Pastor facing possible deportation prepares for court, will seek pardon

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (ABP) -- A Hispanic Baptist pastor arrested last summer by immigration authorities won't find out until September whether he will be deported for a crime committed in 1995.
Hector Villanueva, pastor of Bautista la Rocha in Siler City, N.C., accepted Christ while serving 16 months in prison and decided to turn his life around and become a pastor. Now married with children, he started his current congregation with help from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina in August 2010.

Hector Villanueva has lived in the. U.S. 38 of his 41 years. His wife of 12 years, Martha, moved here when she was 2. They have four children and are hoping to adopt two more.

After just three services in the new church, Villanueva was arrested Aug. 19 by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He was jailed in Raleigh and then Alamance County in North Carolina and then moved to Gainesville, Ga., while his family desperately tried to keep track of his movements over a two-week period.
Released from custody on $15,000 bail that was covered by the North Carolina CBF, Villanueva and his family now await a September hearing to find out if a court will decide to deport him to Mexico. Villanueva is also preparing a request for a pardon from North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue.
Villanueva has permanent-resident status in the U.S. That gives him every right of a citizen except to vote. His arrest came after he applied for citizenship and a background check surfaced a 1995 felony. That placed him under a law that mandates deportation for immigrants convicted of a felony, even though it wasn't passed until three years after Villanueva had committed the crime and had already served his punishment.
http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/6260/53/

Pastor charged with sexual battery

BENSON, NC (WTVD) -- Benson Police Chief Kenneth Edwards said Monday that a church pastor is accused of sex offenses against a nursing home resident with diminished mental capacity.

Benson is about 30 miles south of Raleigh in Johnston County.
Seventy-four-year-old Paul Burke Johnson, the minister of Calvary Baptist Church in Dunn, is charged with four counts of misdemeanor sexual battery.
The alleged incidents took place at Liberty Commons Nursing Center, located at 2315 NC Highway 242 North in Benson.
According to Chief Edwards, Johnson had been visiting with residents of Liberty Commons for about 12 months. Johnson is accused of meeting and having repeated inappropriate sexual contact with a 64-year-old resident who suffers from diminished mental capacity. Edwards said the sexual conduct did not include intercourse, or any other act that would constitute a felony charge.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=8038370

Birmingham paedophile priest accused by three new victims

THREE new victims claim they were abused by a pervert priest who was allowed to flee to America by the Catholic Church.

And the Sunday Mercury can today reveal how Father James Robinson, 73, was helped to leave the country when allegations were first made against him in the 1980s.
Church officials played down alleged abuse to US counterparts to facilitate his move abroad – describing the first victim’s claim that the priest had repeatedly raped him as “an unfortunate relationship”.

Anna Wheeler, a senior prosecutor with West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service’s Complex Casework Unit, finally extradited Robinson back to Britain to face justice.
The pervert was jailed for 21 years at Birmingham Crown Court last October after being found guilty of multiple sex offences against six boys as young as 10.
http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2011/03/27/birmingham-paedophile-priest-accused-by-three-new-victims-66331-28409313/

Wisconsin church members are accused of child abuse

Members of a small Wisconsin church took the "spare the rod, spoil the child" philosophy way too far, authorities say. Now they face child-abuse allegations for using actual wooden rods, dowels and spoons on the bare buttocks of children as young as 2 months old.

'Pain is a good way to teach'

Authorities began to investigate the church in November, according to the complaint. Authorities say Philip expressed his belief the Bible dictates the use of a rod to punish children. He stated children only a few months old are "worthy" of the rod and that by 1 1/2 months, a child is old enough to be spanked.
According to church members, Philip would instruct parents on how to use rods to spank children's buttocks. He stated he "likes the immediacy of spanking" and "pain is a good way to teach children." The complaint also states Philip said: "If you spank early and it is done right, then kids will be happy and obedient."
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/118691089.html

Local Pastor Accused Of Paying Prostitute

MIAMISBURG, Ohio -- Police said they followed a man who was suspected of picking up a prostitute, and it turned out that he is pastor in the area.

Officers arrived the pastor, John Naylor, on misdemeanor charges, and the man then told police that he had done this kind of thing before.

Naylor is the pastor of visitation and senior adults at the First Church of God in Miamisburg. He told officers that he had just been with a patient at a local hospital when he decided to go "cruising."

Police said Naylor went out around 7 p.m. Tuesday night. They said officers saw Naylor pick up a woman on East Third Street and then take her to a vacant house on King Street.

Reports said Naylor admitted to giving the woman $20 for oral sex. He also told police that he has done this "three or four times before."
http://www.whiotv.com/news/27293804/detail.html

Con man-turned-pastor Barry Minkow accused of securities fraud

On Thursday, the government filed a securities fraud charge against Minkow, which could send him back to prison for five years.
Minkow has agreed to plead guilty to the charge, filed in Miami, and will “take responsibility for what he did,” said Alvin Entin, his attorney.
Minkow, 44, artificially depressed the stock of a home-building company by spreading false information that it was engaged in fraud, the government said in a court filing.
He induced a law enforcement agency to open a criminal investigation of the company and then traded on his knowledge of it, the government said. The Justice Department described Minkow as a “confidential human source” for the FBI.
“With full knowledge of the rules and his obligations as a litigant in this Court, Mr. Minkow has withheld key documents, destroyed or discarded important evidence, concealed the identity of material witnesses, willfully violated court orders, and engaged in actions to cloud his misconduct,” Florida Judge Gill S. Freeman wrote. Minkow admitted that he had used funds from the San Diego Community Bible Church to pay a business expense, the judge wrote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/con-man-turned-pastor-barry-minkow-accused-of-securities-fraud/2011/03/24/ABdqqSRB_story.html

Pella Pastor Charged With Sexual Abuse

A 41-year old man serving as a pastor at a Pella church has been arrested and charged with sexual abuse and exploitation.

Patrick Edouard was a pastor at the Covenant Reformed Church in Pella.

According to court papers filed on Thursday, Edouard sexually abused three "emotionally dependent" women, and had sexual contact with a fourth.

Court documents said all four victims went to him for private counseling.

They go on to state that some of the acts took place in the basement of a home on Cedar Street in Pella, a place that Edouard used as a study. The documents say the women told him to stop or resisted, but he "overpowered them" and then threatened them, to keep them quiet. 

http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14324014