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Former Abilene youth pastor sentenced to 99 years in prison
| KTXS
This was never truer than in the case of former Abilene youth pastor Jeffrey Forrest, sentenced to 99 years in prison for the aggravated sexual abuse of two boys, bail jumping and failure to appear. He had fled to Mexico where he was tracked down, arrested and extradited back to Texas in May 2020.
During the trial, multiple witnesses testified that Forrest admitted to the abuse. He allegedly told a good friend and a professional counsellor.
According to reports when he was arrested in 2015, Forrest had been involved "in children and other youth groups at various Abilene area churches and camps".
At the time of his arrest, in April, 2015, police said they were investigating three possible offences against children at the daycare centres where Forrest worked and had received one substantive complaint alleging molestation of a boy in 1983. Forrest then moved into a garage apartment where the boy lived and continued to molest him there. It was not until 2011 that the boy found the courage to tell his father about the abuses. Forrest was said to have confessed to the offences to a counsellor on a sex-offender program.
Forrest was given $100,000 bail and released the same day, but failed to show up for the trial in August, 2016 and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was eventually tracked down in Mexico after a $25,000 reward was offered for information on his whereabouts. He was extradited to Texas and stood trial in April 2021 on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, bail jumping, and failure to appear in court.
Army National Guard Officer Pled Guilty to Child Sex Abuse
Posted By: Parker Padgett
April 29, 2021 @ 8:07 pm
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – An Army National Guard officer pleaded guilty in federal court today to sexually abusing four minors over several years while he was director of the youth ministry at Fort Leonard Wood U.S. Army Base.
McKay, an Army National Guard Major Sergeant, was the youth ministry director for the Religious Services Office at Fort Leonard Wood. By pleading guilty today, McKay admitted that he sexually abused four victims, ranging in age from 11 to 17 years old, on dozens of occasions from 2010 to 2017.
According to today’s plea agreement, the sexual abuse occurred at Fort Leonard Wood and various other locations within Pulaski County, Mo. The victims also reported being abused during the youth group’s ski trips to Colorado and on camping trips at Fort Leonard Wood.
Under federal statutes, McKay is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command at the Fort Leonard Wood Army Base, the Pulaski County, Mo., Prosecutor’s Office, and the Waynesville, Mo., Police Department.
Ravi Zacharias' daughter apologizes for 'serious errors;'
brother says she doesn't speak for family
By Leah MarieAnn Klett,
Christian Post Reporter
Friday, May 28, 2021
Sarah Davis, CEO of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and oldest daughter of the late apologist, speaks during a video message shared on May 26, 2021. | Screenshot: Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
Sarah Davis, CEO of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and oldest daughter of the late apologist, has apologized for her initial reaction to the allegations of her father’s sexual misconduct, admitting she made “serious errors that only furthered deep wounds.”
Her statement elicited a response from her brother, who claimed that she is not speaking for the family.
“To the women who are victims of my father's abuse, I think of you every single day. I am utterly devastated," she said in a video message this week. "I am sorry that I did not see you. I am sorry that you were made powerless and rendered voiceless. When you did speak up, I didn't believe you, and I'm deeply sorry for this."
An independent investigation released earlier this year found credible evidence of a long pattern of abusive behavior by Zacharias, one of the most recognizable figures in American Christianity for decades.
The report found that the apologist, who died last May, coerced massage therapists at a spa he co-owned to perform sexual acts. It also uncovered a collection of explicit photos — many of them of much younger women — found in Zacharias’ possession.
The independent report corroborated accounts made by several women, including Lori Anne Thompson, who Zacharias sued in 2017 for alleging they had an online sexual relationship.
Davis, who became CEO of RZIM in November 2019, admitted that she erred by ignoring allegations against her father and defending his innocence.
“I earnestly wanted the truth, but I recognize that the steps I took didn't always show this,” she shared. “I should have immediately called for an independent investigation in 2017, but I trusted my father fully, and I carried his narrative, both in 2017 and then initially in 2020, when we were first made aware of those allegations. In both of these, I know that I caused pain. I did not serve well, and I did not love well. And for this, I'm deeply sorry.”
“My goal and my heart were not to attempt to cover up the sins of my father — or any sin — to further a call or a mission," she added. "I believed this man, my father, whom I loved and trusted more than anyone else, could not have done these things … But I was wrong.”
When she was presented with evidence that the allegations against her father were true, Davis said she was “quaked” to her “very being.”
“I still replay memories, over and over in my head. How could this make sense with the man that I knew and what we now know to be true? Was it all a lie? Could he have done these things?" she said. "And if he did do them, why wouldn't he have confessed them, even to his family? For the rest of my life, I will have to hold the tension with this man that I knew and love, with the man that we know now committed these actions.”
Davis said she hopes to be a “conduit of healing” and move forward with truth and transparency. She apologized to the public for RZIM “not representing Christ to you.”
“While we were proclaiming a God who loves and values every person, our leader was not living in the truth of who God is,” she said.
While RZIM hopes to return to preaching the Gospel eventually, it must first “engage in this very important ministry — to acknowledge, to respond to and to address how these things could have happened at RZIM,” Davis concluded.
In response to his sister's statement, Nathan Zacharias wrote a brief response in which he said that that he stands by his father:
“My sister, Sarah, recently gave a video statement on the situation with my Dad. There was no new information given, and she did not say anything she has not already said in her previous statements over the past few months. It was the same talking points."
“She is not speaking for the family," he added. "As has been clear, we do not share her take on this situation.”
Part of the grieving process is denial. It wouldn't be surprising if the family is stuck in denial. It's hard to reckon with the idea that a Christian hero might actually be a fraud.
In a May 7 blog post, Nathan Zacharias argued that the Miller & Martin investigation was "driven by a predetermined agenda, not actual evidence and truth." He also voiced disagreement with how RZIM handled the allegations.
Since the release of the Miller & Martin report earlier this year, RZIM has announced that it's changing the ministry's name, restructuring to become a grant-making organization supporting evangelism and abuse victims and laid off the majority of its staff. Additionally, numerous publishers pulled Zacharias’ books.
In a May interview, Abdu Murray, who co-authored a book with Zacharias and has been in the leadership of RZIM since 2017, apologized for how he and the ministry handled their public statements when the allegations arose.
“We really cannot afford to elevate ministry above people or certainly above Jesus,” Murray said, speaking about what he learned amid Zacharias' gradual exposure over the past few years.
“I think that we have this mentality in ministry that somehow ministry is itself sacred, that ministry is itself untouchable. And so when an allegation of abuse happens, we find it unbelievable because these people could not possibly have done it.”
I think we are just beginning to get a glimpse of how many Christian "Rock Stars" are really just Rock Stars.
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