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398: Douglas Perlitz

Child Molestation, Child Rape

Douglas Perlitz founded a school in Haiti with support and funding of Fairfield University, the Order of Malta, the Society of Jesus in New England, and Haiti Fund, Inc. During the years he ran that school, he groomed and abused the children. The organizations greed to a joint settlement of $60 million for the potential 170 survivors of Perlitz’ many years of abuse.

366: Daniel Edmonds

Child Molestation, Child Rape

Daniel Edmonds ran for the Republican nomination for US Congress in 2010, but he lost. In 2019, he was arrested for having inappropriate sexual contact with a child over a four-year period. A second child said Edmonds began molesting him around 2015 and continued until December 2018. He was arrested in January, 2019, so who knows how long it might have continued if the child had not come forward.

365: Rene Rodriguez

Child Molestation, Child Rape

Rene Rodriguez had been a deputy in Blaine County before being elected Sheriff in Lincoln County Idaho as a Republican. In 2019, he was arrested and charged with one count of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 16, four counts of lewd conduct with a minor and two counts of rape, all felonies. The victim was his adopted daughter. She told her mother in 2005/2006 when she was nine but nothing came of it. When she heard her younger sister was sleeping in his bed, she came forward in 2018 to protect her. This was disclosed to the jury and after his conviction this was the basis for his appeal, that they should not have been told. The court disagreed.

363: Bo Dresner

Child Molestation, Child Rape

Bo Dresner was a Republican county official, sergeant of arms, and a precinct chair in Hays County, Texas. He has been charged with aggravated sexual assault of one victim over the course of seven years. The four children in his custody have been removed. Aggravated sexual assault means the alleged assailant caused serious bodily harm, used fear or threats of violence, flourishing of weapons, to coerce them, or gives them something that impairs their ability to resist.

271: Jack W. Gardner

Child Indecency, Child Molestation, Child Rape

Jack W. Gardner was convicted of child molesting over thirty years before the Republicans ran him for office. He was the Millersville Council Vice-President and a GOP committeeman for several terms. Republicans are fond of arguing that pedophilia cannot be treated, but I guess it’s okay if you’re a Republican.

In 1970, he pleaded guilty. He was charged with assault with intent to ravish, corrupting a minor, and indecent assault of a minor. She was thirteen, he was twenty-four at the time. He pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced from three to 23 months for assault with intent to ravish and a year’s probation for all the rest. He was paroled after just three month.

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267: Paul Pressler

Child Molestation, Child Rape, Organizational Cover-Up, Rape

He has been accused by several men of raping them when they were minors. In 2017, a man came forward suing Judge Pressler, claiming he was raped by Pressler when he was just fourteen and the sexual assaults continued for decades. As often happens, once one person comes forward, others find the courage to come forward as well. According to court records, he settled with another accuser in 2004. He was successful in getting the suit dismissed because of the statute of limitations, but his accuser appealed and won in the Texas Supreme Court in April, 2022.

248: William “Wild Bill” Janklow

Child Rape

In 1967, when Jancita Eagle Deer was fifteen she went to her high school counselor and told him that she had been raped by William Janklow, as he drove her home from babysitting . Allegedly, the Bureau of Indian Affairs sent the police investigation files to it Aberdeen office to keep the investigation away from Rosebud Sioux Tribal Court. In 1974, she petitioned the tribe to disbar Janklow from practicing law. The tribal court issued a misdemeanor arrest warrant for Janklow. but he did not live on the reservaton. No arrest was made. Janklow denied all allegations and no criminal charges were filed. He sued Newsweek and Peter Matthiessen who included the story in his book “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse.” He lost both suits.

195: Bob Coy

Child Molestation, Child Rape

Bob Coy was the pastor of a the largest megachurch in Florida. In Fort Lauderdale, Coy’s Calvary Chapel had 25,000 in regular attendance. He hosted George W. Bush and Benjamin Netanyahu and was a frequent guest on religious radio and television. He was sought out by Republicans for endorsements. His standards were so low he endorsed war criminal Allen West. Then he resigned, admitting to having several affairs and being addicted to pornography. He went to work for a dance club.

The police got a call from a woman asking them to talk to her daughter about what Bob Coy had done to her. They heard a very graphic, detailed story of sexual abuse beginning when the girl was four and continuing for ten years. So what happened after that? The police did nothing. They did not question Coy. Coy’s attorneys persuaded a Republican judge to seal Coy’s divorce records so they could not be used to investigate the church. The church has an unsavory history of lax supervision and pedophile pastors being fired and rehired elsewhere without the police being informed of their actions