Crime

Chattanooga’s NBC affiliate reports: A Cleveland pastor has plead guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor after investigators uncovered child sexual abuse material on his laptop. In the summer of 2023, the Cleveland Police Department (CLPD) received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. At the time, Sentell was the senior pastor at Cornerstone Church of …

Milwaukee’s Fox affiliate reports: A Racine County day care worker – a woman parents trusted with their children – has been fired after she was arrested Tuesday in a child pornography investigation. On Tuesday, investigators executed a search warrant at 30-year-old Crystal Lachman’s home in Union Grove. The Racine County Sheriff’s Office said she admitted to sending and receiving child …

Grand Rapids’ ABC affiliate reports: A Muskegon County church leader, who attorneys say held a “secret obsession” with child pornography, learned how long he’ll spend in jail. Daniel Byron DeVries of Fruitport Township was sentenced to 4 to 10 years in prison Wednesday. DeVries was arrested back in March. He originally faced six felony counts, but pleaded guilty to two: …

Los Angeles’s CBS affiliate reports: A former school counselor in Riverside was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Wednesday for possessing child sexual abuse material, placing a hidden camera inside a school bathroom to film students, prosecutors said. Matthew Daniel Johnson admitted to law enforcement officials that he had hid a pen-shaped recording device in a toilet paper holder …

Boise’s ABC affiliate reports: A co-owner of a Boise mental health clinic serving children and teens, who previously ran for the Idaho State Legislature as a Republican, was arrested Wednesday on multiple felony charges involving alleged sexual abuse of minors. Ryan D. Jenks, 45, was charged with three felony counts: lewd conduct with a child under 16 and two counts of …

The Associated Press reports: Argentine lawyers filed fraud charges against President Javier Milei in criminal court on Sunday for promoting a cryptocurrency on his social media, one of the lawyers told The Associated Press. On Friday, Milei posted on X about $LIBRA, a coin that he said was aimed at “encouraging economic growth by funding small businesses and startups.” He …

Miami’s NBC affiliate reports: A man accused of shooting two people in Miami Beach was arrested on Sunday, police said. Mordechai Brafman, 27, was charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder. Police said on Saturday, surveillance video in the 4800 block of Pine Tree captured Brafman’s car going southbound on Pine Road and then making a U-turn at 48th …

The Associated Press reports: New York State Police charged five people Friday in the murder of a missing man who authorities said died following repeated acts of violence and torture for more than a month by multiple individuals who later discarded his body in a field. The victim, Sam Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man originally from Minnesota, was reported missing …

Houston’s ABC affiliate reports: Forty-two year-old Lance Hoffpauir was arrested right near his home, and he was accused of sending x-rated messages to an undercover officer, who he thought was an underage girl. “He was asking for pictures, sending a bunch of different things, and asking a bunch of different stuff we met the elements to charge him with online …

The Tupelo Daily Journal reports: A former east Tupelo youth pastor will spend the next decade in prison after admitting in court that he had sex multiple times with a 16-year-old church member. Alexander Ryan Blackwelder, 28, was the youth pastor at East Main Street Church of Christ in early 2023 when authorities received a tip that he was having …

NBC News reports: An 18-year-old Indiana student has been accused of plotting a mass shooting at school on Valentine’s Day, a plan he allegedly wrote was inspired by the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people. Jamie Shockley has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, intimidation: threat to commit terrorism, and conspiracy intimidation, according to Morgan …

The New York Post reports: Manhattan federal prosecutors were prepared to bring a new bombshell indictment charging Mayor Eric Adams with destroying evidence and telling people to lie to the FBI, a letter obtained by The Post reveals. The letter sent by Danielle Sassoon, who resigned from her post Thursday rather than obey an order from President Trump’s Justice Department …

Charlotte’s Queen City News reports: A former Caldwell County pastor was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday after being convicted for possessing child pornography. According to court documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in April 2023, law enforcement identified a Dropbox account belonging to 53-year-old Ashley Crouse, then a pastor at a church in Caldwell County, had videos containing child …

Montgomery’s ABC affiliate reports: A former Troy church volunteer accused of possessing child porn has reportedly taken his own life. Samuel McCall was arrested on Wednesday, January 29, and charged with one count Possession of Child Pornography with Intent to Disseminate. He was released from the Pike County Jail on a $25,000 bond. According to Pike County Sheriff Russell Thomas, …

From Maryland’s Montgomery County prosecutors: Today, in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, MD, before the Honorable Margaret Schweitzer, the defendant Ervin Alfaro-Lopez, 34, of Germantown, pleaded guilty to one count of sex abuse of a minor and three counts of third-degree sex offense. Alfaro-Lopez faces up to 55 years in prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 28, …

Memphis’s CBS affiliate reports: An Arkansas priest who was arrested and charged with abusing cats has been suspended by his diocese. Charles Thessing, 63, priest at St. Michael Church in West Memphis, was charged Tuesday with two counts of aggravated animal cruelty. He is accused of trapping and drowning cats. Late Wednesday, the Diocese of Little Rock sent out a …

The Myrtle Beach Sun News reports: North Myrtle Beach Police arrested a Virginia man after they found “voluminous amounts” of child porn on his cell phone. The man appears to be a former pastor at a Virginia Baptist church. Chadwick Branch, 55, was arrested for two counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor on Feb. 11. Branch seems to …

Philadelphia’s PBS affiliate reports: Since July, a tall, lanky man named Justin Lee Smith has headed the small private St. Anne’s Episcopal School in Delaware. But during that time, state police say in court records, Smith has also used several aliases online, among them “agoodtimejobud” and “anythinggoesbud.” Using those screen names with his account on the file-sharing app known as …

Kansas City’s NBC affiliate reports: A former Shawnee, Kansas, children’s pastor who attacked his family and set their house on fire to hide financial problems has pleaded guilty in connection with the incident. Matthew Lee Richards was charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated arson with risk of bodily harm after the Sept. 16, 2023, …

Memphis’s CBS affiliate reports: A priest at a church in West Memphis, Arkansas has been arrested in connection with a case involving two cats who police say appeared to have been drowned, city officials said Tuesday. Charles Thessing, 63, is listed in the Crittenden County jail log, charged with two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals. On Feb. 7, West …