Tag Archives: molestation

The watchdog site Church Leaders reports: A Southern California pastor has been arrested and charged with multiple counts related to alleged child sexual abuse of at least two female victims. Jose Alcides Vasquez, 47, was arrested at his home in Menifee, California, on Sept. 5. Vasquez faces eight charges, including one count of lewd and lascivious behavior with a victim …

Los Angeles’s Fox affiliate reports: The Riverside Police said their investigation began in May 2024, after a man reported that his pastor, Juan Barrios, had assaulted him for years, beginning when he was just nine years old. After that man came forward, police said his younger brother came forward to report similar claims of sexual abuse against Barrios. The brothers …

The Christian Post reports: David Baker Sr., a Tennessee pastor and father of 11, who served as vice president of Independent Baptist Online College, walked into a local hospital Wednesday and fatally shot himself a day after he was charged with aggravated sexual battery of a minor family member. A statement from the Columbia Police Department said Baker walked into …

The Rockville Herald reports: Former North Carolina police officer Erickson Douglas Lee showed up in York County court Friday on child sex charges a day late and still received a plea deal. The former church volunteer failed to appear Thursday for what was supposed to be a guilty plea for an eight-year sentence. On Friday, he received a sentence of …

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports: An arrest warrant affidavit out of Howard County in Indiana alleges that a former Gateway Church employee molested three girls all under the age of 11. A warrant for Scott Gerber’s arrest was obtained on April 26, 2023. The 65-year-old faces two counts of molesting a child under the age of 15, Howard County court …

The CBC reports: An 81-year-old retired priest has been charged with rape in connection with the sexual assault of a preteen girl who was a parishioner at his western Manitoba church in the early 1970s, and police believe there may be other assault victims. She said she was sexually assaulted multiple times over two years by the priest while she …

The Detroit News reports: A prominent Detroit pastor has been charged with sexually assaulting a high school boy in Farmington Hills. The Rev. Kenneth Flowers, 63, pastor of Detroit’s Greater New Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, was arraigned last week on charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and assault with the intent to commit sexual penetration. Flowers, who lives in …

Pensacola’s CBS affiliate reports: The now-former principal of a private school in Holmes County has been arrested and faces sex charges in connection with inappropriate relations involving a student. According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and county court filings, law enforcement officials received an initial case assignment on May 30 regarding alleged sexual misconduct between a juvenile and 28-year-old …

Lexington’s NBC affiliate reports: Kentucky pastor Dicky Tiller, 53, was arrested in Boyd County by the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Department on July 30 and charged with one count of first-degree sexual abuse. According to a filed complaint warrant, Tiller is accused of performing sexual acts with a juvenile victim in May 2024. A uniform citation reported that Tiller, “being a …

Omaha’s ABC affiliate reports: Omaha’s Archbishop is among the clergy members named in a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski alleging the sexual abuse of minors for decades. The lawsuit said the Archdiocese has “known of the sexual abuse perpetrated upon its young parishioners and children in the community” by employees, priests, reverends, nuns, …

The Roys Report reports: A convicted felon-turned-pastor in central Florida is accused of supplying a teenage girl with an alcohol-infused slurpee and marijuana-laced gummy, while he repeatedly sexually assaulted her. William Martinez is charged in Hernando County Court with two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior of a victim over 12 and less than 16, and two counts of sexual …

The Wilmington Star-News reports: A pastor of a Brunswick County church faces multiple counts in a child sexual offense case. On July 8, Jonathan Ballard, pastor of Straightway Ministries Wilmington and Church of the Living God in Leland and Whiteville, was indicted with 12 counts of taking indecent liberties with children, six counts of statutory sex offense, and one count …

The Christian Post reports: Eternal Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina, has fired longtime Pastor Donald Logan after it was revealed that he is a registered sex offender convicted of sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl 27 years ago. “Effective immediately, we have made the decision to release Pastor Don Logan,” reads an email church elders sent to the congregation. …

The Toledo Blade reports: A Lenawee County minister was arraigned Monday afternoon in Lenawee district court on two criminal sexual conduct charges following his arrest Saturday. The second-degree felony charges against Michael Ronald Goble filed in 2A District Court specify victims younger than age 13 and that the specific offenses occurred in November, 2021, court records show. But a statement …

Via press release from Bergen County prosecutors: Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced the arrest of 74-year-old STEPHEN E. SWEET, a church pastor, who resides in Paramus, NJ on charges of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated criminal sexual contact and criminal sexual contact. The arrest was the result of an investigation conducted by …

Columbus’s CBS affiliate reports: On Tuesday, 39-year-old Terry Murphree of Oneonta was booked into the Blount County Jail on the following charges: first-degree rape, sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years old, nine counts of Clergy-sexual intercourse with a child, electronic solicitation, human trafficking, traveling to meet a child to perform a sexual act, three counts of first-degree …

The Christian Post reports: Former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson, has pulled out of a line-up of speakers scheduled for Gateway Church’s “Let’s Dive In! Summer Series” in the wake of child sex abuse allegations against founder Robert Morris. In a statement to CP on Monday, a spokesperson from Dr. Carson’s conservative think-tank, …

Religion News reports: Robert Morris, former senior pastor of the prominent nondenominational Gateway Church headquartered in Southlake, Texas, resigned two weeks ago after Cindy Clemishire accused him of molesting her for four years, beginning when she was 12. The case has prompted calls for reforms not only in the church but at the state Capitol. “These actions demand public exposure, …

The Christian Post reports: Zachary King, a pastor with “significant experience serving in youth ministry” at multiple megachurches, including LexCity Church in Lexington, Kentucky, from which he recently resigned as executive pastor, has been charged with the rape and sexual abuse of a minor. A press release from the office of Attorney General of Kentucky, Russell Coleman, said King, 47, …

The Christian Post reports: More than two years after former teaching pastor Bruxy Cavey [photo] resigned from one of Canada’s largest megachurches amid allegations of sexual misconduct, The Meeting House has temporarily paused operations because no insurance company wants to cover its abuse liability or employment practices liability insurance. “The historical incidents and allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse at …