Wolves Among the Sheep > Woman recovers memories of CSA by church deacon at age 3; Gateway Church hit with new lawsuit

 

Some people question the validity of repressed memories, but I am not one of them as I remembered suddenly in my mid-thirties being sexually abused at age three. And there was lots of evidence since then that confirms my memories.

Woman recalls alleged sexual abuse at age 3

in Michigan church, lawsuit says

The woman said psychotherapy in her teens helped her recover traumatic memories from when she attended her family’s church in Michigan and on a mission trip.

Aug. 12, 2024, 10:51 AM PDT / Updated Aug. 13, 2024, 2:22 PM PDT

By Erik Ortiz

As a young girl, Marian Ippel was consumed by recurring thoughts and dreams of herself and other children being raped. Her yearly physical provoked fear.

It wasn’t until 2020, after months of therapy to address her anxiety and depression, that the inexplicable feeling of dread began to click: Then 17, she recovered memories, she said, of sexual assault by fellow church members abusing her when she was around 3 and 4 years old.

Now 21, Ippel is accusing her Grand Rapids, Michigan, church of creating a culture that fostered alleged abuse in a lawsuit that is not typical: Her complaint, filed Monday in Kent County Circuit Court, claims harm was done to her at such a young age, while hinging on memories that she says she retrieved later in life.

“Even though it happened almost 20 years ago, it has had a devastating effect on me since then,” Ippel told NBC News, “and that is a big reason why I feel so confident stating the facts and the extensive therapy I’ve gone through.”

Marian Ippel says therapy helped her to recover memories of abuse when she was 3 and 4.Courtesy Marian Ippel

Her lawsuit names as defendants the Grace Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids and affiliates, including the Christian Reformed Church in North America, a Protestant Calvinist Christian denomination also based in Grand Rapids. The suit says the church was responsible for preventing abuse and accuses it of creating an environment that Ippel believes gave a deacon “unfettered access to one-on-one meetings with young children including Plaintiff, who trusted him and Defendants to provide a safe environment for their education and counseling.”

Ippel is seeking a jury trial, damages and court orders that would require the church to investigate others who may have been harmed by her alleged abusers, overhaul its practices and policies, and secure “proper training” for those in positions of authority and who are responsible for minors and other vulnerable people.

“Churches are places where people are supposed to be safe,” she said.

The Grace Christian Reformed Church said in a response Tuesday that it could not provide further detail into ongoing litigation but said it was actively investigating Ippel's case "as we believe all abuse is unacceptable" and "these allegations are deeply troubling to Grace Church and the entire congregation."

The Christian Reformed Church in North America also did not comment specifically about Ippel’s allegations but said in a separate response that it has “developed strict policies and procedures” meant to keep children safe and encourage prompt reporting of abuse.

Lynne Cadigan, an Arizona attorney who has represented victims in Mormon and Catholic church-related sex abuse lawsuits, said recovered memory cases can test the bounds of such litigation because they require judges and juries to scrutinize an accuser’s credibility.

While Ippel is the only person to have come forward publicly against those accused in her suit, her lawyer believes that there are people who have had similar experiences or can help corroborate her account.

“Recovered memory cases are difficult because you may need corroborating evidence, particularly when a child is very young,” Cadigan, who is not associated with Ippel’s case, said. “It requires a lot of investigation into the perpetrator, finding out if there were other victims, other witness statements and could the perpetrator have had the opportunity to do this.”

Abuse allegations

Ippel says the repression of traumatic memories from her childhood was not a conscious decision. She grew up excelling in school, surrounded by a loving family.

“I was an example of someone you thought was a very good kid,” she said.

But inside, the anxiety was overwhelming, according to her lawsuit. She told no one that she felt suicidal. When she was 16, she said, she began counseling. It was through psychotherapy, including an approach known as “Lifespan Integration” therapy, which involves a person going through a timeline of their memories to heal from past trauma, that she says she pieced together what happened.

In her complaint, she alleges how a deacon led her by the hand to the church basement after a Sunday children’s worship service in 2006. She wore a pink, green and white summer dress, according to the lawsuit. The deacon allegedly sexually assaulted her before having her return upstairs alone, where her parents were distracted.

