Tag Archives: molestation

The New York Times reports: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo agreed to a provisional settlement of $150 million with more than 800 victims of sexual abuse, a lawyer for dozens of the accusers said, bringing one of New York’s most embattled and scandal-plagued dioceses closer to resolving years of legal wrangling. Bishop Michael W. Fisher of Buffalo said in …

Amarillo’s ABC affiliate reports: A former Amarillo and Canyon teacher, accused of child sex crimes, was arrested for a sixth time. Patrick Kenneth Farmer, 57, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of indecency with a child sexual contact. According to the criminal complaint, Farmer touched the genitals of a girl under the age of 17. Farmer was arrested September 11, …

The Yakima Herald-Republic reports: Prosecutors charged an Outlook youth pastor with raping a teenage girl he knew. In addition to five charges each of second-degree rape and third-degree child molestation, Benjamin Felix Guerra, 32, was also charged with three counts of third-degree child rape and a single count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes, according to a six-page …

The Baptist Press reports: Shane Wiggins, pastor of Baldwin Baptist Mission Church, Baldwin, Louisiana, was arrested April 9 on charges of rape and molestation. Wiggins has been with the Baldwin congregation, a mission of Little Pass Baptist Church in Charenton, La., since March 2015. According to the police department of Morgan City, La., Wiggins was arrested in Paris, Texas, and faces …

Los Angeles’s NBC affiliate reports: A Catholic priest serving at a church in Downey was arrested after being accused of raping a minor, LA County records showed Tuesday. Fr. Jaime Arriaga, 41, was removed from ministry at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Downey after the allegation surfaced, the LA Archdiocese confirmed Tuesday. “The archdiocese has a long-standing commitment to …

Oklahoma City’s NBC affiliate reports: A metro pastor was arrested this week after he allegedly convinced his congregation to move in with him, and then molested a young girl. Elmer Baca-Flores is the owner of a 501c3 nonprofit church labeled ‘Ministerio Levantando Adoradores Para Cristo Inc.’ Two men told officials that their wives had been brainwashed by Flores and that …

The New York Times reports: Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington and the highest American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church to be accused of sexually abusing minors and seminarians — a charge that stripped him of his ministry, his place in the College of Cardinals and his priesthood, reducing him to the status of a layman — …

The North Dakota Monitor reports: A former North Dakota lawmaker was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. Ray Holmberg, 81, was a Grand Forks state senator for 45 years, and received a sentence that is longer than federal sentencing guidelines. U.S. District Judge Daniel …

Denver’s Fox affiliate reports: A pastor employed by Word Alive Church was arrested Tuesday after reported incidents of sexual assault on juveniles while he was a youth pastor there. Joshua Lucero, 28, was charged with one count of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust by the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. The Thornton Police …

The Roys Report reports: A North Carolina pastor was found dead a week after he was charged with multiple child sex crimes, the Union County Sheriff’s Office today confirmed with The Roys Report (TRR). Waymon Jordan Sr., the senior pastor at Greater Blessed Hope Baptist Church in Waxhaw, North Carolina, was arrested on March 6, according to an earlier statement …

Fort Wayne’s ABC affiliate reports: A recently retired Orland pastor has been arrested on several child molestation charges, court documents say. Rodger Strong, 69, is accused of molesting a 5-year-old girl on five different occasions between Jan. 1, 2024, and May 7, 2024, according to court records. The victim’s mother alerted police to the abuse on March 5, 2025. As …

The Associated Press reports: A former pastor of a Texas megachurch is expected to turn himself into Oklahoma authorities Monday on child sexual abuse charges. Robert Preston Morris, 63, is expected to surrender to officials in Osage County, where he was charged last week with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, his attorney, Mack Martin, told …

The Christian Post reports: Robert Morris, founding pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, was indicted on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma Wednesday stemming from allegations made by Cindy Clemishire last June that he sexually abused her over multiple years in the 1980s beginning when she was 12. …

The Denver Gazette reports: Stephen Hutto, 45, was booked into the El Paso County jail and facing a felony charge for sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust. He is currently the pastor at Highland Baptist Church in Boone, east of Pueblo, and previously worked as a youth pastor at Fountain Independent Baptist Church in …

Michigan Live reports: A former church leader will stand trial on 60 charges related to sexual abuse after a Washtenaw County judge added 30 more counts based on preliminary testimony. Supporters of the eight men and one boy who testified against Zachary Radcliff, 29, could be heard crying in the courtroom as Judge J. Cedric Simpson read off the additional charges. …

Colorado Springs’ ABC affiliate reports: The 23rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office says a jury has found a Highlands Ranch minister guilty of sexually assaulting his own daughter. According to the D.A.’s office, Richard Merskin, 42, was convicted of sexual assault on a child under the age of 15 by a person in a position of trust. Prosecutors said the assaults …

The Christian Post reports: Gary Thomas “Tom” Keesee, a son of Gary and Drenda Keesee, founders and senior pastors of Faith Life Church, a family-run, multi-campus megachurch in Ohio, is facing allegations of sexual abuse, including one from his sister, Kirsten McKinney. In addition to being a son of the Faith Life Church founders, Tom Keesee is also the former …

From Maryland’s Montgomery County prosecutors: Today, in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, MD, before the Honorable Margaret Schweitzer, the defendant Ervin Alfaro-Lopez, 34, of Germantown, pleaded guilty to one count of sex abuse of a minor and three counts of third-degree sex offense. Alfaro-Lopez faces up to 55 years in prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 28, …

The Deseret News reports: A former Latter-day Saint bishop faces felony charges for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl in his office nearly 20 years ago. Mark Lehnhof Stevens, 68, of Washington, Utah, is charged in 3rd District Court in with one count of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, and two counts second-degree of forcible sexual abuse. Between 2006 and …

The Associated Press reports: As New Orleans church leaders braced for the fallout from publishing a list of predatory Catholic priests, they turned to an unlikely ally: the front office of the city’s NFL franchise. What followed was a months-long, crisis-communications blitz orchestrated by the New Orleans Saints’ president and other top team officials, according to hundreds of internal emails …