions were reached by late 2012, formal announcement waited until the period for any individual appeals was concluded.” Story: Diocese of Worcester, March 5, 2013

Retained: Earl Randolph “Randy” Fraser, 54, as bishop/senior pastor, Pilgrim Baptist Church, New Providence, Bahamas, by a vote of parishioners, despite the fact that the married minister (and father) was convicted in 2011 of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old congregant and sentenced to three years in prison. The Tribune reports that 133 out of 200 church members voted to retain Fraser as leader; an interim pastor will run the church until Fraser is released. The Tribune also reports that “certain members of the church … nearly came to blows after a church board official read to voters evidence given while Fraser stood trial,” and notes “a power struggle” among “[d]ifferent pockets of the church’s membership.” Story: Conservative Babylon, February 9, 2012; Conservative Babylon, February 29, 2012; Conservative Babylon, June 25, 2012; Tribune, March 7, 2013

Preliminary hearing set: Terry Greer, 54, former pastor, Gardendale-Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, Gardendale, Alabama, for March 21, 2013. Greer has been hospitalized, reportedly for treatment of self-inflicted wounds, since his arrest in January, after he allegedly shot his wife to death, injured the couple’s 18-year-old daughter, and tried to stab himself to death. Story: Conservative Babylon, January 23, 2013; AP, March 7, 2013

Charged: Eusebio Martinez, Roman Catholic priest on “administrative leave” from Holy Family Catholic Parish, Edinburg, Texas, with misdemeanor criminal mischief after a family captured images of a man appearing to be Martinez drilling holes in the tires of their car. Currently in custody, Martinez is expected to be released on a $2,000 personal recognizance bond. Story: ValleyCentral.com, March 7, 2013; Brownsville Herald, March 7, 2013; surveillance video, March 7, 2013. See also: Monitor, December 17, 2012; KRGV, December 18, 2012

Indicted: Kevin Sutherland, 45, pastor, “totally Christ-centered” Mosaic Miami Church, Miami, Florida, on one count of second-degree attempted grand larceny “for attempting to sell counterfeit artwork that he falsely claimed were by British artist Damien Hirst, including the artist’s ‘spin’ paintings and ‘dot’ limited edition prints worth thousands of dollars,” according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.

“According to documents filed in court and statements made on the record in court, in December 2012, Sutherland submitted a spin painting purportedly by Damien Hirst to Sotheby’s, an auction house in Manhattan, where it was to be considered for sale in March 2013. He also allegedly informed Sotheby’s that he owned a second Hirst spin painting. In January 2013, Science Ltd., Damien Hirst’s studio in London, determined that the first spin painting was a counterfeit. Science Ltd. then contacted the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

“According to documents filed in court and statements made on the record in court, on January 29, 2013, an undercover New York City Police Department detective emailed Sutherland and asked if he had a Hirst spin painting for sale. The defendant told the detective that he had a collection of Hirst’s artwork, but would not know whether he wanted to sell until the second week of March 2013.

“On January 31, 2013, Sotheby’s notified Sutherland that an expert had determined the painting was not authentic, and therefore, would not be included in the auction. Later that day, Sutherland allegedly offered to sell two Hirst spin paintings to the undercover detective, as well as three Hirst dot limited edition prints, entitled ‘Valium,’ ‘Opium,’ and ‘LSD.’ … After negotiations, Sutherland agreed to sell to the detective both spin paintings and the three dot prints for $185,000. … After Sutherland accepted a cash payment, he was arrested.” Story: New York County District Attorney’s Office, March 7, 2013

Settled: The Highlands School, a private PK-12 Catholic college prep, Irving, Texas, with former varsity cheerleading coach and history teacher Kristin Brown, who sued the school for sexual harassment and defamation, “alleging violations of the Texas Labor Code” and claiming “she was fired in retaliation for reporting a sexually hostile work environment and disparate treatment,” reports Courthouse News Service.

Brown’s original suit claimed: “Steve Virgadamo, plaintiff’s supervisor, made numerous inappropriate sexual comments and requests for dinner dates, inviting her to sit on his lap, and implying a married coach should get her drunk and have sex with her at a school function.” The suit also claimed that “Virgadamo was counseled for his conduct and sent her a letter of apology, but later retaliated against her,” resulting in her termination.

CN adds: “Founded in 1986, The Highlands School teaches under the direction of the Legionaries of Christ, an international congregation of priests, according to its Website. In 2012, the school was named as one of the top 50 Catholic high schools in the country by The Cardinal Newman Society.” The Legionaries of Christ is the “religious congregation of pontifical right” founded by notorious child-rapist Marcial Maciel Degollado (q.v.). (See also: Thomas Williams and Álvaro Corcuera Martínez del Río.) Story: Plaintiff’s original petition, January 20, 2012; Courthouse News Service, March 4, 2013

Virgadamo — appearing to write about himself (often in the third person) on an eponymous website which states: “Few have worked with more Catholic Educational Institutions; a gifted leader with 20+ years of expert guidance to college, school, parish, and diocesean leadership” — is no longer listed as “Head of School” on the Highlands website.

It should be noted that Virgadamo has not been charged with any crime.

Related posts:

1. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: March 5, 2013
2. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: February 13, 2013
3. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: February 25, 2013
4. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: February 27, 2013
5. Black Collar Crime Round-Up: January 24, 2013