According to the suit, Ippel’s parents gave her a cookie after church. “Around this same time, Marian’s mother remembers finding blood in Marian’s underwear,” the suit says, “but could not fathom why this was so.”

The deacon named in the complaint died in 2010 at age 66.

For more on this story please link to:

The Christian Reformed Church in North America

Gateway Church hit with new lawsuit alleging

child sex abuse of youth group member

By S.E. Jenkins

Updated on: August 15, 2024 / 7:50 PM CDT / CBS Texas

TARRANT COUNTY — The North Texas megachurch embroiled in controversy over its founder's alleged child sex abuse is facing another lawsuit involving accusations of abuse by a youth group member.

Gateway Church recently settled a 2020 lawsuit alleging child sex abuse.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Tarrant County accuses a member of the Gateway Church youth group of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl repeatedly on church grounds. The lawsuit alleges the assaults began in 2016.

According to the lawsuit, the then 13-year-old regularly attended youth group meetings at The King's University in Southlake with roughly 200 other members ranging in age from 11 years old to 18 years old. One of those members was then 17-year-old Gabriel Snyder, according to the lawsuit.

In late 2016, the lawsuit alleges Snyder began grooming the child during youth group meetings, using "biblical beliefs and teachings of ... Gateway's pastor and ministers" to convince the 13-year-old that it was God's will she submit to him as a female.

The lawsuit claims Snyder sexually assaulted the child multiple times in December 2016, taking her "into the darkness outside The King's University." 

The assaults on the campus continued into February 2017, where surveillance cameras were in place on the building above the areas where the assaults allegedly took place, according to the lawsuit. By this time, Snyder had turned 18 years old.   

No one ever came to the child's aid, the suit alleges.

The child, who is now an adult, and her parents are suing Snyder and Gateway Church for over $1 million for assault, negligence and damages.

They claim Gateway was negligent as a provider of youth services and failed to safeguard against child abuse. The lawsuit also claims that as "devout and active members" of the church, a "special" or "confidential" relationship was established between the family and Gateway. According to the suit, Gateway breached that relationship with twisted behavior, causing emotional and mental damage.

The church's behavior also constitutes fraud, the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit alleges the girl was not Snyder's only victim within the youth group. He is currently serving prison time at the Hightower Unit in Dayton, Texas, for the sexual assault of a child. 

Snyder has not been charged criminally in relation to this lawsuit.

A trial by jury was requested.

CBS News Texas reached out to Gateway Church and Snyder's lawyer and are waiting for a response.

The King's University was founded by the late Dr. Jack Hayford, who also served as an apostolic elder of Gateway Church, the university's website states, and it partnered with Gateway Church.

Continue reading this story at the following link:

Gateway Church's 2020 lawsuit

Wolves Among the Sheep > Incredibly Despicable Deviants in JWs; Cal. Church Deacon Prolific Pedophile

..

5 members of Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations charged

with child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania

By Maria Sole Campinoti, CNN

Updated 3:33 PM EDT, Sun July 9, 2023

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry speaks during a news conference Friday in Philadelphia.

Matt Slocum/AP

CNN

 — 

Five members of Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations were charged with child sexual abuse by the Pennsylvania’s attorney general on Friday, following a yearslong investigation into allegations of sexual abuse in the religious community.

The children were all also members of Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations, and the alleged abusers gained access to – and the trust of the victims – through the organization, authorities said.

The cases include alleged sexual abuse of 4-year-old child and a developmentally disabled victim.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry announced charges Friday against David Balosa, 62, Errol William Hall, 50, Shaun Sheffer, 45, Terry Booth, 57, and Luis Manuel Ayala-Velasquez, 55, for sexually abusing minors across the state.

A news release from the attorney general’s office describes Balosa as 61, but the attorney general said he was 62 in a news conference and court documents show a birth date that would have him turning 62 this year.

“The details of these crimes are sad and disturbing, facts which are made even more abhorrent because the defendants used their faith communities or their own families to gain access to victims,” Henry said in the news release.

“Our office will never stop working to seek justice for those who have been victimized, and we will continue to investigate and prosecute anyone who harms the most vulnerable in our society,” Henry said.

