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.
A Detroit-area Catholic priest was sentenced to 45 days in jail
Wednesday for assaulting a suicidal younger man who wanted counseling,
while a priest in western Michigan pleaded guilty to binding a teenager
with bubble wrap and tape.
The Rev. Patrick Casey was accused of engaging in sex
acts with the man, who was struggling with homosexuality and his faith.
The victim said he “needed a shepherd” but that the priest didn’t help
him in 2013.
“I’m not blaming all my problems on (Casey). I was
messed up before I ever met him,” the man, now in his early 30s, said in
a written statement. “But he could have helped. And he chose not to. He
contributed to it instead. For the next several years I drank heavily
and constantly to cope with the pain and rage I felt.”
Michigan law enforcement officials made
their first arrests in a statewide investigation into Roman Catholic
clergy sexual abuse, the state’s attorney general announced on Friday.
Five
former Catholic priests have been charged with criminal sexual conduct,
Attorney General Dana Nessel said at a news conference. But hundreds,
or even thousands, of alleged victims could still remain across the
state, she said.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “We anticipate many more charges and arrests.”
Father Jacob Vellian, former priest from the Lansing diocese, is being charged with rape of a victim under the age of 16, and continuing his assaults when the victim became an adult. Vellian, 84 years old, is also facing complaints involving sex abuse of nuns in India.
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Father Neil Kalina, formerly of St. Kieran Church in Shelby Township,
was arrested on four counts of criminal sexual conduct involving the
same victim, who was assaulted at the age of 13, and again between the
ages of 13–15. Kalina had gotten in trouble with the law in 1985, at the
age of 30, arrested for supplying minors with cocaine, marijuana and alcohol in his rectory.
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Another Detroit priest, Fr. Patrick Casey, 53, was arrested in Oak Park,
Michigan, for a charge of performing oral sex on the victim during
confession, while acting as the victim's spiritual counselor. He had
formerly been administrator of Divine Savior Parish and pastor of St.
Theodore of Canterbury Parish and St. Damian Parish in Westland.
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Father Timothy Michael Crowley was charged with eight counts of
criminal sexual conduct, including raping a child under the age of 16 as
well as raping another victim older than 16. He was formerly assigned
to St. Thomas in Ann Arbor. The 69-year-old former cleric was arrested
in Tempe, Arizona.
Father Vincent DeLorenzo was arrested and charged with six counts of
criminal sexual conduct. The Lansing diocese said eight people have come
forward accusing him of abuse and that he's in the process of being
laicized. Formerly assigned to Holy Redeemer in Burton,
DeLorenzo resigned in 2002 after an allegation of sex abuse of a
minor. Now 80 years old, he was arrested in Marion County, Florida
Thursday.
A pastor at a local church has been sentenced for failing to report child abuse.
Victor Trevino Sr. was sentenced Thursday to
80 hours of community service for not reporting the abuse allegedly done
by his son.
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Trevino Sr. pleaded guilty in August to the misdemeanor and must also
pay $400 in fines and costs, said Scott Hughes, an Ingham County
Prosecutor’s Office spokesman.
A youth pastor at a church in Lansing has been charged with sexually
assaulting a minor in 2 separate cases. Victor Albert Trevino Jr. has
been arraigned on a total of 15 charges between the two cases.
Trevino is a youth pastor at the Bread House South church.
Prosecutors say he had inappropriate contact with a minor between 13 and
16 years old. They also say Trevino repeatedly tried to convince her to
have sex with him. He's facing 9 charges in the Lansing case.
His father is also charged in this case. Victor
Albert Trevino Senior is facing one misdemeanor count of failure to
report child abuse.
Victor Trevino Junior's other case is
in Ingham County's 55th District Court. He's charged with 5 counts of
2nd Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct involving a victim younger than 13.
An
Oakland County jury deliberated for two full days before convicting
Hurmiz Ishak of one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct,
returning with the verdict Thursday evening.
Ishak’s victim was 14
at the time of the assault, which took place in 2017 and 2018 at St.
Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church, where Ishak has been a member for 21
years.
A Chaldean Catholic church deacon has been bound over to Oakland County Circuit Court for alleged sex crimes against a teen boy.
