Canadian couple on missionary trip to the Caribbean convicted of sexual assault had ties to Manitoba
A Canadian couple has been convicted of sexual assault and threats against two minors in the Dominican Republic.
Adam Eric Pepper and his wife Tracee Lynne Pepper (Plett), both 35-years-old, were sentenced by a court in the Caribbean country on Dec. 4. In a release earlier this month, the country’s Attorney General’s office said Adam had been in pre-trial detention since February 2021. The two were arrested after complaints were made by the families of a 12-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl.
The couple both have ties to Manitoba and were employed by the Commission to Every Nation (CTEN) as missionaries to the Dominican Republic, according to an emailed statement by the organization on Dec. 12. The organization further noted that Tracee had been living in Manitoba prior to her move to the Caribbean.
The Steinbach Evangelical Mennonite Church told Global News Adam volunteered for them back in 2009.
On its website, CTEN is described as an organization that “helps missionaries fulfill the unique vision God has given them.” It adds that it helps missionaries get to a different country, but that many choose to raise their own funds.
According to the Attorney General’s release, a complaint was first made by the mother of the 12-year-old boy after she found images on the boy’s cellphone that were given to him by Adam.
The release notes that the images depicted the child being sexually assaulted.
The ministry’s office stated that the accused would threaten the minor if he said anything. It said the child’s mother reported that Adam told her to leave her son with him more, and to sign a paper stating that if anything happened to the mother, then Adam and his wife would stay with the boy.
Adam’s wife, Tracee, also assaulted the child according to the release. The release said she recorded sexual images of the boy with the 13-year-old girl.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office raided the couple’s home in April 2021, seizing USB sticks, a professional camera with accessories, a suitcase containing high-definition recording equipment, a small digital camera, and other items. The release states that videos were found with images of minors engaging in sexual activity on the cameras.
Adam faces seven years in prison while his wife faces a five-year suspension from work, is prevented from leaving the country, and cannot teach in educational centres.
Southern Baptist Convention settles high-profile
lawsuit that accused former leader of sexual abuse
The Southern Baptist Convention and others have reached a confidential settlement in a high-profile lawsuit that accused a former leader of sexual assault, ending a six-year legal drama that helped prompt a broader reckoning over child sexual abuse in evangelical churches, expanded victims’ rights in Texas and showed that a prominent conservative activist and Texas House candidate repeatedly downplayed abuse allegations.
In 2017, Duane Rollins filed the lawsuit accusing Paul Pressler, a longtime Southern Baptist figure and former Texas judge, of decades of rape beginning when Rollins was a 14-year-old member of Pressler’s church youth group in Houston.
Rollins claimed in court documents that the alleged attacks pushed him into drug and alcohol addictions that kept him in prison throughout much of his adult life. After disclosing the alleged rapes to a prison psychiatrist, Rollins filed the suit in Harris County against Pressler along with other defendants who he accused of enabling or concealing Pressler’s behavior — including the Southern Baptist Convention and Jared Woodfill, the former chair of the Harris County GOP and Pressler’s longtime law partner.
Rollins’ claims were a key impetus for “Abuse of Faith,” a 2019 investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News into sexual abuse in the SBC, the nation’s second-largest faith group. The series led to major reforms in the SBC, revelations that top leaders had routinely ignored or downplayed warnings about a sexual abuse crisis, and an ongoing Department of Justice investigation.
As part of Rollins' suit, at least seven other men came forward with their own allegations of sexual misconduct by Pressler in incidents spanning four decades. The suit also showed that Woodfill, a prominent anti-LGBTQ+ activist, was aware of allegations that Pressler was a sexual predator but continued to provide him with young, male personal assistants who worked out of Pressler’s River Oaks home. Three of the men have alleged sexual abuse or misconduct.
Woodfill is currently running for a Texas House seat against incumbent Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, and has been endorsed by Attorney General Ken Paxton and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
Pressler, 93, is one of the most influential evangelical figures of the last half-century, and is considered the co-architect of the SBC’s “conservative resurgence” that began in the late 1970s and prompted the faith group to adopt literal interpretations of the Bible, align more closely with the Republican Party, ban women from preaching and strongly condemn homosexuality.
Pressler — who formerly represented Houston in the Texas House and served for 14 years as a state appeals court judge — is also an influential figure in GOP politics. His endorsement has for years been sought by conservative evangelical politicians, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. In 1989, Pressler was nominated to lead the Office of Government Ethics under President George H.W. Bush, though the bid was later withdrawn; and Pressler is a founding member of Council for National Policy, a secretive network of conservative judges, politicians, media figures, megadonors and wealthy business owners that is currently led by Tony Perkins, head of the anti-LGBTQ+ Family Research Council.
Continue Reading this story at the Texas Tribune.
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When she was a child, her father, a former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had routinely slipped into bed with her while he was aroused, she said.
It was March 2017 and Rytting offered his sympathies as 31-year-old Chelsea Goodrich spoke. A Utah attorney and head of the church’s Risk Management Division, Rytting had spent about 15 years protecting the organization, widely known as the Mormon church, from costly claims, including sexual abuse lawsuits.
Rytting had flown into Hailey, Idaho, that morning from Salt Lake City, where the church is based, to meet in person with Chelsea and her mother, Lorraine.
After a quick prayer, he introduced himself and said he was there “to look into” Chelsea’s “tragic and horrendous” story.
Chelsea and Lorraine had come to the meeting with one clear request: Would the church allow a local Idaho bishop, which in the Mormon church is akin to a Catholic priest, to testify at John Goodrich’s trial? Bishop Michael Miller, who accompanied Rytting to the meeting, had heard a spiritual confession from Chelsea’s father shortly before John Goodrich was arrested on charges of sexually abusing her.
While the details of his confession remain private, the church swiftly excommunicated Goodrich.
Audio recordings of the meetings over the next four months, obtained by The Associated Press, show how Rytting, despite expressing concern for what he called John’s “significant sexual transgression,” would employ the risk management playbook that has helped the church keep child sexual abuse cases secret. In particular, the church would discourage Miller from testifying, citing a law that exempts clergy from having to divulge information about child sex abuse that is gleaned in a confession. Without Miller’s testimony, prosecutors dropped the charges, telling Lorraine that her impending divorce and the years that had passed since Chelsea’s alleged abuse might prejudice jurors.
Unfortunately, I was unable to recreate the audio recordings here. You can go to APNews to listen to them.
Rytting would also offer hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for a confidentiality agreement and a pledge by Chelsea and Lorraine to destroy their recordings of the meetings, which they had made at the recommendation of an attorney and with Rytting’s knowledge.
Today, John Goodrich, who did not respond to the AP’s questions, is a free man, practicing dentistry in Idaho.
“Going into this meeting with Rytting, I felt like it would be very clear, once everything’s laid out that, look, this is not something that we want to cover up,” said Eric Alberdi, a church member who attended the meetings as Chelsea’s advocate and also made recordings, which he shared with the AP.
“This is something that we want to uncover for a number of reasons, so that John … doesn’t do this again. So that Chelsea can move forward,” said Alberdi, who was not bound by the confidentiality agreement and who has since left the church. “You know, covering this up did not make any sense.”
In a statement to the AP, the church said “the abuse of a child or any other individual is inexcusable,” and that John Goodrich, following his excommunication, “has not been readmitted to church membership.”
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