Sheffer “adamantly denies the allegations and looks forward to the opportunity to set the record straight,” Sheffer’s attorney Benjamin Steinberg told CNN in a written statement Sunday.

CNN is attempting to identify defense attorneys for the other four defendants.

CNN has reached out to the attorney general’s office and public defender’s offices in Philadelphia, Delaware, Butler, Allegheny, and Northampton counties, where each defendant has been charged, respectively.

The five defendants have each been charged and bail has been set, according to the attorney general’s office and criminal court dockets for three of the defendants reviewed by CNN.

The charges are part of an investigation into child abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses community launched by the attorney general’s office in 2019, according to a report from the AG’s office listing findings of fact and recommendations of charges against the defendants.

While the five cases are distinct from one another, they share a common thread, according to the attorney general. The defendants and victims were all part of Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations at the time of the alleged abuse.

Four year old

Balosa, from Philadelphia, has been charged with indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault, and corruption of minors, according to a criminal docket filed in Philadelphia County.

He allegedly sexually assaulted a 4-year-old girl whom he had met through the Jehovah’s Witnesses community when he was in his 30s, according to the attorney general’s report. Balosa allegedly assaulted the girl in her family’s basement and told her not to tell anyone what he had done, the document states.

Hall was charged with indecent assault without consent, indecent assault forcible compulsion, and corruption of minors for inappropriately touching a 16-year-old girl whom he met through the community, according to a criminal docket filed in Delaware County.

Sheffer has been charged with rape, aggravated indecent assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and corruption of minors, according to a criminal docket filed in Butler County.

Disabled sister

He allegedly repeatedly raped his developmentally disabled younger sister, starting when she was 7 years old and he was 18, according to the report. The grand jury heard testimony that the rapes occurred approximately 50 to 75 times and lasted until the girl was 12 years old, according to the attorney general’s report.

Booth was charged with indecent assault and corruption of minors, according to the attorney general. He allegedly engaged in inappropriate sexual conversations with a 16-year-old boy he was mentoring within the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation.

On at least one occasion, the conduct escalated into inappropriate touching without the victim’s consent, according to the attorney general’s findings of fact and recommendations of charges.

Daughter

Ayala-Velasquez was charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, and corruption of minors, the attorney general said. He allegedly sexually assaulted his daughter multiple times, according to the attorney general’s report.

“I have to say that I am thankful to the courageous survivors involved in these cases who were willing to share the horrific abuse that they went through. I am inspired by their strength,” Henry said at a news conference on Friday.

In October, Pennsylvania’s attorney general charged four other members of Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations with child sexual abuse, according to a news release. In those cases, the alleged abusers also found their victims through the church, says the release.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses faith is a non-mainstream Christian denomination. The church was founded in Pennsylvania in the late 19th century and claimed over 110,000 congregations worldwide as of 2022, according to its website.

CNN’s Samantha Beech and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.

In my humble opinion, some JW congregations appear to be genuinely Christian. I have no idea if they are in the minority or the majority. And, I certainly wouldn't argue with anyone who thought differently. The only thing I know for sure is that these men, if guilty as charged, are not genuine Christians.

California Youth Pastor Accused of Revolting Sex Abuse

Justin Rohrlich, Reporter, Daily Beast

Updated Jul. 10, 2023 4:08PM EDT / Published Jul. 10, 2023 3:55PM EDT 

..

A California church deacon allegedly sexually abused numerous boys on religious mission trips under the guise of inspecting their genitals for “concerning” moles—helping protect the children, he told them, from the ravages of skin cancer.

The abuse dates back to at least 2009, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in Sacramento federal court upon his July 7 arrest and reported first by The Daily Beast.

Bradley Earl Reger, 67, “used his position of authority… to groom children and continually grope their naked genitals for his own sexual pleasure,” federal prosecutors said in a detention memo after Reger was taken into custody. Local police first received reports in 2003 of abuse by Reger, who “never seemed to run out of teenage boys whose genitals he could fondle under the guise of medical ‘exams,’” according to the memo.

