Gary Lynn Kirby, 42, was held in lieu of $500,000 bail at the Mobile Co. Metro Jail.
Kirby was first charged with sexual abuse in Mobile in '80. In '82 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to fondling a minor in Mississippi. It is unclear how much of the sentence he actually served. In '87 Kirby was convicted again in Mobile for sexual abuse of several minors and sentenced to 7 years, but was released in '90 after serving only 33 months.
"It's a national pattern. It isn't just a Mobile pattern or a pattern in Alabama. People who molest children get light sentences, get out and tend to molest again," said Pat Guyton, director of the Child Advocacy Center. "The only thing that seems to work is long-term incarceration."
The latest investigation was sparked by church members who contacted police expressing concern about Kirby's possible abuse of children. Two more boys, also 8 and 10, are believed to have been abused by Kirby, who faces at least 99 years in prison under current law if convicted of sodomy. Source: Mobile Press-Register 4/15/97
Dong Khuat, 57, also known as Monk Dung with the Phap Van Temple in Pomona, reportedly molested 2 women, ages 21 and 27, in March '96 and a girl, 17, between Jan-May '90. The women, who were visitors to the temple, say Khuat draped scarves over their heads during ceremonies, touched and kissed them, rubbed oil on them and fondled them. Source: Daily Bulletin 5/2/97
Priest Switches Plea In Embezzlement Case. A Catholic priest accused of embezzling about $70,000 from a San Bruno church changed his not guilty plea to no contest in mid-April.
Rev. Martin Greenlaw, 53, is charged with grand theft-embezzlement and faces up to 16 months in state prison and restitution for stealing from St. Robert's Parish. Sentencing is scheduled for June.
In other litigation, Greenlaw settled a Superior Court case in which he was charged with embezzling more than $200,000 in church funds in San Francisco and San Mateo Co. The agreement requires the Greenlaw to repay the funds and serve a 1-year jail sentence at home while wearing a metal detection bracelet for electronic monitoring. Source: San Francisco Chronicle 4/17/97
Priest Given Probation For Theft, Evasion. Cathedral of Annunciation pastor Rev. William Ryan pleaded no contest to felony charges of grand theft and tax evasion on May 13 and was sentenced to 5 years of probation, 2,000 hours of community service and ordered to pay restitution of $76,000 to the Stockton church. Perjury charges and a 2nd count of tax evasion were dropped.
Ryan was indicted Dec. 13 after members of the church's financial council questioned Ryan's bookkeeping practices. He was removed as Annunciation pastor in Jan. Source: The Record 5/13/97
Brett Lee Rowland, 32, reportedly sexually assaulted the 2 boys, 8 and 12, in Jan. while babysitting them at his apartment. He worked with the Woodmen Valley Chapel's Awana program as a youth group volunteer for the past 2 years. Source: Denver Post 2/17/97
U.S. Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled that there "is little dispute" that the Diocese of Bridgeport "intended to conceal" Rev. Laurence Brett's admission to sexually abusing the boy. Source: Norwich Bulletin 4/2/97
The victim, 17, filed a civil suit in the Broward Circuit Court stating he was "continually touched, fondled, abused, molested and sexually battered" at both the church in Davie and Harris' home for 3 years, beginning when he was 12. Contact reportedly began when Harris offered to counsel the teen after his mother's death in '92 and ended when the boy moved to Tampa to live with an aunt.
Attorneys for the teen claim church officials knew at least 15 years ago that Harris may have had pedophile tendencies. Lawyers obtained a letter addressed to Nathaniel Urshan, general superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church International in Hazelwood, Mo., signed by 21 parishioners and dated June 9, 1982, which relays rumors and discussion at the church that Harris might have been sexually molesting teenage boys.
A second letter, dated Nov. 11, 1982 from Panama City district superintendent Rev. O. C. Crabtree, states he contacted Harris, "who assured us that his morals were above reproach." Crabtree also wrote that complaints from parishioners "were not filed according to the manual of the United Pentecostal Church International." Source: Sun-Sentinel 4/22/97
Priest Charged With Computer Sex Crime. Incarnation Catholic Church priest and Cardinal Moody High School chaplain Jeremiah Michael Spillane, 43, of Sarasota, pleaded innocent in March to charges of attempting to entice a child under the age of 16 to commit a lewd and lascivious act, and seduction of a child by computer.
The priest reportedly offered to arrange a sexual encounter at a Tampa hotel via computer with a Clearwater police detective who was posing as a 13 year old boy. The priest arrived at the meeting point, a Clearwater gas station, carrying condoms, lubricants and homosexual erotic magazines. Source: Sun Herald 3/28/97
Gag Order Sought In Priest Sex Suit. Bishop John J. Nevins and Rev. Nick McLoughlin have sought a gag order barring attorneys for a former Port Charlotte altar boy from discussing the young man's claims of sexual molestation with the media.
