Religion

Des Moines’ CBS affiliate reports: A former Cambridge pastor accused of drugging and sexually abusing a child appeared at the Story County Courthouse Monday morning for a plea hearing and sentencing. Prosecutors say Mark Benson, 69, gave a young girl medicine to make her sleep, then sexually assaulted her several times between 2009 and 2012, when she was between 10 …

Charlotte’s ABC affiliate reports: A former church youth leader in South Carolina who was arrested last year for multiple sex crimes against children has been arrested again after another victim spoke out to investigators. William Pinckney Carpenter III was arrested on Monday for criminal sexual conduct with a minor. Last year, Carpenter was arrested for multiple counts of assault with …

Jackson’s NBC affiliate reports: A former longtime music teacher and preacher from Rankin County has been convicted of a sex crime. District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced Thursday that Samuel Lamar Taylor, 52, was convicted of one count of sexual battery and one count of gratification of lust. On August 23, 2022, the Richland Police Department received a call from Richland …

The Austin Statesman reports: A former Round Rock pastor was sentenced to 70 months in prison and 10 years probation for an enhanced charge of possession of child pornography, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas. David Lloyd Walther, 57, was a pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock when …

Coffeyville’s KGGS reports: William Keith Dodd, the former pastor of Lewark Church of God, has been charged with two counts of rape of a minor. His first appearance in Montgomery County Court was Friday. Court documents say Dodd allegedly raped a 12 or 13 year old two times between January 1st and September 11th of this year. He was arrested …

Murfreesboro’s WGNS reports: An evangelist who calls the Blackman area home is facing a slew of charges that revolve around the rape of a child. Benjamin Garlick was taken into custody under a sealed indictment that was handed down by a Rutherford County Grand Jury. Prior to Garlick’s arrest, he led church services in Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama and Arkansas, …

The Everett Herald reports: A former youth pastor convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl at his Arlington church was sentenced Tuesday to 14 months in prison. Following a brief bench trial in April, a judge found Kendal Kippen, 27, guilty of third-degree rape of a child Tuesday. In 2017 and 2018, the Stanwood man worked at Jake’s House Church, …

From the Justice Department: Jason R. Moore, 43, of Milton, Florida, was sentenced to sixty years in federal prison after previously pleading guilty to two counts of “Illicit Sexual Conduct in Foreign Places.” The sentence was announced by Jason R. Coody, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida. Moore engaged in “Illicit Sexual Conduct in Foreign Places” from …

The Hill reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) defended former President Trump’s policy on Russia on Sunday, after praise from Russian President Vladimir Putin spurred criticism from others in the GOP. “The idea that Trump is some type of lackey for Putin — that’s just false,” DeSantis said told Howard Kurtz on Fox News’ “MediaBuzz”. “He had a very, very …

The New York Times reports: A letter found among the private papers of Pope Pius XII suggests that the Holy See was told in 1942 that up to 6,000 people, “above all Poles and Jews,” were being killed in furnaces every day at Belzec, a Nazi death camp in Poland. Though news of the atrocities being perpetrated by Hitler was …

Gulfport’s Fox affiliate reports: A worship leader from Saucier has arrested on federal charges of producing child pornography. 33-year-old Tyler Selby appeared in U.S. District Court in Gulfport on Tuesday before Judge Robert Myers for an initial hearing. Selby was identified by the National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom as a person who produced child porn. Selby was identified …

Los Angeles’s ABC affiliate reports: A priest with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has been charged with possession of child pornography, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office. Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara, 38, of Long Beach, allegedly possessed more than 600 images of child sexual abuse material, including pictures and videos of minors under 12, officials said. Martinez-Guevara is a member …

Gainesville’s CW affiliate reports: The Marion County County Sheriff’s Office arrested a pastor after two underage girls described the sexual abuse they endured at his hands. Sheriff’s deputies arrested Derrell Redding, 54, of Ocala, on Wednesday after two girls gave detailed reports at the Kimberly Center of the many instances of abuse they faced. Redding is charged with two counts …

Patch California reports: A Banning church faculty member was behind bars Wednesday on suspicion of inappropriate acts with a child, police announced. Nicholas Garrett Corl, 26, was being held in lieu of $1 million bail at Banning’s Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility. He was booked on suspicion of felony lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of …

Buffalo’s CBS affiliate reports: An East Aurora man who worked as a youth pastor has admitted to a child porn charge following a 2019 incident at Darien Lake. In July of that year, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York’s office says Nathan Rogers, 39, set up iPhones in his camper to secretly record a minor changing …

Michigan’s WTVB radio station reports: Coldwater man has been charged with two counts of fourth degree criminal sexual conduct by Branch County Prosecuting Attorney Zach Stempien as the result of alleged sexual contact with a minor female on or about September 1, 2017. 30-year-old Daniel McFeters was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday in Branch County District Court. McFeters was …

Fox News reports: An Alabama math teacher at a private Christian school is accused of having sex with two teenage boys who had both been her students, according to an arrest warrant obtained by Fox News Digital. Chrystal Frost, 35, a married mother of three, resigned last month from Crenshaw Christian Academy, known as Home of the Cougars for its …

Mount Vernon, Illinois station WMIX reports: A 28-year-old former pastor and athletic director pleaded guilty Monday in Jefferson County Court to one of two felony charges of child grooming. Garrett Biggerstaff, who was a pastor at the time for Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Fairfield, was arrested in January in two separate cases accusing him of child grooming. The …

Tampa’s CBS affiliate reports: A Polk County man who spent much of his professional and church life working with children was arrested in November 2020 after investigators found more than 700 pictures and videos of child porn on his phone, the sheriff’s office reported. Shawn Fitzgerald, 49, — a former Lakeland High School teacher, soccer coach and youth minister — …

Columbia’s CBS affiliate reports: Authorities say a former Sumter County church deacon has been arrested after allegedly sharing an obscene photograph with a church youth group member. The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said 77-year-old Maxell Navar Bohn II of Sumter was charged with disseminating obscene material to a person under 18. The charge stems from an incident that the victim’s …