Reger, who lives in Susanville, has owned and operated several ambulance and lifeflight services in Northern California and Nevada, and has been “heavily involved in various Christian schools, summer camps, youth groups, and church missions,” the filing continues. “He has held positions as a teacher, camp counselor, wrestling coach, church deacon, youth group leader, board member of various school boards, and owner of affiliated non-profit organizations.”

Many of the boys were abused on international “Work and Witness” trips affiliated with the Susanville Church of the Nazarene, according to a July 4 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigation report attached to the detention memo. The assaults occurred in, among other countries, Poland, Ukraine, and the Philippines, it says. Prosecutors say others took place in Reger’s Susanville health clinic, on camping trips, and inside vehicles.

Two victims, now adults, told investigators that Reger reappeared years after the alleged abuse, meeting with them shortly before their weddings to advise them “on how to sexually please their wives,” according to prosecutors.

“For one of those victims, shortly before he got married, [Reger] gave him an ‘exam’ as he had in the past,” the detention memo states.

Susanville Church of the Nazarene

Caution: graphic descriptions of child sexual abuse:

Reger was arrested as he returned home from a trip to Colorado, according to court records. When he wasn’t looking for nonexistent moles, he coerced victims into letting him grope them using “concerns about… hypothermia, about chlorine eye irritation, about intestinal problems all as pretenses to conduct ‘exams’ and touch minors’ naked genitals,” the detention memo alleges. Some children were forcibly held down while Reger penetrated them with his fingers, it goes on. Others were told their semen needed to be tested, and were instructed to ejaculate, according to the memo. One victim said Reger chalked his stomach problems up to hydrocele, or a buildup of fluid in the scrotum. Reger then “repeatedly used a device called a doppler ultrasound to stimulate blood flow to that victim’s testicles and penis… approximately once per month and before each trip,” the detention memo states.

Prosecutors say they have evidence of sexual abuse by Reger involving at least a dozen victims from age 12 to 22, and believe there are “likely many more victims that will be confirmed following the defendant’s arrest.” However, another victim wrote in a letter to the judge in Reger’s case that he “personally” knows over 100 children Reger abused, and “dozens of others” that he has never met in person.

“There is not a day and often not even an hour that goes by, where I do not think about the abuse I went through...the humiliation, the fear...the coldness of his soul or the sound of his voice...the feeling of his skin on mine, and the sound of his breath,” yet another victim wrote to the court, pleading for Reger to be held without bail. “It haunts me. He should not be allowed to walk out of this courtroom and terrorize the community. He must be detained for the safety of all. Any other action would [be] inexcusable, and itself evil. Do not let this man walk out of this courtroom.”

An assistant to Church of the Nazarene General 

Meme posted by Brad Reger.

Secretary Gary Hartke told The Daily Beast on Monday that all inquiries about Reger’s status with the organization were to be submitted in writing. (Hartke had not yet responded at the time of publication.) The main phone number for the church’s Susanville chapter was out of service on Monday, and a request for comment sent via email went unanswered.

Reger’s court-appointed lawyer, federal defender Mia Crager, said in an email, “The formal indictment charges have not yet been filed against Mr Reger. Once they are, and once the prosecution makes their evidence available for review by the defense, we will begin the process of evaluating the charges. At this time, I do not have any further information about the investigation beyond what has been filed on the public docket.”

Reger’s wife died in 2013, according to public records.

The investigation leading to the complaint against Reger began last fall, when the general counsel for the Church of the Nazarene reported Reger to child protective services in California and the state’s nursing board, the complaint states.

The Church of the Nazarene had opened its own investigation into Rege in June 2022, about four months after being contacted by someone who accused Reger of grooming him as a minor and molesting him from 2016 through 2020. Internal investigators identified between 10 and 15 minors and “several more” adults who had been victimized by Reger during interstate or international trips, the complaint says. However, the investigation only focused on victims within the church.

When the federal and state authorities picked up the baton in November, investigators discovered that the Susanville Police Department had eyed Reger in 2003, 2006, and 2007 based on multiple independent allegations of sexual abuse leveled by a dozen boys, according to the complaint. No criminal charges were ever brought so detectives reinterviewed eight of the 12 accusers, which “revealed a consistent pattern of behavior that Reger used to identify and groom his victims and detailed reoccurring methods that he used to sexually abuse them under the guise of legitimate medical treatment.”