Hurmiz
Ishak, 65 of Sterling Heights, is charged with three counts of
first-degree criminal sexual conduct - multiple variables for alleged acts at St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church, 2442 E. Big Beaver Rd. in Troy.
Judge
Maureen McGinnis of Troy’s 52-4 District Court advanced the case to the
higher court on Nov. 15. Ishak is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 29 by
Judge Phyllis McMillen.
A 63-year-old deacon has been charged in connection with the sexual assault of a boy at a Catholic church in Troy.
Hurmiz Ishak of Fraser was arraigned Wednesday in Troy District Court on three counts of criminal sexual conduct.
Police
say the boy's parents reported the alleged sexual assaults in October
to a priest at St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in Troy.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel
announced today that Father Brian Stanley, of Coloma, is being charged
with one felony count of false imprisonment. If convicted, Stanley would
face up to 15 years in prison and be required to register as a sex
offender, according to state law.
“Stanley
is accused of secreting away a teenage boy and holding him against his
will in the janitor’s room of St. Margaret’s Church in 2013,” states a
news release issued by Nessel’s office.
The
priest reportedly immobilized the young man by wrapping him tightly in
plastic wrap. He then used masking tape as additional binding to cover
his eyes and mouth, according to the attorney general’s office.
A judge OK'd murder charges for the
parents of a newborn baby who died because they did not seek medical
care on religious grounds.
Judge
James Jamo Thursday gave Ingham County prosecutors permission to file
new charges of murder and child abuse against both Joshua and Rachel
Piland. The couple, whose daughter Abigail died three days after birth,
previously faced manslaughter charges.
“The
defendants could have, from the outset, been charged with open murder
and child abuse,” said Ingham County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Crino.
Prosecutors used their discretion to file the manslaughter charge, Crino
said, but “significant factual changes” have come up through medical
reports and other information.
It's not child neglect to withhold medical care if parents are doing so because of their legitimate religious beliefs, the Michigan Supreme Court said in an order released Thursday.
And that applies even in cases involving child protection, the court said.
The
order is the latest development in a custody case involving Rachel and
Joshua Piland. The Lansing couple is fighting to keep custody of their
two oldest children after their 3-day-old daughter, Abigail, died of
conditions related to jaundice because the Pilands refused to seek
medical care due to their religious beliefs.
A Lansing couple facing involuntary manslaughter charges
after failing to seek medical treatment for their newborn daughter will
go before the Supreme Court Wednesday in an attempt to regain custody
of their two older sons.
The boys
were removed from Rachel and Joshua Piland's custody seven weeks after
Abigail Piland's February 2017 death. Abigail was three days old. She
died from conditions related to jaundice after her parents refused a
midwife's urging to seek medical treatment because of their religious
beliefs.
The Michigan Department of Health and
Human Services petitioned to have the boys removed from the Pilands'
care due to a "concern of threatened harm of physical neglect,"
according to a petition to terminate parental rights.
The
Michigan Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.
about the battle for parental rights in Ingham County.
A Lansing woman refused to seek medical
treatment for her newborn daughter even after a midwife warned that the
infant's jaundice could lead to brain damage or death, a police
detective testified last week in court.
The mother told the midwife her baby was fine, and that "God ... makes no mistakes," the detective said.
Two days later the infant was dead.
The
woman, 30-year-old Rachel Joy Piland, and her husband, 36-year-old
Joshua Barry Piland, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
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"They then brought Abigail upstairs to pray for her.
Joshua continued to massage Abigail, attempting to get her good air.
Both Josh and (Rachel) reached out to friends and fellow church members
to come to their home and pray for Abigail’s resurrection, but never
called the police.”
When police later arrived at
the home they "went upstairs and found a baby that had passed away and
three other people praying for it," Scaccia said.
A local pastor accused of exploiting an elderly person has been charged.
The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of Pastor Raymond Vliet.
Vliet, pastor of Old Beth-el general Baptist Church in
Mt. Morris Township, faces charges of embezzling $20,000 to $50,000 from
a vulnerable adult and committing a financial transaction without
consent.
