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Former Delaware pastor found liable for child sexual abuse
Randall Chase | Associated Press
Published Sep 19, 2021 at 11:46 am
A woman who said her father, a former pastor of a Delaware church, sexually abused her as a child and trafficked her to other men, was awarded $1.5 million by a federal jury on Friday.
Alicia Cohen, 41, said in her civil lawsuit that Ronald Cohen began sexually abusing her when she was three years old at the family home in Newark, then started selling her to other men for sex about two years later, when they were living in Oklahoma.
She also said her father filmed and sold videos of her being raped and used his “religious façade” and “ministries,” including the nondenominational Miracle Tabernacle, as a cover for child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking.
Ronald Cohen, who has also used the names “Rafi” and “Raphael,” has denied the claims as “false, frivolous, and defamatory.”
“Ron was shocked at the verdict,” defense attorney Dan Boyce said Friday. Boyce said Cohen has asked him to file a motion for judgment in his favor, despite the jury verdict, or a motion for a new trial.
He also said Cohen, who now lives in North Carolina, is in his 70s and depends on Social Security, and that he is “judgment proof” based on his finances.
Alicia Cohen’s attorney, Dan Stephenson, said the case was not about money, but about holding Ronald Cohen accountable.
“The central issue in the case was whether the defendant raped his daughter repeatedly for years as a child. The jury clearly said ‘yes’ and awarded both compensatory and punitive damages,” Stephenson said in an email.
According to the lawsuit, Alicia Cohen repressed the memories of her abuse for years.
“Due to the actions of defendant, plaintiff has suffered extreme mental, physical, psychological, and emotional trauma,” the lawsuit states. “She has spent an enormous amount of time and money seeing doctors, psychiatrists, counselors, and other therapists.”
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been victims of sexual abuse, unless they go public, as Alicia Cohen did.
The seven-member jury found Ronald Cohen liable, by a preponderance of the evidence, for various offenses under Delaware law, including incest, sexual extortion and continuous sexual abuse of a child. They also found him liable under Delaware law for assault or battery, infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment.
But the jury ruled in Ronald Cohen’s favor regarding allegations of human trafficking under federal law and the state laws of Delaware, New Jersey and Florida. They also ruled in his favor regarding various other alleged offenses under federal, Florida and New Jersey law.
“There was no direct or circumstantial evidence that supported her allegations,” Boyce said, adding that the plaintiff’s case relied on experts who “hypothesized” that she had certain characteristics of having been sexually abused.
Boyce also said the judge refused to allow an expert defense witness to offer an opinion that Alicia Cohen’s memories from 30 years ago were false.
Stephenson, the attorney for Alicia Cohen, rejected the notion that it was a “he said-she said” case.
“We brought a mountain of evidence including objective, medical, and admitted facts,” he said. “We had treaters, treater records, and expert witnesses supporting what Alicia said.”
So, now, is he going to be charged, or has the statute of limitations run out. He will suffer the consequences one way or another in due time.
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After failed stint as pastor’s wife, Nadia Hilton returns to porn as a ‘Christian’
By Leonardo Blair,
Christian Post Reporter
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Crystal DiGregorio, popularly known by her stage name Nadia Hilton, has resurrected her X-rated career on the online subscription service OnlyFans after an unsuccessful stint as a pastor's wife.
DiGregorio, now 37, previously appeared in 100 pornographic films over some 10 years before giving her life to God in 2014 and marrying Fulton, New York, Pentecostal minister Rev. David Bassette in 2015, Syracuse.com reported.
She and her then-husband, who is now 30, both led New Beginnings Christian Life Church.
Officials at the church could not be reached for comment by The Christian Post on Monday. But DiGregorio, who is now divorced and remarried with a newborn, revealed in a recent interview with “Brand New Me,” an international YouTube series for truly (formerly known as Barcroft TV), that her life in the church was “extremely difficult.”
“After porn, I did a 180 and became a Christian, and now, I just want to be me. Doing OnlyFans as a Christian, I know I’m going to have criticism. People are already telling me that I’m going to Hell, but the way I look at it is this — nobody in this world can send me to Hell, nobody. Only God can,” she said.
Does it really matter who sends you to Hell? "I just want to be me" indicates that she wasn't herself as a Christian. I other words, she was acting or pretending to be a Christian on the outside, but with no real change on the inside, ie she wasn't really a Christian!
“My experience as a pastor was extremely difficult. I have a lot of respect for pastors and the stuff they go through after going through it myself. They judge you by everything. God forbid a pastor has a drink of wine or any alcoholic beverage, anything because you’re definitely going to Hell for that."
“When I was in church, it was girls can’t wear pants. You have to wear skirts. You can’t wear make-up. You can’t dye your hair. You can’t cut your hair. God forbid you show any cleavage. You’re going to Hell for all those things. So, I literally went from one extreme to the next,” she added.
It seems like their church was quite legalistic. Would they rather have you appear as a Christian than actually be one? Our criticism should come from the Holy Spirit, not the congregation.
Despite her return to porn, DiGregorio maintains she is still a Christian, but she doesn’t belong to any particular religious group.
