Anti-Abortion Leader Arrested on Child Sex Charges
The Chair of Alliance for a Pro-Life Alabama has been charged with sexual abuse of a child less than 12, according to court records.
Cole Wagner, 32, of Montgomery was arrested Wednesday on the charge. He was arrested by the Montgomery County sheriff's department, according to the warrant. His bond was set at $60,000.
A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Wagner on June 30th. The indictment says Wagner subjected another person less than 12 to sexual contact. The charge is a Class B felony, which can carry a sentence of two years to 20 years in prison.
A youth pastor of a Patoka church pleaded guilty Thursday in Fayette County Court to five of ten felony charges stemming from his involvement in a child pornography ring in Vandalia.
Ferrell Kissiar, an assistant pastor at the Pentecostal Church in Patoka, was sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison after various consecutive sentences were handed down in the plea agreement.
He was arrested in 2021 along with a Vandalia husband and wife, Amber and Andrew Wehrle, in connection with the pornography ring and abuse charges. Amber Wehrle was sentenced earlier this year to 13 years in prison while her husband was sentenced to 26 years.
Youth Pastor Gets 5 Years on Child Sex, Porn Charges
Court of King's Bench Justice Kevin Feth accepted a joint sentencing submission from the Crown and defence and sentenced Brad Dahr, 56, to four years in prison for sexual exploitation and one year for making child pornography. According to an agreed statement of facts, the pastor ran a mental health outreach program for young adults and asked a teenage member of the church's congregation in 2017 to co-preach a sermon series with him.
They started exchanging sexual messages and Dahr suggested they switch between messaging platforms to avoid being discovered. Dahr had sex with the girl, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, and they exchanged intimate photos and videos of themselves.
Mormon bishop Shawn Gooden of Palmyra has pleaded guilty to four sexual assault charges involving a child less than 14 years old.
The incidents happened between 1997 and 2000, from the time the victim was 9-years-old until the age of 13. Detectives say Gooden also assaulted another victim from the time the child was 8-years-old until the age of 12. Police in Virginia say these were not random victims, and they were already in Gooden's life prior to the dates of the assaults.
Gooden was a Boy Scouts leader, an LDS church leader, and a lawyer with a Harrisburg law firm.
The executive director of Full Count Ministries is facing child sex crime charges following an investigation by the Hendersonville Police, who said they began investigating 40-year-old Jacob R. Oldham on July 15th.
Oldham was arrested and charged with two counts of soliciting sexual exploitation of a minor, according to Hendersonville Police. According to court records, Oldham is being held on a $5 million bond and remains at the Sumner County Jail. He is set to appear in Sumner County General Sessions Court on August 4th.
Pastor Murdered 8-Year-Old Girl After Kidnap & Attempted Rape
An 83-year-old Marietta pastor has been arrested in the cold case murder of an 8-year-old girl in Pennsylvania. Gretchen Harrington was attending Bible summer camp in 1975 in Marple Township when she vanished while walking from her home to one of the camp's two locations.
Skeletal remains were found at a state park in Edgemont Township on October 14th. The coroner determined she died of blunt impacts to the head, which he classified as a homicide.
At the time, the Bible camp was housed in two churches, including the one where Gretchen's father was a pastor, Reformed Presbyterian Church. David Zandstra was the reverend at the other church, Trinity Church Chapel Christian Reform Church in Marple Township.
Police honed in on Zandstra as a suspect in January, when investigators interviewed an unnamed witness who was best friends with his daughter when Harrington disappeared, according to a criminal complaint. The witness said that she often went to sleepovers at Zandstra's home, and during one about a week before Harrington's disappearance, Zandstra molested her. When the witness told Zandstra's daughter what had happened, she told her friend that Zandstra "does that sometimes," the complaint said.
Investigators contacted Zandstra in June, and spoke with him in Georgia on July 17th. At that interview, police confronted him with the witness’ allegations of sexual assault, and he admitted to the accusations. He later admitted that he had seen Harrington the day she disappeared, and that he was driving a green station wagon at the time.