In a lawsuit filed in Punta Gorda, a 20 year old man claims Port Charlotte's St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church pastor Ed McLoughlin, Rev. Nick McLoughlin's brother, molested him over a 21/2 year period beginning in '92 when he went to the cleric for guidance after he'd been sexually molested by choir director Richard Trepinski. The suit seeks more than $15,000 and accuses Nick McLoughlin and Nevins of negligence, stating they knew of prior complaints yet failed to prevent Trepinski and Ed McLoughlin from being alone with boys.
Trepinski, former Charlotte Boy Choir director, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in '93 for molesting 2 choir boys. Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune 4/4/97
Priest Given Plea Deal For Testimony. St. Mary's Catholic Church pastor Rev. Simeon Gardner, 70, pleaded guilty to grand theft and agreed to pay restitution of at least $250,000 in a plea agreement that allows him to avoid a trial. Instead, his sentence will be up to a judge, who could still sentence him to time in prison.
Gardner was given the plea deal for his testimony against former lover and Odessa bait shop owner Joseph Mondeau, 36, who is charged with extorting more than $200,000 from the priest between 1994-96 by threatening to expose their sexual relationship. Source: The Times 4/23/97
Clifford Coffman, 63, was charged with 2nd-degree sexual assault and 3 counts of 3rd-degree sexual assault and sentenced to 2 concurrent 5-year prison terms. Originally he was charged with 1st-degree sexual assault which carries a maximum 20-year penalty.
The pastor reportedly performed oral sex on the girl, touched her genitals and placed her hand on his genitals during incidents in '94 when the girl was 9 or 10. Source: Hawaii Tribune-Herald 5/11/97
Bad Priests Forced Out Of Silence. A newspaper investigation series by The Indianapolis Star and The Indianapolis News, titled "Faith Betrayed," flushed out information that at least 16 current and former priests from the LaFayette Diocese have been accused of sexual abuse or misconduct during the past 25 years. The news series stirred protest, praise and calls for action in the community and the church, but Diocese officials have only admitted to 12 troubled priests with as many as 40 victims in the past 12 years alone.
The 24-county north-central diocese, which has only 75 active priests, ranks high with 16% of its priests accused of misconduct. The national average is 2-3%.
Accused priests in this diocese reportedly face neither judge nor jury--they answer to Bishop William L. Higi. According to news reports, Higi's system of justice is ill-defined, infuriating to victims and dangerously misguided. Higi's rule for judgment: child molesters cannot be cured, but men who prey on teens can. Vicar General Rev. Robert Sell supports Higi's rule of thumb, suggesting that some teens might be partly responsible for their own abuse because, unlike "innocent" children, teens can "consent" to sexual acts. This belief has stunned parishioners, victims, and the community because Higi openly stated he allows priests who initiate sex with teens, even those as young as 13, to return to the pulpit after therapy.
Understanding Higi's method of rehabilitation and where he draws the line between children and adolescents is puzzling especially when not all of the offenses fall into a clear cut child or adult category. Rev. Ron Voss, who reportedly sexually abused 8 young male teens repeatedly, is a free man in Haiti after resigning from the priesthood in '93. And Rev. Ken Bohlinger, who admits to sexually abusing an undisclosed number of boys, some as young as 9, has never been criminally prosecuted. He has admitted to supplying his victims with alcohol and pornography. And has admitted to masturbating with them and performing some acts with them that even he says, "you couldn't print." Bohlinger, no longer in the priesthood, now lives and works in Tucson, Ariz.
Priests accused of abusing minors include: Monsignor Arthur Sego, Rev. Raymond Wieber, Rev. Gerald Funcheon, Rev. Donald Tracey, and 1 unidentified priest. Those accused of misconduct with adults include: Rev. Ronald Maupin, Rev. Philip Mahalic, Rev. Robert Moran and 6 other unidentified priests.
Indiana law states that the age of consent is 16. Sexual acts with children under 14 are felonious, whether the victim is willing or not.
No one apparently knows why, or is willing to say why, action was never taken on such reports. Cases have disappeared into a bureaucratic black hole where no one is responsible: Child welfare officials say they cannot confirm if they ever got reports, police claim they have not received any reports, and prosecutors say they cannot act until at least 1 of the 2 other agencies does.
