Exposing the Corruption of the "Family Values" Party
Sean M. Higgins was the youth pastor and music leader at Harbor Baptist Church in Hainesport, New Jersey. While he was youth pastor, he adopted the persona of a teenage girl named Julie Miller. As Julie Miller, he persuaded teen boys to send nude pics which he then used to coerce the boys to do…
Ryan Scott Walsh was a youth pastor at Gulf Breeze Methodist Church in Florida. Parents of a 13-year-old girl found inappropriate texts on her phone. They went to the church pastor who chose to handle it internally at first, until the church learned Walsh had also touched the child. Then the church went to the police.
When he was arrested, police reported he had communicated and solicited nude photos from 20 to 25 young girls aged 14 to 17. He pled guilty to online solicitation and was sentenced to 5 years.
Mark Curtis Adams was a Sunday School teacher and church deacon at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Mount Carmel, South Carolina. He also used the social media app KIK to entice minor children and produce child sexual abuse material. He pretended to be a 17-year-old boy online and engaged in enticement of an 11-year-old girl. Her mother discovered his communications with her and went to police. He was arrested in June 2017. In May, 2018, he pled guilty to the enticement charge and was sentenced to ten years plus 15 years of supervised release.
He was arrested for soliciting a minor, caught in an online sting. He chatted with a police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl. He was told to turn himself in and he did. This was his second arrest as the first time the charges were dismissed. He was sentenced to five and half years in 2011 but paroled in 2014.
Luke Bowen was the Political Director of Texas Right to Life and a volunteer blogger for the state Republican party. Then he was arrested for trying to solicit a minor. He was caught in a sting by a police officer pretending to be a 13-year-old girl. After his arrest, Right to Life scrubbed their web site of his name which took some work as he was a spokesperson and represented the group on many occasions.
Joshua Schopp was a candidate for the Central Community School Board. He was arrested in August 2022, after exchanging messages with an underage girl on social media. She told him she was 17 at first, but when the conversation turned sexual, she informed him she was only 15. It was after that he sent her a picture and video of his genitalia. He asked her to send him nude pictures and to meet with him for sex. He was charged with indecent behavior with a juvenile and with solicitation of a minor.
Jonathan Hernandez was the Chair of the Oklahoma College Republicans. He was also a campaign outreach worker for Ryan Walters who ran successfully for State Superintendant. They terminated his employment after two weeks. Shortly before his arrest, he received recognition from the state Republican Party for his work in Latino outreach and even a received a message from the national organization. He was employed by the Senate at the time of his arrest but was terminated.
Matthew McIlravy was elected Mayor of Pilot Point, TX, in May 2022. Prior to that he served on the City Council. He was endorsed by the Denton County Republicans. A month later he was arrested for soliciting a minor, a child under the age of 14. Investigators believed that he may have communicated with more children.
Travis Huse was a United Pentecostal pastor at Apostolic Worship Center and the former Evergreen Christian Academy in Langlade County, Wisconsin where he is alleged to have sexually assaulted several underage girls. His father, Scott Huse, was arrested at the same time for similar crimes. Travis Huse was charged with 31 felony counts: 23 charges of sexual assault of a child younger than thirteen, one count of a child younger than sixteen, six counts of child enticement, and one count of sexual assault of a child by a school staff member. If he were to be convicted on all charges and get the maximum sentence, he would get 1091 years.