Welcome to H&C,,, where I aggregate news of interest. Primary topics include abuse with "the church", LGBTQI+ issues, cults - including anti-vaxxers, and the Dominionist and Theocratic movements. Also of concern is the anti-science movement with interest in those that promote garbage like homeopathy, chiropractic and the like. I am an atheist and anti-theist who believes religious mythos must be die and a strong supporter of SOCAS.
Alisa Andrews, 50, of Rogers faces from six to 30 years in prison if
convicted. She was arraigned Monday before Benton County Circuit Judge
Brad Karren.
Rogers police began an investigation in September after a church
pastor reported a parent told him a home-school teacher was in an
inappropriate relationship with a student, according to a probable cause
affidavit. The student attended a home-school program at the pastor's
church.
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andrews was a teacher through a home-school education association and
director of Stage One Entertainment, which produces an annual community
theater production with child actors, according to court documents.
Former Arkansas State Senator Johnathan Woods was sentenced today to 220
months in prison for organizing and leading a bribery scheme in which
state funds were directed to non-profit entities in exchange for
kickbacks, many of which were funneled through a consultant’s business,
announced U.S. Attorney Duane “DAK” Kees for the Western District of
Arkansas, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division, FBI Special Agent in Charge Diane
Upchurch and IRS Special Agent in Charge Tamera Cantu.
The president of a
Christian college in Springdale pleaded guilty to a fraud charge
Wednesday, admitting he took part in what prosecutors called a kickback
scheme involving his school.
Oren Paris III had faced a trial Monday with former state
Sen. Jon Woods and consultant Randell Shelton. Instead, the president
of Ecclesia College pleaded guilty in federal court.
Prosecutors say Paris paid kickbacks to Woods and
then-Rep. Micah Neal in return for $550,000 in state grants in 2013-14,
using Shelton's consulting firm as a go-between. Neal pleaded guilty
last year but has not been sentenced.
According to KATV content partner KAIT, a Batesville man was arrested Monday on rape charges following two separate incidents in 2009 and 2014.
A
probable cause affidavit states that the Independence County Sheriff’s
Department received a tip from the Arkansas State Police hotline
regarding sexual abuse on April 10, 2019.
According to the
affidavit, the victim told investigators that 29-year-old Thomas Cody
Kramer abused her throughout her childhood, and only stopped when she
started her menstrual cycle.
The victim also told investigators Kramer threatened her often about speaking out about the sexual abuse.
A former Jehovah’s Witness Elder and Headquarters
member is scheduled to stand trial in July after his arrest on four
counts of second-degree felony sexual assault. Roderick G. Watkins, 56,
of Heber Springs Arkansas, was taken into custody following a November
21st 2018 arrest warrant issued by the Cleburne County Circuit Court.
The charges against Watkins stem from allegations of sexual assault
of at least four minor victims, claims which were brought to the
attention of Detective Jenifer Osborn of the Cleburne County Sheriff’s Department.
All of the victims interviewed appear to be connected to Watkins
through the local Arkansas Jehovah’s Witness congregations where he was a
known and respected elder. Reports indicate that the children assaulted
ranged in age from 6 to 16 years at the time of the crimes.
A Pearcy man arrested early Monday for allegedly breaking into
another man's car reportedly told police he was "working for Jesus."
Harley Ray Davis, 40, was taken into custody shortly after 4:30 a.m.
and charged with a felony count of breaking or entering, punishable by
up to six years in prison, and a misdemeanor count of possession of
instruments of crime, punishable by up to one year in jail.
Davis was being held on $3,500 bond and appeared Monday in district court.
According to federal court documents, Timothy Lee Reddin, 67, of
Springdale was arrested on August 3 for trying to meet up with a minor
for sex.
An undercover agent with the Department of Homeland
Security says he was undercover online as a 14-year-old boy when he
began talking to Reddin.
He says Reddin attempted to meet him and perform sexual acts.
A
criminal complaint filed in federal court says Reddin talked about oral
sex with the fictional boy, giving him pointers on having sex for the
first time, and offered to teach him.