Higi has refused to give the breakdown of how many priests in his diocese abused children and how many abused teens, stating that information is privileged. Source: The Indianapolis Star 3/2/97; 2/16, 18, 20, 23, 25/97
DeVenney pleaded guilty to 8 counts of lascivious acts with a child and 4 counts of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse Jan. 31. Source: Cedar Rapids Gazette 4/5/97
The charges against the Phelps' arose from theri anti-gay picketing in June '93. The Phelpses carried signs which stated "Fat Ugly Sodomite" and "Gays are worthy of death." A gay man contends that biblical message implied a death threat against him.
Topeka District Attorney Joan Hamilton said she would appeal the dismissal of the charges. Source: Capital-Journal 5/30/97
Pastor Guilty Of Bigamy. Baton Rouge pastor Ernest Brownell, 61, pleaded guilty in Jan. to 1 charge of bigamy.
The True Christian Church and the Church of God pastor was sentenced in April to 3 years of probation, 100 hours of community service, a $500 fine and he must register as a sex offender.
Brownell told a state district judge that he had thought his divorce from his 1st wife had gone through when he married for a 2nd time in Feb. '95. The pastor reportedly did not tell his 2nd wife about the 1st marriage and stated on their wedding certificate that he had never been married. Source: The Advocate 4/8/97
A civil suit was filed in early April against Rev. Robert Barrett for fondling a boy repeatedly from 1967-68 while assigned to St. George's Church in Framington.
Drew Fales, now 45, said Barrett, St. George's swim team coach, rubbed his genitals in the priest's car, during field trips to Maine, and at the boy's home. The suit contends that the Archdiocese of Boston should have known that the priest was "of bad character and reputation and unable to properly interact with minors."
Rev. John J. Geoghan, a retired Boston-area priest, has been sued by more than 30 people who say they where molested by the priest beginning in 1962 when they were children attending Greater Boston parishes. Source: Boston Globe 4/8/97
Jeffrey R. Horton, 43, was also given 3 years of probation for installing cameras in his home bathroom, at the Liberty Christian Center in Milford, and another in a woman's home in Holly in 1993-94. Horton was assessed court costs, victim's rights fees, supervision costs and restitution and was ordered to seek mental health treatment. He will serve his sentence in Florida where he now resides.
Eavesdropping is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 2 years in prison and up to $2,000 in fines on each charge. Parishioners asked for a harsher sentence, but Oakland Co. Circuit Court Judge Barry Howard said they would be better off with Horton out of the state.
"This sentence will not right what was wrong but it will remove him from your environment," Howard told the victims in court. Sources: Oakland Press 4/24/97; Detroit Free Press 4/24/97
Champ was arrested in Omaha in early May after witnesses heard a student's screams from a piano room at the Pasadena City College and noted Champ's license plate number as he fled. The entertainer was charged with attempted rape and released on $10,000 bail.
Police departments in at least 4 states are investigating Champ in connection with 4 rapes and 2 attempted rapes in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois and Wisconsin. Source: Associated Press 5/12/97
Pastor Quits After Lewdness Report. King of Kings Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod associate pastor Rev. Donald Reed, 65, resigned after he was cited in mid-May for grabbing an undercover police officer's groin in the men's restroom at Omaha's at Elmwood Park.
No charges have been filed against Reed, who is the 2nd King of Kings pastor to resign after being accused of sexual misconduct. Senior pastor Rev. Bradley Hoefs was convicted 2 years ago of indecent exposure. Source: Omaha World-Herald 5/17/97
Rev. Robert Wilms, 50, pastor of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, reportedly sexually assaulted and endangered the welfare of a child over a 2-year period and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Wilms was investigated last fall when a relative of the girl told police she discovered that the pastor had been purchasing "erotic undergarments" for the teen. Wilms was charged in Oct. '96 and has since resigned from the church. Source: Courier-Post 4/12/97
Priest Charged With Theft Of $300,000. Priest and former headmaster of a prestigious Roman Catholic high school was charged in March with stealing nearly $300,000 in school money. Rev. Dominic A. Scolamiero, 54, was named in an 8-count indictment after an investigation revealed he had embezzled the money from tuition and scholarship funds and school vending machines from 1979-93. He was also accused of stealing more than $75,000 in donations to help disabled students and retired priests and nuns. Scolamiero has not been arrested and attributes the charges to inadequate accounting methods and misinterpretation. Source: New York Times 3/21/97
Rev. Eugene G. Emo, 61, a parish priest and chaplain at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Canandaigua, pleaded guilty to 1 felony count of 1st-degree sexual assault, which carries a penalty of up to 7 years in prison, for molesting a man, 33, at his home in Cohocton last Jan.