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California

In 2008, Reger convinced the parents of a 12-year-old, identified in the complaint as “Minor Victim #3,” that “boys need exposure to outdoor adventure and discussed the camping trips he led in Alaska,” the complaint goes on.

Reger paid for Minor Victim #3 to join him on trips to Reno, Nevada, and Alaska, where he would give the boy a “physical exam” consisting of a purported medical checkup, during which he took a urine test and performed a “genital inspection.” He then checked the boy’s “entire nude body for moles,” instructing him to get an erection so he could better view the mole, the complaint continues.

In late 2009, Reger invited Minor Victim #3 and his family on a medical assistance mission to the Philippines, and financed the entire thing, according to the complaint. While there, Minor Victim #3 came down with a cough that Reger diagnosed as pneumonia. He told the boy’s family the boy should stay with him in his Manila hotel room instead of traveling to a local clinic, the complaint states.

Inside the room, Reger once again subjected the boy to a “physical exam,” including a “mole inspection,” then “gave him a long hug with a prayer,” when it was over, the complaint says.“This ‘exam’ process repeated on every trip and continued at random times in hotel rooms or camper vans whenever Minor Victim #3 saw Reger,” according to the complaint. “Reger continually discussed the dangers of skin cancer. He said the mole on Minor Victim #3’s penis could cause impotence or otherwise affect sexual experience if it got bad. At the end of each exam, Reger noted the mole on his penis was concerning and needed further monitoring.”

The night before Reger was arrested, he was seen attempting to engage a young girl—whom he “did not appear to know”—at the Reno, Nevada airport, the detention memo says. He was also allegedly exchanging messages as recently as June with “someone associated with an orphanage in Kenya, where he had previously traveled.”

Prosecutors believe Reger, who visited 235 countries between 2004 and 2023, according to the DHS investigation report, will flee if allowed to go free pending trial.

“During the search of [Reger’s] commercial property, agents found a file drawer filled with photocopies of passports of young men, many of whom are victims in this case, as well as travel and immigration documents,” it says, adding that agents also discovered, among other things, “a rubber-type mold of testicles that some victims described the defendant using as he taught them to do self-examinations of their genitals.”

An open letter to Reger from one of his alleged victims, which was posted on Medium in 2018, is included in the detention memo.

“You are a disgusting and vile man,” it reads. “Everything about you is abhorrent and makes me sick. When I think of monsters, I see your face. When I have nightmares, you are the boogie man that I cannot ever get away from. Your loathsome face haunts my waking moments. You are the piece of my past that I will never be able to escape; no matter how much liquor I drown myself in in my feeble attempts to erase you. You are human garbage, but unfortunately society will not dispose of you. You continue to be allowed to walk around with [the] rest of us, free to prey on the weak and innocent.”

Reger remains jailed without bond, pending a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

30 years is not long enough. What is that, about 3.6 months for each victim whose life he has trashed?

Was there no one in this church that had any idea this was going on? Was no one listening to God? Is there a real Christian in the entire church?

SBC Seminary President; Counselor; Deacon on Today's USA PnP List

Southern Baptist seminary drops bombshell:

Why Paige Patterson was fired

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey, The Washington Post

  

In a bombshell announcement Friday night, leaders of a Southern Baptist seminary explained the reasons they decided two days earlier to fire their president, a longtime leader of the huge denomination: He lied about his treatment of an alleged rape victim in 2003, and in 2015 he tried to isolate another woman who had reported a sexual assault from the seminary’s chief of security so he could “break her down,” according to a new statement.

Paige Patterson, who until a few weeks ago was a towering figure in the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination with about 15 million members, set off intense debate among conservative evangelicals in recent months after recorded remarks surfaced that were viewed by many as demeaning toward women. They included advice he gave to a woman to return to her abusive husband.

On May 22, the seminary’s trustees demoted the 75-year-old Patterson from his position as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, citing vague reasons about his leadership that did not include mention of comments about or treatment of women. Many Southern Baptists considered that decision too lenient because it allowed Patterson to remain on staff as “president emeritus”with compensation and the ability to retire on campus.