In the complaint, the undercover investigator says Reddin sent pictures of naked male genitalia.
According to the Turner Street Baptist Church website, Reddin is currently a pastor there.
On January 8, the Benton County Sheriff's Office was notified of a
possible inappropriate relationship between Stacy Digby and a
17-year-old girl.
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On January 24, detectives went to Digby's parent's house, where they
believed he was hiding his computer. During the conversation, Digby's
mother said he was the worship leader at Highfill United Methodist
Church and was pretty much the second person in charge besides the
actual pastor himself. After obtaining a warrant, detectives seized a
500GB external hard drive from Digby's parent's milk barn.
On January 29, investigators interviewed an ex-girlfriend of Digby's about the case.
The
ex-girlfriend told police Digby confessed to having pictures of the
17-year-old and to having sexual intercourse since she was 12 or 13
years old.
Digby was arrested on Wednesday, March 28, and faces
charges of Sexual Indecency with a Child and Sexual Assault in the First
Degree.
Larry Michael Berkley, the 35-year-old former pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church, was convicted in Tennessee this week of rape and sexual battery involving three children, but it wasn’t immediately clear when he would go to trial on similar charges in Boone County.
Berkley was arrested May 6, 2014, on Harrison Police charges while he was in Covington, Tennessee, where he was living at the time. He had just finished officiating a graveside funeral service when he was arrested, officials said.
Berkley is accused of allowing minors and juveniles go to his house to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. In addition, he is accused of sexually assaulting young males, all over 14 but under 18, and allowing them to watch pornography.
Larry Berkley, the former Harrison pastor facing numerous charges regarding abuse of juveniles, was booked back into the Boone County Jail late Wednesday on those charges.
A Harrison Police daily log of activity shows Boone County authorities contacted the HPD about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday for warrant confirmation on Berkley, 38, for sexual solicitation, four counts of first-degree sexual assault, seven counts of second-degree sexual assault, six counts of knowingly furnishing alcohol to a minor, four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and two counts of loaning pornography to minors.
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Berkley is accused of allowing minors and juveniles go to his house to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. In addition, he is accused of sexually assaulting young males, all over 14 but under 18, and allowing them to watch pornography.
A former Helena-West Helena pastor will spend the next 15 years in prison for raping an underage church member.
Michael
Jenkins was found guilty of rape and sexual grooming. He was the pastor
of Church of the Living God located at 700 E Park Ave, West Helena, AR
72390.
The victim was 15 years old at the time. She said she was at Jenkins' home in July 2016 to play basketball.
A man who works as a van driver for the Decatur Assembly of God has
been accused of raping a young girl several times over the past two
years, according to CBS affiliate KFSM.
On Wednesday, police arrested 30-year-old Ulises Moreno in connection to the rape charges.
The girl, who is younger than 15, told authorities that Moreno raped her so much "that she had lost count of all the instances."
She
said that the most recent attacks happened during March and April.
During the alleged incident in April, Moreno was driving the van where
he molested her while he was still driving. She said he stopped the van
to rape her.
Moreno has denied touching the girl "inappropriately" and claimed he didn't know why she would say that.
Police said Wednesday that four people have accused a Little Rock doctor and church mentor of sexual assault.
James Nesmith, 53, was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with one
count of second-degree sexual assault, according to a police report.
Lt. Michael Ford, a Little Rock police spokesman, said Wednesday that
a church pastor had reported allegations against Nesmith to the Child
Abuse Hotline in 2015. According to Ford, the pastor reported that four
people said they were sexually assaulted by Nesmith.
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Court records show that the Rev. Tim Reed at Covenant Presbyterian
Church reported in December 2015 that he had become aware of
"allegations of sexual abuse against a mentor within their church." The
affidavit said the minister reported the allegations to the Child Abuse
Hotline.
According to an affidavit, Reed reported that "several teens within their congregation" had said Nesmith touched their genitals.
A Texarkana pastor was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday
morning for sexually abusing two teen girls who were members of youth
ministry groups he led at several local churches.
