Crime

Southern Illinois Now reports: A 39-year-old Centralia minister has been charged in Marion County Court with four counts of child pornography. Ian Maphet of Edgewood Lane was taken into custody by Centralia Police at the Calumet Street Christian Church on Wednesday where he is Worship Minister. In a Facebook post, the church says after hearing the evidence from Illinois State …

Via press release from GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer: Earlier this evening, our 42-year-old son Ian was involved in a police chase which resulted in an accident that killed an officer. Ian suffers from serious mental disorders which manifest in severe paranoia and hallucinations. Kris [Cramer’s wife] was with Ian when he insisted on going to his brother Ike. Ike died …

Kansas City’s ABC affiliate reports: An Independence pastor is facing child molestation charges. Court documents state that multiple people under the age of 18 accused Virgil Marsh of sexually assaulting them between 2011 and 2018. Marsh, 71, is now in the Jackson County jail. He was charged with two counts of first-degree of child molestation and first-degree statutory sodomy. A …

Pittsburgh’s ABC affiliate reports: A Butler County pastor is in jail Wednesday evening after engaging in what state police are calling inappropriate sexual contact with two minors. Herman Clarence Rushing, Jr., 67, of Portersville Borough, is facing charges of corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of children and indecent assault. Rushing is in the Butler County Prison as of Wednesday …

Click Orlando reports: A resident from The Villages was found guilty of charges related to voter fraud in the 2020 election on Monday. Robert Rivernider Jr., 58, is accused of signing his father’s name to a vote-by-mail ballot. According to Sumter County Elections Supervisor Bill Keen, Rivernider’s father died on Oct. 19, 2020. He had a ballot dated and signed …

Fort Wayne’s ABC affiliate reports: A 25-year-old man is facing charges after court documents say he had inappropriate contact with a minor while he was serving as a pastor at a Markle church. Court records show Zachary Luke Petree was charged with child seduction while having a professional relationship with the child, dissemination of matter harmful to minors, and sexual …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Just over a year after former New Jersey governor and presidential candidate Chris Christie’s niece, Shannon Epstein, was kicked off a flight at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and accused of drunkenly biting, kicking and spitting on deputies who tried to arrest her, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney Office formally filed charges against her …

The CBC reports: A Roman Catholic priest on P.E.I. has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of sexual exploitation of a teenage boy in the 1990s. Maurice Joseph Praught, 70, entered the plea in a Charlottetown courtroom Tuesday morning. He was arrested in 2022 following a joint investigation by Summerside police and the …

Patch New Hampshire reports: Police in Nashua have confirmed statements made by a local church that one of its pastors was under investigation for child sexual abuse allegations before taking his own life. Jarrett Booker, 37, the pastor of students and worship at Nashua Baptist Church, took his own life on Nov. 27, according to the church. In a note …

South Carolina’s The State reports: A former Midlands pastor has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for criminal sexual conduct involving children, according to court records and the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. William “Bill” Oswald, 61, of Prosperity, was sentenced to two consecutive 20-year prison terms by state Judge Eugene “Bubba” Griffith after a weeklong trial in Richland County …

NBC New York reports: At least four gold bars found in the FBI search of Sen. Robert Menendez’s home had been directly linked to a New Jersey businessman now accused of bribing the state’s senior senator, Bergen County prosecutor records from a 2013 robbery case show. The businessman, Fred Daibes, reported to police he was the victim of an armed …

TechCrunch reports: 23andMe spokesperson Katie Watson confirmed that hackers accessed the personal information of about 5.5 million people who opted-in to 23andMe’s DNA Relatives feature, which allows customers to automatically share some of their data with others. The stolen data included the person’s name, birth year, relationship labels, the percentage of DNA shared with relatives, ancestry reports and self-reported location. …

San Francisco’s NBC affiliate reports: An East Bay pastor is under arrest accused of sex crimes with an underage member of his church and police believe there may be more victims. Pastor Victor Hernandez Pineda is known for his passionate sermons by those who attend Iglesia Pentecostal Movimiento de Gloria, a Spanish-language Christian church in Richmond. “We’ve always loved our …

The Associated Press reports: An incarcerated former gang member and FBI informant was charged Friday with attempted murder in the stabbing last week of ex-Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin at a federal prison in Arizona. John Turscak stabbed Chauvin 22 times at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson and said he would’ve killed Chauvin had correctional officers not responded so …

ABC News reports: Former U.S. Olympic swimmer Klete Keller was sentenced to 36 months of probation and six months home detention for his role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Keller will have to do 10 hours of community service every month and pay $2,000 to the Architect of the Capitol as well as $100 court fees. Judge Richard …

NBC News reports: The justices, in their regular private meeting to discuss which new cases to take up, are scheduled to consider three different appeals brought by defendants Joseph Fischer, Edward Lang and Garret Miller. The three men are seeking to dismiss a charge accusing them of obstructing an official proceeding, namely the certification by Congress of President Joe Biden’s …

From the Justice Department: An Orange County man pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for firebombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in March 2022 and admitted to plotting other attacks. Chance Brannon, 24, of San Juan Capistrano, who was an active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton at the time of the offense, also admitted to making plans for additional attacks …

NBC News reports: A Donald Trump supporter who bashed in a Capitol window, assaulted police officers with pepper spray and urged the mob to “pull the cops out” during the brutal battle at the lower west tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021, is asking a judge to grant him early release, saying he was “manipulated” by the former president and Fox …

The Washington Post reports: Kenneth Chesebro, one of former president Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia election-interference case, plans to meet with investigators in Arizona and Nevada, where similar probes are underway. Chesebro, who pleaded guilty in the Georgia case to a single felony count of participating in a conspiracy to file false documents, had been charged primarily in relation …

Flagler Live reports: Alphonso Joseph, the 50-year-old Palm Coast resident and former pastor at several Bunnell churches, was sentenced this afternoon to five years in prison followed by 10 years on sex-offender probation after pleading guilty to having sex with an underage boy. Joseph will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life, and will have …