Father Joseph “Jack” Baker, 57, is on an electronic tether following
his arraignment July 8 in 29th District Court, according to the Wayne
County Jail website. Judge Laura Redmond Mack assigned a $500,000
personal bond at arraignment, which doesn't require bail to be posted.
Baker,
pastor of St. Perpetua Parish in Waterford since 2008, is one of six
metro Detroit priests facing sexual abuse charges as part of an ongoing
investigation by the state’s attorney general’s office. He was arrested
July 8 in Wayne County and is charged with first-degree criminal sexual
conduct - sexual penetration with a person under 13 years old, multiple
variables. Court records list the offense date as Feb. 1, 2004.
Another former Gaylord Grace Baptist
Christian School teacher is facing criminal sexual conduct (CSC) charges
for allegedly abusing a student.
David
Beckner, 51, of West Virginia was arraigned Thursday afternoon in 87th
District Court on eight criminal sexual conduct charges for allegedly
abusing a teen girl in 2006 and 2007 in Otsego County.
Brendan
Curran, Otsego County prosecutor, said the official complaint by
Michigan State Police was filed June 13 for sex offenses committed upon a
teen in Otsego County.
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Beckner joins the growing list of people with ties to Grace Baptist
Church and school who have been convicted or accused of sexually abusing
minors in the last 17 years.
A pastor of a church in northern
Michigan who is facing charges after five men accused him of sexual
assault is heading to trial on charges tied to two of the accusers.
Grand
Traverse County Prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg says Christopher Cox is
scheduled to appear June 28 on charges including first-degree criminal
sexual conduct, methamphetamine possession and child pornography.
A Traverse City pastor was arrested after a Michigan State Police investigation into sex and drug crimes.
Christopher Cox, 41, is the pastor at Long Lake Church in Traverse City, according to the church's website.
According
to investigators, on March 14, a 19-year-old man reported that Cox had
drugged him before sexually assaulting him at his business office in
Garfield Township.
The alleged victim said Cox had contacted him on Facebook and lured him to his office with a promise of crystal meth.
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According to police, there is no current evidence that his work at the
church was involved in these incidents, but investigators believe his
influence as a pastor may have played a role.
To current members of Joshua Media Ministries International, the
Taylor-based organization represents a path to the kingdom of God; a
journey shepherded by a full-fledged prophet.
To former members,
though, the multimillion-dollar church at 20320 Superior Road that
police monitor daily is “a slave labor cult” operating on an unholy
trinity of intimidation, manipulation and greed.
A Catholic priest in Saginaw County has
pleaded no contest to a sexual assault charge and two other charges,
avoiding a second trial scheduled to begin on Tuesday, March 26.
The
Rev. Robert J. “Father Bob” DeLand appeared Tuesday before Saginaw
County Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson and pleaded no contest to three
charges - second-degree criminal sexual conduct, gross indecency between
two males, and manufacturing or distributing an imitation controlled
substance. The most serious charge is second-degree criminal sexual
conduct, which is a 15-year felony.
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This marks the second time DeLand has pleaded no contest in the matter,
having previously done so to all seven charges he faced in September. DeLand withdrew his plea several weeks later.
In an eleventh-hour hearing, Roman Catholic priest the Rev. Robert J.
"Father Bob" DeLand Jr. pleaded no contest to multiple charges that see
him convicted of sexually assaulting several young males.
DeLand, 71, in the late afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 4, appeared
before Saginaw County Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson and pleaded no
contest to all seven charges he faced -- two counts of second-degree
criminal sexual conduct involving injury and single counts of attempted
second-degree criminal sexual conduct, assault with intent to commit
second-degree criminal sexual conduct, gross indecency between males,
selling alcohol to a minor and distributing an imitation controlled
substance.
The charges are divided among five files and involve three victims.
The most serious crime is second-degree criminal sexual conduct, being a
15-year felony. The charge does not involve penetration and is limited
to touching.
A Saginaw-area Catholic priest has been arraigned a second time on sexual assault charges.
The Saginaw News reports that the Rev. Robert DeLand appeared Friday in Saginaw County District Court via video from jail.