David Wayne Farren, 42, appeared with Texarkana attorney Jason Horton
for a plea and sentencing hearing before Miller County Circuit Judge
Carlton Jones. Farren pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree
sexual assault, one count of second-degree sexual abuse and a
misdemeanor count of violating mandatory reporting requirements. Farren
pleaded no-contest to one count of second-degree sexual assault as well.
An Arkansas man who worked as a volunteer jail chaplain was arrested
Monday on charges including rape and sexual indecency with a child.
On May 16, investigators with Arkansas State Police informed the
Marion County sheriff's office they had received a tip about possible
sexual misconduct by 46-year-old Scotty Scaggs of Summit, according to a
news release.
Scaggs, who became a volunteer jail chaplain in May 2016, was
suspended from his Marion County jail job pending the investigation, the
release from the sheriff's office said.
Erica Suskie, 44, was then
sentenced in Pulaski County Circuit Court Thursday morning to one year
of probation. She was also ordered to register as a sex offender and pay
a $2,500 fine. The judge also instructed her not to discuss the case
with the media.
In pleading guilty to indecent exposure, Suskie
admitted to exposing her breast to the victim in the case. She was also
ordered to undergo counseling throughout her probation period.
Suskie
had turned herself in back in February to face original charges of
sexual assault and entered a plea of not guilty in North Little Rock
District Court before the case was transferred to Pulaski County Circuit
Court.
A former Sherwood pastor was arrested in connection with a child porn case, police say.
David
G. Reynolds, 40, was arrested on Tuesday and faces 70 counts of
distributing, possessing or viewing of matter depicting sexually
explicit conduct involving a child.
In January, the Sherwood
Police Department received a tip from the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children that an Internet account in Sherwood had accessed
an online social media account with multiple images of child porn
stored in it.
A subsequent investigation by detectives led to the former pastor, authorities said.
There
is no evidence to indicate any local victims are among the sexually
explicit photographs found in the social media account, according to the
Sherwood Police Department.
And once again I'm going to be the asshole. WTF was this guy thinking? A video, stored on a cloud-drive?
But this incident does bring up an interesting issue concerning hate-crime.
A gay teacher at a high school in a suburb of Little Rock,
Ark., was fired from his job in October after an unidentified computer
hacker gained access to a video of him and an adult male partner having
sex and posted the video file on his school’s website, where it was
viewed by students.
Brian Cody Bray, 29, said he was “mortified” when a
co-worker at the school informed him by phone on Sept. 29 while he was
home on sick leave that the video had been posted on his faculty page on
the website of Maumelle Charter High School in Maumelle, Ark.
“Pretty much immediately after that phone call I went to
the bathroom and threw up,” Bray told the Washington Blade. “I was just
in shock that oh my God, this is something that will impact my career,
impact my life and what am I going to do?”
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Arkansas doesn’t have a state hate crimes law, preventing
the case from being prosecuted as a hate crime if a suspect is
eventually identified and arrested. Under Arkansas’s criminal code, the
type of computer hacking committed by the suspect against Bray is
considered a felony offense.
Jason Marsden is executive director of the Denver-based
Matthew Shepard Foundation, which advocates for adopting and
strengthening state hate crime laws. He said nearly all state hate crime
statutes, including D.C.’s, along with the federal Matthew
Shepard-James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, limit their coverage
to violent hate crimes.
He is not aware of any such law that would treat a
so-called cybercrime like the one committed against Bray as a hate
crime, Marsden said.
“He’s had his life trashed by some bigot criminal,”
Marsden said. “But we don’t have laws at the federal level or in the
state of Arkansas that address those exact circumstances.”
A teacher at Life Way Christian School was arrested Saturday in
connection with sexually assaulting a student, according to court
documents.
Richard Thomas Riley, 34, of Centerton was arrested on charges of
sexual assault in the first degree, a Class A felony, and distributing,
possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct
involving a child, a Class C felony.
Riley's bond was set at $50,000.