“The way I look at posting adult content is God brought me into this world naked," she said. "Posting pictures naked, I don’t think is this huge crime or this big sin."
Since her divorce from Bassette, DiGregorio has found a new husband, identified in the truly interview as "Andrew." He runs her OnlyFans account.
Former Central New York pastor Crystal DiGregorio (R) and her ex-husband, Pentecostal minister
Rev. David Bassette. | Screenshot: ABC News
“When Crystal mentioned the OnlyFans, at first I didn’t take it serious," Andrew said. "She just mentioned it quick. And when she mentioned it again, I told her, ‘I’m not here to control you.’ I want you to do what makes you happy, as long as it doesn’t break up our marriage. ... I told her I support her 100%."
“My feeling as far as people looking at Crystal's pictures and videos, really anybody can look at those pictures and videos anyway," he added. "You just need to Google her. It will pop up Nadia Hilton. She’s all mine. So, I’m not really too worried about her."
The Christian porn star has a daughter with her new husband, and she is worried about her later finding out about her lifestyle because she doesn’t want her to go down that path.
Then why are you leading her there?
“I think for me, my life was totally different," she said. "I was abused while I was a kid, went through some seriously bad things. So my attention and everything that I needed went into that direction."
The mother of four noted that while she has returned to the adult industry, what she is doing on OnlyFans isn’t as bad as what she did early on in her X-rated career.
“It’s not full-on porn like I was doing before. This is a different Nadia Hilton,” she said, noting that she doesn’t shoot with anyone else but her husband.
So, it's like, Christian porn, right? Good grief!
60 Minutes Australia Airs Exposé Detailing Abuse Allegations,
Celebrity Culture at Hillsong Church
Over the weekend, 60 minutes Australia released a major exposé on Hillsong Church, shedding light on multiple allegations of sexual abuse and celebrity culture seen across its churches worldwide.
The exposé, titled Hillsong Hell, included stories of two women who were reportedly victims of abuse from Hillsong staff and members, The Roys Report reported.
One woman, Anna Crenshaw, shared her story of abuse, alleging that she was assaulted by Hillsong worship leader Jason Mays, a married man. In 2018, she reported the assault to Hillsong Church, where May's father serves as the head of human resources.
Crenshaw, a former student at Hillsong College, claims that Hillsong promoted Mays instead of firing him. Additionally, Mays' wife was reportedly appointed as Crenshaw's leader.
Five months later, she told her father, pastor Ed Crenshaw, who leads Victory Church near Philadelphia, that Hillsong did not take immediate action against Mays. In turn, Pastor Crenshaw complained to Hillsong, leading the megachurch to finally report the assault to police.
"Everything is centered on trying to keep her story quiet for five months to try to obscure it, to try to minimize it, and to try to get Anna, I think, ultimately to drop it," Crenshaw told 60 Minutes.
As The Christian Post reported in April of this year, Crenshaw cut ties with Hillsong last September when they put Mays "back onto [the] stage for singing."
That's what they need, a rapist leading worship!
The second woman, who went by the alias of "Katherine," told 60 Minutes that she was raped by a fellow Hillsong member. Katherine, a former youth leader at Hillsong's Melbourne East campus, reported the rape in 2018 to a Hillsong pastor, who refused to take action.
"That's not for my ears to hear. You go sort that out with him (the perpetrator)," the pastor said, according to Katherine.
In 2019, Katherine left Hillsong Church and did not speak about the assault again until after she heard Crenshaw's story and posted her account to social media.
According to Crenshaw, it was only then that Hillsong would contact Katherine and express interest in the assault. In 2021, three years after the assault occurred, the global megachurch finally reported the assault to the police.
"They do not care at all about the fact that I was assaulted," Katherine argued. "They just care about who I'm going to tell or what I'm going to do about it and how that will affect them."
Boz Tchividjian, a lawyer and advocate for abuse survivors, also appeared on the 60 Minutes episode. In his segment, Tchividjian, the grandson of Billy Graham, criticized Hillsong for consistently silencing or intimidating abuse victims.
In response to Crenshaw's claim that Hillsong mishandled her report of abuse, Tchividjian noted that the church hired a law firm that describes itself as "the most feared law firm in the world."
"What sex abuse survivor is going to feel comfortable participating in a process that's led by an organization that defines itself in that way?" he asked.
Not the actions of repentant hearts!
Additionally, Tchividjian criticized Hillsong's embrace of celebrity culture within the church.
"We've created a celebrity culture in the church," he said. "Pastors have become rock stars. Pastors oftentimes live—in these big churches—live better than most of the people in their congregation. And you create that culture inside of a church, that ultimately results in that pastor and those leaders becoming less and less accountable as those leaders become more and more insulated."
In a statement on Monday, Hillsong criticized the claims made on the 60 minutes exposé as "gutter journalism at its finest."
Perhaps if you stayed out of the gutter, they would not have to go there to find you.
"Let us reiterate – Hillsong Church takes any claim of assault extremely seriously, and we allocate significant resources so that all can attend our services and events in a safe environment," it said.
Search this blog for 'Hillsong' for several other disturbing stories.
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