Then in yet another twist on Wednesday night, the board’s trustees announced Patterson had been fired, removing the benefits, and vaguely citing his mishandling of an unspecified rape allegation. The Washington Post had reported on May 22 that a woman who was a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003 when Patterson was president there had come to Patterson alleging she had been been raped by her then-boyfriend and was encouraged by him not to go to police and to forgive the man she said had assaulted her.

The Post does not identify victims of sexual abuse, but earlier this week, Megan Lively identified herself on Twitter as the person in the Post article.

Patterson, who is reportedly out of the country, did not respond to requests for an interviews made through Scott Colter, who served as his chief of staff.

The seminary had declined to confirm to The Post for two days whether the executive committee’s decision on Wednesday to unanimously fire Patterson was connected to the alleged incident at Southeastern - until Friday night.

“We confirmed this week through a student record, made available to me with permission, that an allegation of rape was indeed made by a female student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003,” Kevin Ueckert, the chair of Southwestern’s board, said in a statement.

The information, Ueckert said, contradicts a statement previously provided by Patterson in response to a direct question by a board member regarding the incident at Southeastern. “The 2003 rape allegation was never reported to local law enforcement,” he said.

Patterson is revered in the Southern Baptist Convention for his role in steering the denomination in a conservative direction in a fight that goes back decades. He had been scheduled to deliver a key sermon to thousands of people at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Texas later this month, although it’s unclear whether he will still speak.

“People have always been afraid of him. Not anymore,” Lively said on Friday night.

In another incident in 2015 after a woman reported being raped on campus...

Ueckert said Patterson wrote an email to the chief of campus security at the time in which he “discussed meeting with the student alone so that he could ‘break her down’ and that he preferred no officials be present. 

The attitude expressed by Dr. Patterson in that email is antithetical to the core values of our faith and to [Southwestern]. Moreover, the correlation between what has been reported and also revealed in the student record regarding the 2003 allegation at Southeastern and the contents of this email are undeniable.”

“As I’ve said before, he shamed the crap out of me,” Lively said after seeing the statement. “He tried to ‘break her down.’ My story is almost identical to this girl’s story.”

Ueckert also confirmed that documents were taken from Southeastern in North Carolina when Patterson left to become president at Southwestern.

Danny Akin, who is now president of Southeastern seminary, said seminary documents show that after her alleged rape, Lively went to administrators and was sent to meet with Patterson on three separate occasions with three other men present. The seminary’s attorney and chief of security were never notified, and a police report was never filed, Akin said. “Those are clear, unmitigated, fully witnessed facts,” he said.

Akin said he did not know about the 2003 incident involving Lively until May 11, when Lively emailed his provost and his provost forwarded the email to him. He told Lively the seminary would support her if she decided to press charges against her alleged assailant.

“For 15 years of my life, I thought I did something wrong,” Lively said. “It wasn’t until Dr. Akin told me I didn’t that I firmly believed it. That’s how strong and impressionable Dr. Patterson was to a 23-year-old woman who believed in who he was.”

The recent controversy around Patterson began after the publication of statements he made starting in 2000 about the Bible’s view of women and his beliefs about spousal abuse and why it does not serve as grounds for divorce. Patterson also commented on a teenage girl’s body and told his female seminary students to pay more attention to their physical appearances.

Patterson was Akin’s preaching professor, and they worked together for nine years, Akin said, adding that he had admired him for decades. “This is a man I love. Do I think he gave horrible, horrible counsel? I absolutely do,” Akin said, referring to Patterson’s 2000 comments.

Akin said he believes files that would help an investigation of the incident were taken from Southeastern when Patterson left. Ueckert said in a statement that Southwestern has located those documents and is working on returning them to Southeastern.

Ahead of the board’s May 22 decision to demote Patterson, two Southern Baptists on President Trump’s evangelical advisory board, Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas and Richard Land of Southern Evangelical Seminary, commented in support of Patterson in conservative media .

Patterson’s comments about abuse and women’s appearance prompted thousands of Southern Baptist women to sign a May 6 petition calling for him to lose his job. Ueckert said the board based its decision on Patterson’s job performance and “did not allow the legacy of Dr. Patterson or the #MeToo pressure to steer the outcome.”