Life Way Christian School fired Riley on Saturday, according to administrator Luke Bowers.
A young man got his church membership revoked, after revealing he is
gay. Dylan Settles said he once called Woods Chapel General Baptist
Church in Brookand (Craighead County) home, but not anymore.
"I'm a little hurt by it, but I know how they feel," said Settles.
Settles said over the weekend, he got an unexpected letter from his church.
"What I thought was probably a letter probably trying to invite me to come," said Settles.
He has been a member of the church the last 6 years, but said in the past five months has had a spotty attendance.
"And
they probably sent me a letter saying, ' hey we missed you' or 'we want
to come to this fall festival that we're having'," said Settles.
But
taking a closer look at the letter, he realized it was just the
opposite. The letter revealed the church board had voted to take away
his membership because he is gay.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has signed into law a bill instructing the state to erect a privately funded Ten Commandments monument on the State Capitol grounds in Little Rock.
Senate Bill 939 was introduced by Sen. Jason Rapert,
R-Bigelow, on March 9 and zipped through the Republican-dominated
Legislature in about three weeks. The Senate voted 27-3 to approve it on
March 25 and the House voted 72-7 to send it to the governor on April
1.
The measure requires the secretary of state to permit and arrange for
the monument to be designed, constructed and paid for by private
entities at no expense to the state. Similar monuments have been
constructed in Oklahoma and Texas.
should be of no surprise.
The Arkansas secretary of state’s office has denied a request from the Universal Society of Hinduism to place a privately funded Hindu statue on Capitol grounds.
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A
rejection letter, dated Aug. 17, told the group to either apply through
the General Assembly for permission or to submit an application to the
Arkansas State Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission, which has
jurisdiction over such requests. Kelly Boyd, the chief deputy secretary
of state, wrote in the letter that the office was involved in the
process for the Ten Commandments statue only because the legislature had
mandated its placement on the property.
As Gershman notes, the Arkansas legislature and Governor knew they were on shaky legal grounds, but proceeded anyway.
The legislation authorizes the state attorney general to “prepare or
present a legal defense of the monument” should the legality or
constitutionality of the monument be challenged in court. The attorney
general, the bill says, may also ask a conservative legal foundation,
the Liberty Institute, to defend the monument in court.
,,, The high court in 2005 issued a split verdict on
the matter with a pair of decisions, holding that public displays of
the commandments are not inherently unconstitutional but can be if they
include content viewed as endorsing religion.
In one ruling that year, [Van Orden v. Perry, 2005] the court held that a decades-old, privately donated monument could remain on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol. In another,
[MCCREARY COUNTY V. AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIESUNION OF KY, 2005] it concluded that framed displays in two Kentucky courthouses violated
the First Amendment because officials put them there for religious
reasons.
Here’s where things really get messy. In a pair of cases decided the same day
in 2005, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a Ten
Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas state capitol and
struck down two displays inside courthouses in Kentucky that also
featured the Decalogue. The swing vote in both cases was Justice Stephen
Breyer, who in a cryptic opinion seemed to say that the Texas monument
was old and big and the Kentucky displays were new and easily removable.
Arkansas
legislators are probably hoping that their new Ten Commandments
monument will be upheld because Texas’s old one was. Their lawyers will
argue in court that the monument doesn’t endorse religion, just
acknowledges the place of Judeo-Christian tradition in Arkansas and U.S.
history. Or they might say that most Arkansans consider the Ten
Commandments central to their lives.
Rejecting the Hanuman statue
makes their case harder. It’s pretty clear that the Arkansas Legislature
wants to endorse Christianity and doesn’t want to endorse Hinduism.
Conversely,
if the Hanuman statue had been accepted, the courts would have been
more likely to uphold the Ten Commandments monument. Then it would
appear that Arkansas was aiming to allow a diverse range of cultural and
religious traditions to be represented on the state capitol’s grounds.
The
upshot is that, if religious people want to express their values
symbolically under the current legal regime, they probably need to
embrace religious diversity. If they don’t like that option, they can
choose to keep their religion private.
