Tag Archives: child rape

The National Catholic Reporter reports: Fr. Armand D. Garcia appeared in a Philadelphia courtroom Oct. 23 to plead guilty to corruption of a minor and unlawful contact with a minor. He will be sentenced in January 2024. The abuse took place while Garcia was a parochial vicar at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Philadelphia from 2014-2017. The priest had …

Click2Houston reports: A Houston-area pastor is facing serious charges after being accused of raping a child and impregnating her, court documents stated. According to an arrest warrant, the rape started when the victim was 7 years old and lasted into her late teen years, happening more than 600 times. With Robert L. Carter now charged with a felony, the alleged …

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 …

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, …

The Guardian reports: A retired Catholic priest from New Orleans who years ago secretly admitted to church leaders that he sexually molested or harassed numerous children is now facing criminal charges. State prosecutors in New Orleans obtained an indictment charging Lawrence Hecker, 91, on Thursday with aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft. The crime allegedly occurred …

The Huntington Herald-Dispatch reports: Years after being starved, beaten and subjected to various forms of torture as children, former students of the now-defunct Miracle Meadows School in Salem will receive a total of $100 million in civil lawsuit settlements. The amount includes settlements from two consolidated cases brought by dozens of former students and their families. A 2017 filing against …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will pay $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that one of its priests sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy in Delaware County nearly two decades ago. Filed in 2020, the lawsuit alleges that Pastor John Close raped the boy at St. Katherine’s of Siena in Wayne in 2006. The plaintiff, whose name …

Indianapolis’s Fox affiliate reports: A former Madison County councilman who is accused of raping an underage girl in 2020 is being sought by police after he failed to show up for his appointed court date. According to court records, former councilman Steve Sumner, 55, was set to appear in Madison County court on Thursday. After failing to show, the court …

City News Service reports: A retired Orange County pastor was sentenced Friday to 186 years to life in prison for sexually abusing two young girls with whom he is related. Jose Andres Lopez, 70, of Mission Viejo, was convicted March 22 of 18 felony sexual assault charges dating as far back as 1991 through 2020. Lopez is a retired Orange …

The Bellingham Herald reports: A Blaine mother of six who is a former teacher and currently a candidate for the local School Board was arrested Friday, June 2, and charged with three counts of child rape, four counts of child sexual assault and drug possession. Tana Perkins Reneau, 51, was arrested by Whatcom County sheriff’s deputies after detectives for the …

The Iowa Messenger reports: It took a Webster County jury just under two and a half hours late Friday afternoon to convict a former Christian missionary of sexual abuse. Jordan Dee Andrew Webb, 30, of Fort Dodge, was found guilty of one count of second-degree sexual abuse with persons under the age of 12, a Class B felony; incest, a …

The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports: A Sarasota pastor was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after he was arrested in July 2019 when the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office received a report that he’d sexually abused a 6-year-old child, according to a news release in the case. Twelfth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Ed Brodsky announced Bicente Velasquez Morales, 47, was convicted …

The Argus Leader reports: Joel Koskan, who ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2022 and days before the election was arrested on charges relating to child abuse, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony incest Tuesday morning. He was sentenced in a Hughes County court room to 10 years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Koskan, 44, originally faced felony …

Via press release from the Archbishop of Baltimore: Today’s report from the Maryland Attorney General is first and foremost a sad and painful reminder of the tremendous harm caused to innocent children and young people by some ministers of the Church. The detailed accounts of abuse are shocking and soul searing. It is difficult for most to imagine that such …

The Salem News reports: The vulnerable teens were steered toward a local United Methodist Church — and into the path of a lay pastor, a man who, though not ordained, had been given a type of license by the church to work as a youth minister. On Thursday, Russell Woodman Davis, 70, pleaded guilty to raping and attempting to rape …

The Macon Telegraph reports: A Macon pastor pleaded guilty Monday to child molestation and other charges related to an incident in which prosecutors said he offered a girl in her early teens — a stranger to him — a ride home from a sporting event at Stratford Academy as part of ruse to sexually assault her. Donald Eugene Williams, 33, …

The Ohio Times-Reporter reports: A 60-year-old man who formerly volunteered with a church youth ministry has received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 20 years for raping and committing other sex offenses against two girls. Tuscarawas County Judge Michael J. Ernest sentenced Jeffrey A. Pringle Thursday on three counts of child rape and four counts of gross …

Denver’s CBS affiliate reports: Denver police and prosecutors are pursuing a rape case against a man who served as the music director at St. John’s School and church in southeast Denver, according to a CBS News Colorado investigation. Diego Marroquin, 36, is facing one charge of sexual assault on a child under the age of 15 by a person in …