The
71-year-old DeLand is charged with second-degree criminal sexual
conduct, assault with intent to commit second-degree criminal sexual
conduct, manufacturing or distributing an imitation controlled substance
and selling or furnishing alcohol to a minor.
A local priest has gone before a judge, accused of multiple sex crimes.
Father
Robert DeLand, Jr., a pastor at St. Agnes Church in Freeland, was
arrested in the late hours of Feb. 25 after months of investigation.
DeLand,
71, was first accused of sexual assault in August of 2017 by a then
21-year-old man who claimed the incident happened at DeLand’s house on
Mallard Cove in Saginaw Township, according to Det. Brian Berg with
the Tittabawassee Township Police Department.
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As a result, the Catholic priest is now banned from Freeland
Community Schools and the CAN Council where he serves as a board
member.
"He had been warned by the courts not to have any contact
with the victims. Whose only words to the court was, 'judge can I
please have the names of the victims,'" Saginaw County Assistant
Prosecuting Attorney Mark Gaertner said.
Gaertner said complaints started to come in on the Catholic priest in August 2017.
The Lighthouse of Deliverance House of Prayer just opened in Monroe
in an old church building on Franklin Street. A man reached out to 7
Action News with concerns that a pastor there, who is a convicted sex
offender, could be a danger to children who attend.
Gerald and Louise McWilliams, who have been married for more than thirty years, are both listed as pastors of the church.
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“It breaks my heart to know she plotted this against us. I have had this in my heart for 20 years,” said Louise McWilliams.
Louise
said she wanted people voicing concerns on social media about her
husband's past to remember that scripture says judge not, lest you be
judged by God.
The couple blamed the victim for what happened and
for WXYZ covering the controversial opening of their church, even when
WXYZ explained the victim did not reach out to us.
A former member of the Church at Carson City accused of spray-painting words like “cult” on property tied to the church has agreed to a plea deal.
Anna Morris
appeared in a Montcalm County Circuit Court Thursday morning where she
pleaded guilty to malicious destruction of a building and malicious
destruction of property. In turn, prosecutors dismissed another count of
malicious destruction of a building.
They
also agreed to drop one of the other charges if Morris completes
probation, which would leave her with only a misdemeanor conviction and
no additional jail time.
Police say Morris and her 14-year-old nephew spray-painted the church building, church van and some homes of church leaders.
A well-known West Michigan pastor and his wife are facing accusations involving sex, money and teenagers.
Reverend
Strick Strickland, 36, is pastor at Kalamazoo’s Second Baptist Church
on North Rose Street. His wife Jazmonique Strickland, 25, was a
paraprofessional at Phoenix High School in Kalamazoo until she resigned
last fall, one day before police executed a search warrant at the
family’s home.
After a four-month investigation by Michigan State
Police, several sources confirmed to Target 8 that detectives found
Strickland had paid teenagers to engage in sexual acts at his family’s
home on Prairie Avenue in Kalamazoo.
That property is owned by Second Baptist Church, where Strickland has been pastor since 2012.
Thirty-five-year-old Kelly Stough was fatally shot in Detroit by former pastor Albert Weathers, the 24th killing of a transgender person in America this year.
Weathers,
46, appeared in court Monday, where his bond was set at $1 million. He
was arraigned on charges of open murder and the use of a firearm in the
commission of a felony.
On
Dec. 7, police say Stough, 36, and Weathers came into contact with
another, though details remain unclear. Stough was found dead the
morning after. Weathers, who was listed a pastor at a nearby church from
1997 to 1999 and rented space in a local church for a small
congregation until his arrest, fled the scene shortly thereafter.
Investigators have yet to reveal a motive or any other details. A source told local
ABC affiliate WXYZ that Weathers fled the scene and clocked into work
before alerting police that he had shot a would-be thief.
In a major blow to the federal
government, a judge in Detroit has declared America's female genital
mutilation law unconstitutional, thereby dismissing the key charges
against two Michigan doctors and six others accused of subjecting at
least nine minor girls to the cutting procedure in the nation's first
FGM case.
The historic case
involves minor girls from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, including
some who cried, screamed and bled during the procedure and one who was
given Valium ground in liquid Tylenol to keep her calm, court records
show.