At the time of the incident, Emo was on limited duty at Blessed Sacrament Church in Rochester because of prior sexual abuse allegations. Source: Post-Standard 5/7/97
Rabbi Arrested In Bias Crime. The leader of a Hasidic neighborhood patrol group, Rabbi Israel Shemtov, was arrested on charges of reckless endangerment after he drove his car onto a sidewalk to chase a group of West Indian teenagers.
The Rabbi, who had been arrested several times before for clashes with the police, said the teens had thrown a bottle at him and that he had called 911 for help. There was no record of a 911 call and police classified the incident as a possible bias crime because the rabbi was reportedly shouting racial slurs. No one was injured. Source: New York Times 3/27/97
Seminary Group Indicted For Fraud. Five residents of a Hasidic community in New Square and a Brooklyn man were charged May 28 with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and embezzlement for reportedly stealing millions of dollars in government aid by creating phony school programs and businesses to obtain government grants, loans and subsidies to benefit the community and a seminary.
The defendants, all staff members of the Toldos Yakov Yosef Seminary in Brooklyn, face 5-20 years if convicted. Arraignment is scheduled for June 5.
The New Square Hasidic group practices a kind of Judaism that still preserves the Yiddish language. Members reportedly helped enroll thousands of residents in post-secondary educational programs to obtain federal Pell Grants and other financial aid. Most students were enrolled in "independent study" programs that allowed them to study at home. Some received 10 years or more of aid without ever receiving a degree. Source: Associated Press 5/29/97
The women told jurors Privette engaged in unwanted advances, kisses, remarks and touching while they were employed at the church in Cary. Source: Associated Press 5/22/97
Charges were brought against Gershon Freidlin, 60, in Aug. '95 for reportedly removing the boy's clothing to rub him with suntan lotion on 2 occasions, once at his home and another time at another person's home prior to swimming. Freidlin has also been indicted by a grand jury for 2nd-degree assault and the rabbi pleaded guilty in Dec. to endangering the welfare of a child.
In addition to probation, the rabbi must have no contact with the victim or his family, and may not have unsupervised contact with children under 16. Freidlin must also abide by Pennsylvania's terms of Megan's Law, which requires him to register with local law enforcement authorities as a sexual offender. Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 4/1/97
Deacon Faces Rape Charges. House of God Pentecostal Church Deacon Wayne Colson, 45, was ordered to stand trial on charges that he raped a mildly retarded teenage boy.
Colson was charged with rape, statutory sexual assault, and involuntary deviate sexual assault for incidents involving the 14 year old boy last Nov. at the deacon's cleaning office and in Feb. at the church. Court documents indicate the victim's foster brother saw the Feb. incident.
In 1984, Colson was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to assaulting his wife's niece, 13, and another girl, 16. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer 3/24/97
Rev. Normand Godin also testified at the pretrial hearing.
The heart of the controversy is whether or not Superior Court Judge Thomas H. Needham can order civil law to take precedence over canon law and whether a state statute would preclude such testimony.
Desrosiers argues that the statements he gave to Gelineau and Godin are confidential and thus inadmissible under a state law enacted in 1960 entitled "privileged communications to clergymen."
However, a Pennsylvania judge ruled in a civil case that one could not hide behind canon law to escape testifying. And bishops in other states have testified at civil trials and depositions involving sexual abuse by parish priests.
Desrosiers pleaded not guilty to 1 count of rape. The victim, now 40, says the priest plied her with liquor on more than 1 occasion, beginning in 1972, when she was 15, and had sex with her up to 4 times a week in his Cumberland apartment for almost 2 years while serving as assistant pastor of St. Joan of Arc Church.
"He would talk about how. . . I was a gift of God to him," Cynthia Lewis said. "He compared me to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. . .that I was like Mary to him because I was helping him to become a better priest." Source: Providence Journal-Bulletin 3/19/97
Shirley Ann Willis, 43, filed a police report April 10 claiming Deane, 62, hugged, kissed and fondled her breasts in her office. Willis said that when she told him to stop, he replied that her contract would not be renewed.
The Archdiocese of San Antonio exonerated Deane of the charges in late April, finding the complaint to be "without merit." The school board also supported Deane, stating that Willis was let go because of excessive absences and omissions on her resume. Source: San Antonio-Express News 5/25/97
Pastor's Conviction Overturned On Appeal. The conviction of a money-laundering Kansas minister was overturned by an appellate court panel in May, stating that Rev. David Brace was entrapped by federal drug agents.
