Recent spate of arrests of ministers

Police in New York are withholding the identity of the pastor of a Long Island Baptist Church. The minister was arrested on multiple counts of sexually molesting his three daughters. According to local district attorney the pastor had sex with his eldest daughter an average of two times a week for the last few years. In addition he is charged with having sexually abused his two other daughters when both were under 14 years of age. The pastor's lawyer said his family was supporting him. Yet the same news report indicated that the pastor was arrested only after the oldest daughter told someone what happened to her and they told her mother. Sources claim that the pastor confessed to the incidents upon his arrest.

Meanwhile in Thaxton, Virginia a youth leader at the Shady Grove Baptist Church was arrested. He was accussed of molesting a 14 year old youth from the church.

In Florida Pastor Vincent Kohn, of the Annoited Church of God, was arrested for animal cruelty. He was see throwing puppies from a pickup truck and leaving them to die int he woods. The witness said: "He was actually throwing them, not setting them dow, but throwing them as far as the tress. Just chucking them." When police tracked Kohn down they found the mother of the puppies in a malnourished state chained up along with some other puppies who had neither food nor water. The puppies had lost patches of their fur and had sores on them.

In Chicago another Catholic priest was arrested for fondling three children from his parish.

In California Kevin Thompson of the Bay Area Family Church was arrested. He and a group of others were illegally catching and selling bably leopard sharks to pet distributors. Laws meant to protect the species say the sharks must be 36 inches or longer to be caught.

In Palnesville, Ohio police are investigating Baptist minister Gary Johnson. Trustees of his church say he has stolen at least $55,000 from the church. Four years ago, in Burlington, North Carolina Rev. Johnson was accussed of taking out loans in the name of his church. He was convicted of obtaining property by false pretense.

In Kentucky police arrested Ralph Broussard for scamming elderly individuals out of $900,000. Broussard, who taught Bible classes at the Mount Calvary Independent Baptist Church. Broussard's victims were mostly members at the church. One reason for this may be that some of his victims said that church's pastor encourage investing with Broussard.