5-year prison sentence for Jacksonville man who

got child porn from sex offender

The Florida Times-Union

By Dan Scanlan 

A 33-year-old Jacksonville man was sentenced to five years in prison after receiving sexually explicit images of an 8-year-old child from a convicted sex offender, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Stanley Hagan Jr., who pleaded guilty in November for receiving child pornography over the internet, was also ordered to register as a sex offender, prosecutors said.

Court documents stated that Hagan had sexually explicit online conversations with Darren Dozier in late 2015 and again in 2016. Prior to those conversations, Dozier had molested the 8-year-old child in 2015 after his release from prison and relocation to Philadelphia prior, shooting photos and videos of the abuse, prosecutors said.

Hagan pretended to be a 15-year-old girl during the conversations, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Dozier offered to send Hagan sexually explicit images of the 8-year-old. Hagan accepted the offer and Dozier sent four images of him sexually abusing the child. Then Hagan asked Dozier to send him a sexually explicit video of the child, prosecutors said.

During an interview with FBI agents in Jacksonville on Aug. 30, 2017, Hagan admitted that he had solicited and received the images from Dozier.

Utah man charged with child sex abuse

goes for a plea deal

by Will Feelright

LOGAN — A 23-year-old Logan man suspected of sexually assaulting a young girl has waived his right to a preliminary hearing, as attorneys work out a possible plea agreement.

DeAndre Cardwell appeared in 1st District Court Monday afternoon. He pleaded not guilty to one charge of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony.

Defense attorney Wayne Caldwell told the court they agreed to waive their right to the hearing, under the condition they and state attorneys can work out a suitable resolution. If the plea agreement can’t be reached, he asked for the hearing to be rescheduled at a later date.

Deputies believe Cardwell assaulted the young girl in July 2011. The victim allegedly knew the suspect.

During Monday’s court appearance, Judge Thomas Willmore ordered Cardwell to appear again July 2. The suspect faces 15-years-to-life in prison if convicted.

Montana man sentenced on child pornography

and drug charges

By: Margaret DeMarco 

(GREAT FALLS) Daniel Joseph Reardon was sentenced on Monday for several charges from 2016.

Reardon was sentenced to 10 years, with five of them suspended, to the Montana Department of Corrections for sexual abuse of children.

He was also sentenced to five years for criminal possession of dangerous drugs and and five years for fraudulently obtaining dangerous drugs.

The sentences will run concurrently and he will be designated as a tier two sex offender.

Judge Elizabeth Best told Reardon that she believes he can be rehabilitated and be an asset to the community.

Reardon has a case from 2017 still pending in Judge Gregory Pinski's court.

(AUGUST 14, 2017) Daniel Joseph Reardon of Great Falls pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of sexual abuse of children.

Reardon also pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a dangerous drug and fraudulently obtaining dangerous drugs.

According to court documents, in 2014 a Missoula Police Department officer working with the Internet Crimes Against Children task force discovered an inappropriate picture being sent through Gmail.

Through the investigation, detectives found that the e-mail accounts belonged to Reardon. Detectives found that Reardon's phone had multiple child pornography images on it.

In accordance with a plea agreement, Reardon will be sentenced to 10 years in prison, with all time suspended.

He will also be sentenced to five years each on the other two charges, again with all time suspended.

Judge Elizabeth Best accepted Reardon's change of plea and sentencing will take place on September 11th.

The original charges included five court cases with 21 charges filed against Reardon.

Wow! And all he gets is 5 years unless he's paroled after 2. Good grief! I'm surprised the judge didn't throw in a gold watch.

Missouri Sex Offender Sentenced to 15 Years

for Child Pornography

By:  Carissa Alford 

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A Springfield man, and registered sex offender, was sentenced in federal court for receiving and distributing thousands of images of child pornography over the internet, according to a press release by the Office Of The United States Attorney, Western District Of Missouri.

Anthony Salois, 51, was sentenced on Friday, June 1, to 15 years in prison without parole. On top of this sentencing, Salois will have 20 years of supervised release after he has been incarcerated.

According to the press release, Salois has a prior conviction for sexual abuse involving a minor and has been kept in custody since his arrest four years ago.