Brace was sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined $10,000 last year for laundering $250,000 and agreeing to launder $10 million in cocaine profits through his church from federal undercover agents posing as drug traffickers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin, who argued the case, recommended that the government seek a re-hearing before the entire court of appeals instead of a panel. Source: San Antonio Express-News 5/3/97
Scout Leader Given 15-Year Term. A 25-year Boy Scout leader veteran and former Dallas teaching assistant pleaded guilty to 2 charges of aggravated sexual assault and was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison for molesting 2 boys under his supervision during weekend campouts.
Marshall "Benny" Tyre III, 42, was arrested in Nov. when a father reported his son, 11, had been molested. Another boy came forward after Tyre's arrest, stating he had been molested by the scout leader 4 years earlier. Source: San Antonio Express-News 5/4/97
Edwin Guy Wilson, Jr., 60, faces up to 1 year in prison and a $2,500 fine for offensively touching the inmate, 20, kissing him twice on the lips and fondling his buttocks during a March 31 religious counseling session.
The Arlington inmate complained to the county sheriff's Office of Personnel after Wilson, who was working as a volunteer bible study teacher at the jail, assaulted him. Wilson has held weekly bible classes at the jail for 5 years and came to know the victim about 4 months prior to the attack. Source: The Journal 4/21/97
Five of the men filed a civil lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages, against Smith for incidents which reportedly occurred during the 70s when the men worked at Smith's now-closed Chaplain's Pantry restaurant in Tacoma. The 6th victim, who recently joined the suit against Smith, claims the TV host picked him up while hitchhiking in '92 and raped him. No criminal charges have been filed against Smith. Sources: Wisconsin State Journal 5/1/97; The Chronicle 4/30/97
Choir Director Charged With Molestation. Volunteer adult choir director of the Vancouver Baptist Temple in Hazel Dell was charged with sexually molesting several girls, ages 10 and 13, last year during a sleepover at his home and an 11 year old girl in '93.
Scott Leslie Stephens, 31, was held on $100,000 bail at the Clark Co. Jail. An anonymous letter to a child abuse center sparked an investigation and led to Stephens' arrest in May.
Stephens pleaded guilty in 1989 to 1st-degree rape of a child in Cowlitz Co. and was sentenced to 68 months in prison, but was given a reduced sentenced later because it was his first offense. He served only 90 days in prison. Source: Spokesman-Review 5/9/97
Testimony that Mollohan, 46, now admits to making a pass at the teen was used to support the request to reconsider the 2 consecutive 15-to-35-year prison sentences. The request for home confinement came after Mollohan was reportedly assaulted by other inmates at the South Central Regional Jail while waiting to be transferred to the Mount Olive state prison where he is expected to receive treatment for his sex offenses.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King said he would take the home confinement under advisement. Source: The Charleston Gazette 3/21/97
Leroy Shanks, 37, contended the encounter he had with the teen at a Glendale motel was consensual. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing is set for July 8. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 5/15/97
Diocese Charged With Racketeering. The Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee was charged in late March with racketeering in a class-action lawsuit which claims diocese leaders lied to consultants, underwriters and investors when $11.7 million worth of bonds were sold to finance a senior citizen apartment project in Racine.
Prosecutors claim the diocese misrepresented the viability of and repeatedly failed to disclose key failings of the Lake Oaks at Dekoven Project. The suit is an amendment to another suit filed 1 week earlier against B.C. Ziegler & Co., the West Bend underwriter charged with misrepresentation and liability, has already agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle the claim. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 3/28/97
Despite being turned down for early parole for demonstrating "distorted attitudes, beliefs and behaviors regarding sexuality in relation to (your) female victims," a review panel ruled the priest, 68, is not a threat because of his age and health and released him from the Agassiz Mountain Prison at the end of March. The review panel stated in its decision that the cleric be freed because he has appealed his conviction and will have completed his term by the time his appeal would be heard. Source: Vancouver Sun 4/4/97
Scout Leader Arrested In Kidnapping Probe. Former Boy Scout leader Owen Dulmage, 75, was charged in March with kidnapping and forcible confinement.
Complaints from a now 50 year old man who said he was kidnapped and bound by the scout leader 37 years ago led police to dozens of photographs in Dulmage's Ottawa, Ontario home of masked teen boys in bondage, limply hanging by the waist from trees or crouched like terrified animals praying for their lives.
Police hotline tips have increased the number of victims to at least 10 teenagers over 3 decades until the 70s. Additional charges, including sexual assault, are pending.
Former neighbors of Dulmage described him as a grouchy, reclusive lifelong bachelor and misfit. Source: The Beacon Herald (Ontario) 3/27/97
Brendan Smyth, 71, served 4 years in prison for abusing boys and girls in Belfast during a 20-year span. Source: Boston Globe 3/22/97