Sunday, February 08, 2009

Sunday’s Pastor Perp Walk

Pastor pleads guilty to prescription drug charges

Shane Keith West, pastor of the Church of Champions, pleaded guilty to several prescription drug-related charges Thursday in Judge John H. Gasaway's court.

West, 42, who gave a Hopkinsville, Ky., address, was charged with 10 counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and one count of tampering with evidence. West's attorney, Jeff Grimes, negotiated a settlement with Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Lund before West was set to go to trial on Feb. 23.

Former Pastor Facing More charges in Sex Case

More charges have been filed against a former pastor accused of soliciting sex from a teenager online. The Attorney General has filed 66 new charges against Paul Marmon. Marmon is a former pastor for St. James United Church of Christ in Allentown. He was arrested last September for allegedly posing as a teenager and propositioning a teenage girl online.  The new charges were filed after investigators say they found child pornography on Marmon's computer.

Dana Point Youth Pastor Pleads Not Guilty to Sex Charges

A Dana Point man and former youth pastor at Capo Beach Calvary Church on February 4 pleaded not guilty to charges that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl he met at the church, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office. Daniel Pedroza, 28, faces three felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, two felony counts of oral copulation of a minor, one felony count of sexual penetration with a foreign object and one misdemeanor count of child annoyance. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of six years and four months in prison.

Teen testifies about sex abuse

A teenaged girl testified in court Monday that an adult leader at her church rubbed her in a sexual way and took suggestive photographs of her nearly three years ago.

The teen, now 19, said Timothy C. Edmonds, 37, son-in-law of the pastor of the Chesapeake Apostolic Church, sexually abused her several times in the church basement and at a house nearby that he was remodeling.

New charges filed against ex-pastor

A former youth pastor accused of sex crimes has been arraigned on accusations he sharpened a toothbrush for use as a weapon in the Baker County Jail.

Priest accused of stealing $300,000 from church

The Rev. John Regan was pastor of St. Walter Parish in Roselle from June 2006 until last year. He was charged Thursday with theft and money laundering.

An indictment alleges Regan stole parishioner offerings between August 2006 and July 2008. Authorities claim Regan deposited the money into a bank account he used to pay personal credit cards and make ATM withdrawals at riverboat casinos.

Former Troy pastor arrested on sexual assault charge

A former Troy pastor was indicted by a grand jury Thursday, based on accusations that he molested a young boy last summer

The Rev. James K. Gullen, 53, who served many years as pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church, was charged with predatory criminal sexual assault and two counts of criminal sexual abuse. He was in custody at the Madison County jail on $150,000 bond.

Alaska Natives expand sex-abuse suit against Jesuits

Twenty more plaintiffs and a defendant have been added to a lawsuit filed by dozens of Alaska Natives who say they were abused as children and teens by Jesuits or those supervised by Jesuits.

In the original suit, filed last month, 43 Alaska Natives said they had been abused in remote villages in the state. The suit named several defendants, including various Jesuit entities and the head of the worldwide Roman Catholic order.

New charge filed in Canadian polygamy case

Canadian prosecutors have filed a new charge against a pair of polygamist leaders.

An amended criminal information was filed in a British Columbia court on Thursday merging the cases against polygamist leader Winston Blackmore and Fundamentalist LDS Church Bishop Jim Oler into a single case.

"We have added one wife to Oler's charge," special prosecutor Terry Robertson told the Deseret News on Friday. "After the original information was sworn we went back and reviewed our material and thought we had sufficient evidence to justify the new charge."

I am sure there are more, many more in fact. These are just the one’s I noticed this morning.