Zandstra told investigators that he offered Harrington a ride, and took her to a nearby wooded area, according to the complaint. There, he parked the car, and told the girl to remove her clothing, but she refused. Zandstra said he struck her in the head with his fist, causing her to bleed. Believing the girl to be dead, he covered her body with sticks and left the area, the complaint states.
Zandstra has been charged with criminal homicide, murder of the first, second, and third degree, as well as kidnapping of a minor and the possession of an instrument of crime.
A 76-year-old pastor is accused of exposing himself to a nine-year-old girl on July 21st. According to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office arrest report, the victim and her family were at a community pool in Wesley Chapel. As the girl was swimming nearby the suspect, Allen Farabee, had exposed his genitals and placed them in his hand in front of her. The victim explained she saw Farabee touching himself, and that he exposed himself five times.
During the investigation, Farabee was observed through surveillance footage putting goggles on and going underwater, facing the victim. The video showed the suspect going underwater at the same time as the young girl multiple times. According to the affidavit, he was arrested the day prior for similar allegations at the same pool. He later admitted to being an exhibitionist, being excited in the pool, and exposing his genitals multiple times.
A pastor is accused of sex crimes after an incident at the Piedmont Triad Farmer's Market in Colfax on Sandy Ridge Road. Ivan Hugh-McDonald Peden, 71, is charged with taking indecent liberties with children, indecent exposure to a person under 16, sexual battery, and secret peeping. The crimes happened on June 24th and July 14th and Peden was charged on Wednesday. He is accused of trying to get into the stall while the child kept the door closed.
A Catholic priest faces charges of sexual offences involving a youth following an investigation by police. According to the Peterborough Police Service, the investigation led to the arrest of a man on Wednesday.
Neil Pereira, 33, of Peterborough was charged with sexual assault and two counts of sexual interference. Pereira was released from custody and is scheduled to appear in court in Peterborough on August 8th.
Police note sexual interference is when a person, for a sexual purpose, touches, directly or indirectly, with a part of the body or with an object, any part of the body of a person under the age of 16 years.
A Thompson Township pastor was sentenced to two years in prison Friday morning for sexually abusing his daughters. Dennis Laferty plead guilty to two counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of sexual imposition June 22nd.
Laferty, 37, was indicted following an investigation by detectives into allegations of sexual abuse involving minors between November 30th 2019 and January 30th 2020. Laferty is the pastor at the Thompson United Methodist Church.
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
A Madison County councilman who is charged with raping an underage girl in 2020 is being sought by police after he failed to show up for his appointed court date.
According to court records, Republican councilman Steve Sumner, 55, was set to appear in Madison County court on Thursday. After failing to show, the court issued a warrant for Sumner's arrest.
Charging documents accuse Sumner of a litany of charges related to child sex crimes. Online court records show he currently faces 15 felony charges that include child seduction, possession of child pornography, child molestation, and rape.
Sumner also serves as a pastor of the Lighthouse Church in Anderson.
One woman is reflecting on a painful past. Now she hopes justice will be served for the Henning Pastor she says sexually abused her for years. Gary Arivett was arrested and is facing three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a family member under the age of 18. He has since been released after posting a $100,000 dollar bail.
The survivor says Arivett has been a pastor at Shiloh Apostolic Church in Henning for nearly 30 years. For her privacy, she does not want to be named, but says she and her sisters were abused for years. She says the abuse first started for her at age 11, her younger sister was 6 years old.
Kyle Robinson, 30, an associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Indialantic was arrested July 28th on 2 felony counts of child molestation charges. He is currently out on $30,000 bond. Kyle is a graduate of the Christian-based Liberty University with a Bachelor's of Christian Ministry.
Child Protective Services coordinated with West Melbourne Police and conducted a controlled call between the victim and Robinson. He became suspicious that the victim was not alone and asked that he Facetime with him to prove he was alone which the victim refused.
Robinson repeatedly expressed the importance of not telling anyone about the abuse, as it would result in him going to prison for a long time, and that it is in the past so they should just "move on" from it.
Robinson lives in Florida, and is married to a woman
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Jul 23rd, 2023 10:33 PM