The judge's ruling also dismissed charges
against three mothers, including two Minnesota women whom prosecutors
said tricked their 7 -year-old daughters into thinking they were coming
to metro Detroit for a girls' weekend, but instead had their genitals
cut at a Livonia clinic as part of a religious procedure.
U.S.
District Judge Bernard Friedman concluded that "as despicable as this
practice may be," Congress did not have the authority to pass the
22-year-old federal law that criminalizes female genital mutilation, and
that FGM is for the states to regulate. FGM is banned worldwide and has
been outlawed in more than 30 countries, though the U.S. statute had
never been tested before this case.
A Catholic priest accused of sexual harassment has been removed from a Fenton church by the Catholic Diocese of Lansing.
According
to the diocese, Rev. Mathew Joseph was removed from his position as
parochial vicar for St. John the Evangelist Parish in Fenton due to
several complaints against him.
One of those complaints included what the diocese called a “credible allegation of sexual harassment of an adult female.”
Joseph is a priest with the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament in Kerala, India.
Following the complaints, he was sent back to his order in India.
A former Baptist missionary doctor from Wyoming accused of molesting
nearly two dozen girls and women in Bangladesh, along with a girl in
Allendale, won't face trial.
An Ottawa County judge ruled that Donn Ketcham, now 87, is incompetent to stand trial because he suffers from dementia.
Prosecutors told 24 Hour News 8 they don't plan to appeal, which means the charge against him will be dismissed.
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Ketcham, who also suffers from Parkinson's disease, was never charged
over the allegations in Bangladesh decades ago, in part because his
missionary group covered up the alleged crimes.
In
his decision filed last week, Ottawa County Circuit Court Judge Jon
Hulsing cited Ketcham's age, the fact he suffers from Parkinson's
disease and his failing memory.
He is "unable to recall his
attorney's name, is unable to identify his medications, is unable to
identify the date, has gotten lost when walking, obsesses over certain
issues, forgets significant events, and becomes agitated," the judge
wrote in his opinion.
A state psychologist testified July 20 that Ketcham was competent to stand trial.
This is an older narrative that fell through the cracks during my recuperation. While many of the cases and lawsuits primarily deal with the RCC, the story of Donn Ketcham highlights that it is not "just" a Catholic problem. Not that I ever believed that it was, as this blog highlights
Donn, the pastor would soon learn, was not really Kim’s uncle. He was
Donn Ketcham, the 58-year-old chief doctor at the mission hospital in
Bangladesh. His father had co-founded the Baptist denomination that
sponsored the missionary group, the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism;
its goal was to create a “militant, missionary-minded, Biblically
separate haven of Fundamentalism.” Little known outside the world of
Christian fundamentalists, ABWE is among the largest missionary groups
in the United States, deploying more than 900 Baptists to 70 countries.
His father’s legacy made Ketcham a sort of prince within the world of
ABWE: the doctor with the “magical name,” as one missionary later put
it, much beloved by the family of churches that supported the group.
He’d been the undisputed patriarch of the Bangladesh mission for almost
three decades.
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Kim’s confusion only grew. “My body likes it,” she thought, “so either
I’m a bad person or it’s OK.” The biblical teachings she’d grown up
with, in a culture that preached abstinence and the sinfulness of sex,
told her it was wrong. But Uncle Donn was a close friend of her parents,
and the holiest man she knew. He wouldn’t do anything that’s not right,
she thought. Ketcham told her God was using him to help her. If she
told her parents, he warned, her entire family would be banished from
the mission, “where God wanted them to be.” Kim was old enough to
understand the implicit threat: By speaking up, she would be ruining
God’s purpose for her family. And the blame would be no one’s but hers.
7 Action News is learning more about sexual misconduct allegations
against a longtime Metro Detroit Catholic Priest, Father Robert
Witkowski.
Archdiocese Spokesman Ned McGrath says these are new allegations that
came into the church earlier this year by more than one person. He
says the church deemed them credible and have turned them over to the
Wayne County Prosecutor.
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In Michigan, there is no statute of limitations on sex crimes that rise
to the level of First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct. McGrath would not
discuss whether these allegations would fit that category.
