Close

970: Dean Alan Smith

Child Molestation, Child Rape, Sexual Abuse

Dean Alan Smith was the pastor at Morning Star Baptist Church on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. In December 2022, he was arrested for the sexual abuse of four girls, three of them under age twelve between 2017 and 2019. He pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated sexual abuse, one count of abusive sexual contact and three counts of abusive sexual contact by force and of a child.

969: Robert Morris

Child Sexual Abuse Material

Robert Morris was the Assistant Dean of Wave Leadership College, a Christian college for pastors that closed in 2022. WLC was so conservative it partnered with Choices Pregnancy Center, a fake clinic. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison for possessing more than 500 child sexual abuse materials. Before that, he was kicked out of the Navy for misconduct and sexual harassment.

967: Nick Provenzano

Child Indecency

Nick Provenzano was Deputy District Director for Illinois Republican Congressman Randy Hultgren until he was fired after being arrested for criminal sexual assault with a minor, a 17-year-old boy whom he met on Grindr. The boy said he told Hultgren he was seventeen, but Hultgren claimed the boy said he was 18 and that this was a consensual sexual encounter. Politico has the entire police report here. No charges were filed.

966: Mark Aaron Griffin

Abuse of Power or Authority, Assault, Coercion, Rape, Sexual Assault

Mark Aaron Griffin was a Messianic Rabbi in Saginaw, Texas. Messianic Judaism is a syncretic form of evangelical Christianity that incorporates some elements of Judaism. The call themselves Jews, but that is not accepted by mainstream Jews. After he was charged with sexual assault, the Texas school board that banned Anne Frank book invited him to open their meeting with prayer.

He was charged with abusing his influence as a “rabbi” to pressure a woman into consensual and nonconsensual sex. He told her she was God’s gift to him and that she would be his “second wife.” When she told him no, he assaulted her.

He reached a plea deal, pleading guilty to indecent assault and was given two years deferred adjudication which means after two years, if he doesn’t offend again, he will have no conviction on his record. He and his lawyers are claiming he was vindicated by this plea deal.

965: Christopher Haenel

Child Sexual Abuse Material

Christopher Haenel was a deputy sheriff in Adams County. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to accessing child sexual abuse material. The social media platform Kik alerted the police that Haenel was sharing child sexual abuse material on their platform. He pleaded guilty to just one count and was sentenced to 41 months and 5 years probation.

964: Gordon Grabau

Child Sexual Abuse Material

Gordon Grabau was a Special Deputy Sheriff in Linn County, Iowa. In July, 2022, he was arrested for possession of child sexual abuse material. The FBI served a search warrant on him in July 2021. A special deputy is a volunteer deputy. For example, a sheriff’s search and rescue “posse” might have many special deputies. They get paid a nominal sum to qualify for worker’s comp, but are mainly volunteers. They are still in a position of public trust.

They found over 160,000 files of child sexual abuse material, including BDSM child sexual abuse material and CSAM involving minors under twelve, even infants and toddlers. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in April, 2023

963: Richard J. Corkery

Child Sexual Abuse Material

Richard J. Corkery was the Republican mayor of Coaldale, Pennsylvania. In April 2011, the police received an anonymous letter telling them they should investigate Corkery who, the letter stated, had been fired for looking at child sexual abuse material on his work computer. They found child sexual abuse material and tied it to him.

He was convicted and sentenced to 9 to 36 months and 3 years probation. He served 36 months but then violated his probation by being around children

962: John Michael Mann

Child Sexual Abuse Material

John Michael Mann was the Oregon Chief Administrative Law Judge who supervised the sixty judges who would decide cases between citizens and regulatory agencies. He was charged with encouraging child sex abuse which is what Oregon charges people who receive or possess child sexual abuse material. I think that really highlights what the result of possession of CSAM ends with. No one can possess CSAM without children being abused.

He pleaded guilty just before the trial and was sentenced in May 2023 to 38 months in prison and 5 months probation.