He pled guilty on Feb. 1 this year, admitting that he received and distributed child pornography over the internet in Sept. 2013. He downloaded the pornography using a peer-to-peer file-sharing network.

When law enforcement executed a search warrant at Salois's residence in Oct. of 2013, they seized two desktop computers and investigators found 3,973 images of child pornography, 50 multimedia files of child pornography, 641 images of child erotica and 39 multimedia files of child erotica on those computers.

Navajo Man Gets 15 Years For Child Abuse in NM

by Carol A. Clark

FBI News:

ALBUQUERQUE ― Brian Lee, 31, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Breadsprings, was sentenced May 24 in Federal Court in Albuquerque to 15 years in prison for his conviction on child sexual abuse charges.

Lee will be on supervised release for ten years after completing his prison sentence. He also will be required to register as a sex offender.

Lee was arrested July 13, 2017, on a two-count indictment charging him with sexually abusing a child under the age of 12 on two separate occasions between July 2012 and July 2016, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in McKinley County.

Sept. 18, 2017, Lee pled guilty to a two-count felony information charging him with aggravated sexual abuse and sexual abuse. In entering the guilty plea, Lee admitted that between July 2012 and July 2016, he engaged in sexual acts with the victim on two separate and distinct occasions at his home in Breadsprings on the Navajo Indian Reservation.

This case was investigated by the Gallup office of the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle T. Nayback prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/

Family counseling center employee accused

of fondling Ohio child up to 50 times

By:  NBC4 Staff 

WESTERVILLE, OH (WCMH) - A Columbus man is behind bars after he was accused of fondling a child under the age of 13.

According to a police report, the Westerville Division of Police received a referral from Franklin County Children’s service regarding the possible sexual abuse of a juvenile. Court documents allege Matthew Gatton, 33, fondled the child while the child was taking a bath on multiple occasions.

According to police, Gatton admitted to touching the child on two occasions while the child was bathing in a voluntary interview on May 25. On May 29, Gatton returned to the Westerville Division of Police for a second voluntary interview, in which he admitted to touching the child between “20 to 50 times.”

The victim told police the incidents occurred almost every week between Jan. 1, 2018 and May 2, 2018.

Gatton turned himself into Westerville Police on Monday. He was arrested and charged with two counts of gross sexual imposition. He will be arraigned in Franklin County Municipal Court on Tuesday.

Gatton  was employed as a community-based paraprofessional with OhioGuidestone, a family counseling agency. Lisa Clark, the executive director of Central OhioGuidestone, issued the following statement:

We recently became aware of possible inappropriate actions by a community-based paraprofessional employee in Columbus while he was working with a youth receiving services from our organization. We immediately suspended the employee pending the outcome of an investigation by Franklin County Children Services, and he has not returned to work for the agency since the date of his suspension. Based on information we recently received from the Westerville police, we immediately terminated the employee.

We continue to work closely with Westerville police and are offering them our full cooperation and assistance.

There was much more to their statement but it was the usual 'we take this very seriously' kind of stuff, which I normally delete because, if it were true, we wouldn't be reporting this story to begin with. 

Former Alabama church deacon jailed on

child sex abuse charges

by WVTM US

A former deacon at McElwain Baptist Church in Birmingham was jailed Monday morning on child sex abuse charges.

According to jail records, Collin Galletly Jr. was booked at 7:23 a.m. on charges of first-degree sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a child less than 12 and second-degree sexual abuse. 

Galletly was released a couple hours later on a $30,300 bond.

The allegations were made by the legal guardian of two girls from Irondale in November last year, prompting an investigation by the police department.

The girls are ages 9 and 12. Galletly was tutoring them in math and reading when the abuse allegedly happened.

Texas man arrested for child sex crime,

sexual conduct of a family member

by Maria Aguilera

ABILENE, Texas — An Abilene man was arrested on Friday for two different sex charges.

Michael Rowley, 32, is being charged with sexual assault of a child and prohibited sexual conduct of a family member, according to the Taylor County Jail's records.

Rowley's arrest report states that he was contacted by the Abilene Police Department after a "disturbance call with allegations of sexual abuse."

According to the arrest report, Rowley was threatening suicide.

Rowley is now being held at the Taylor County Jail on bonds totaling $200,000.