Free Republic

Federal prosecutors have charged the former pastor of a church damaged by Hurricane Katrina with diverting thousands of dollars in private donations and public flood relief money to his private bank account. The U.S. attorney’s office said it filed a bill of information charging Noah A. Thomas Jr., former pastor of Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, with a single count of mail fraud. He led the church until October 2006, authorities said. Thomas was unavailable for comment. Prosecutors said the church applied for a donation from the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, a private philanthropy headed by the two ex-presidents. The church also...

A longtime preacher of a San Jose church was arrested on suspicion of molesting a 12-year-old churchgoer, San Jose police officer Enrique Garcia said Wednesday. Gustavo Antonio Lanzas, 64, of Sunnyvale was taken into custody Friday on suspicion of committing lewd acts on a minor under 14 years old. He has been the only pastor at Iglesia Cristiana Luz y Verdad for about 20 years, Garcia said. Police began investigating Lanzas after the boy alleged that he had been molested. It's unclear if the boy said that Lanzas molested him at the church or another location, but officers searched the...

The Rev. Frank Murd has resigned as pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Maumee because he is under investigation based on an accusation of improper sexual contact with an adult, the Toledo diocese reported yesterday. Sylvania Township police are investigating the accusation against Father Murd, 65, who has been pastor of St. Joseph's since July, 2003. The alleged incident occurred March 18 in a hot tub at the YMCA/JCC, Robert Metzger, the township's police chief said last night. No charges have been filed, he said. [snip]

A pastor whose disappearance from a small town in upstate New York triggered a search by police and the FBI was found earlier today — inside an Ohio strip club. Police said that when the Rev. Craig S. Rhodenizer, 46, was confronted by an officer, he began crying and said he couldn't remember anything about the 36 hours he was missing. But dancers at the club remembered Rhodenizer. They told investigators that Rhodenizer spent two hours drinking, soliciting dances and making threatening comments. He also said he wanted to take the dancers back to his motel, according to the police...

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- A Baptist minister has been charged in Tennessee with indecent exposure and driving under the influence. Police said 58-year-old Tommy Tester of Bristol, Va., was wearing a skirt when he was arrested last week after allegedly relieving himself in front of children at a car wash. A report also accuses Tester of offering police officers oral sex and says an open bottle of vodka and empty oxycodone prescription bottle was found in his car when Tester was arrested Friday. Authorities identified Tester as the minister of Gospel Baptist Church in Bristol and an employee of Christian...

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- A Baptist minister has been charged in Tennessee with indecent exposure and driving under the influence. Police said 58-year-old Tommy Tester of Bristol, Va., was wearing a skirt when he was arrested last week after allegedly relieving himself in front of children at a car wash. A report also accuses Tester of offering police officers oral sex and says an open bottle of vodka and empty oxycodone prescription bottle was found in his car when Tester was arrested Friday. Authorities identified Tester as the minister of Gospel Baptist Church in Bristol and an employee of Christian...