Pastor Joshua Spires Charged with Molesting Girl

A former youth pastor is charged with lewd molestation of an underage girl.

Police say 28-year-old Joshua Spires molested the girl, who was a member of the church, while he was youth minister at First Baptist Church in Jay.

Spires faces 10 counts of lewd molestation.

Bernard Squires Accused of Distributing Child Porn

A local chaplain is facing child pornography charges.

He is one of two men arrested after an investigation by the F.B.I. Cyber Crime Task Force.

Both men were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Fort Wayne.

Bernard Squires, 64, is accused of distributing child pornography. According to court documents, the charge stems from about a week long period at the beginning of June.

Since no criminal complaint was filed, few details are available about his arrest.

Court records do indicate that police seized a number of computers, tapes and movies from Squires' rural Columbia city home.

Squires served as chaplain for the Whitley County Sheriff's Department. It's not clear how long he was in that position, but officers tell NewsChannel 15 he has been let go.

Squires is also the pastor of a Grace Baptist Church in Columbia City. Neighbors living near the small church tell NewsChannel 15 they can hardly believe the news.

"I have a three-year-old girl, and yeah, that's quite a shock," said neighbor Melissa Carlson. "And, it's pretty sad to hear that."

Another neighbor, Mickey English says, "It's devastating. It's devastating to the Christian community and I'm very shocked. I had no idea there was any problem over there."

The other man involved in the FBI child porn probe is Brian Schinbeckler, 50, from Fort Wayne.

Court documents indicate police found more than 200 video files containing child porn on his computer.

Both men are being held at the Allen County Jail. They face at least five years behind bars if convicted and possibly large fines.

At this point, both cases appear to be unrelated.

Father Aaron Joseph Cote Convicted of Sexual Abuse

The family of a victim of a former Somerset priest convicted of sexual abuse says they are grateful the priest will be on the national sex offender registry for life.

Father Aaron Joseph Cote, 57, of New York, was convicted of one count of custodian child abuse by a judge earlier this week in Maryland. Cote served in the Holy Trinity Church in Somerset in the late 1980s.

Cote entered a not guilty plea to the charge, but did not object to a statement of facts that was given by the prosecution and was found guilty of the charge by Judge Louis G. Scrivener.

Cote was indicted last year on the charge in Maryland after victim Brandon Rains, at the time of the abuse 14-years-old, accused Cote of molesting him on a regular basis. Cote was serving part-time as the youth minister at the Mother of Seton Parish in Germantown.

The abuse took place between 2001 and 2002, court records show.

"While no other victims from the Somerset area have stepped forward, we are grateful to two witnesses from that area who previously worked with Cote and who were willing to testify on behalf of the prosecution at Cote's trial if needed," said Michael Morrow, Rains' stepfather.

Morrow said Rains and the family was disappointed Cote would probably not spend any time in prison - court records show Cote and the prosecution have reached a plea agreement of 10 years on probation, five of those supervised. However, he said they are thrilled that Cote will have to spend the rest of his life as a registered sex offender.

"He'll never get to be around children again," Morrow said. "I hope this means that the church won't be able to reassign him anywhere near children, either."

In 2005, Rains, who now lives in Florida, filed a civil lawsuit against Cote and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and in 2007 was awarded a $1.2 million settlement, court records show.

Morrow said at that time that the main goal of his family was to protect children.

"This person has been concealed and protected by the church for so long," Morrow said at the time. "Now there are consequences and Brandon feels vindicated. The charges he brought were true and this man has been convicted."

Morrow also wants any other victims to know they are not alone and if they should ever need to step forward and talk, there are people waiting and who care.

Cote is expected to be sentenced in October.

Benito Catello Charged with Sexual Assault

A 75-year-old self-proclaimed prophet and church leader from Las Vegas was arrested Friday on multiple charges of sex crimes against children, Metro Police said.

Benito Catello is charged with 29 felonies, including sexual assault, sexual assault with a victim under 14 years of age and lewdness with a minor under 14 years of age.

Catello, who police described as a self-proclaimed “prophet” and leader of The Ministry, a church run out of his home near Owens Avenue and Mount Hood Street in northeast Las Vegas, is being held on bail of $295,000, according to Clark County Detention Center records.

A 48-hour hearing is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

Investigators are asking anyone with information about Benito -- including other possible victims -- to contact the Metro Crimes Against Youth and Family Bureau at 828-3421. Callers who wish to remain anonymous can contact Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.

Catello is described as white, 5-foot-5 and 155 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes. Police said in recent years he might no longer wear the beard shown in his mug shot, which authorities said isn’t a recent photo.

Investigators said they weren’t releasing other details Friday but planned to discuss the case on Monday.
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Pastor Steve Richardson Charged with Possession of Child Porn on Church Computer

A former Texas pastor who admitted having more than 600 images of child pornography on his church computer has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

The U.S. attorney's office in Dallas says 36-year-old Steve Richardson was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay.

The former pastor of First United Methodist Church in Royse City pleaded guilty in March to one count of transporting and shipping child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Prosecutors say Richardson sent a sexually explicit image of a child to an undercover federal agent in Seattle and requested comparable images.


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Tomas Gonzales Charged with Sexually Abusing 2 Relatives

A church pastor faces multiple felony charges in connection with allegations he sexually abused two female relatives.

Tomás Gonzáles, 61, of Mercedes, was arraigned Tuesday evening in Mercedes Municipal Court on two counts of indecency with a child and eight counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

"I committed the error," he said in Spanish during the arraignment. "Now I have to pay for it."

Gonzáles serves as pastor at Templo Nueva Vida in a colonia at the intersection of Lott Road and Dedri Drive in the Weslaco area.

Sgt. Hugo Ramos Jr. of the Mercedes Police Department said a 15-year-old female relative wrote a letter to her mother last week saying that the man had sexually abused her since she was about 5 years old. Eventually, the girl's 13-year-old sister came forward with similar accusations.

Gonzáles was called to the police station Monday night for questioning and provided a voluntary confession to the crimes, Ramos said. "We just called him and he turned himself in."

The pastor allegedly abused the two girls when they visited him at his home, the sergeant said. The sisters are currently receiving counseling.

Investigators said they are following leads that could result in more charges against the man.

"There could possibly be more victims," Ramos said, adding that no incidents have been reported at the pastor's church.

Residents near Templo Nueva Vida said a man in a white truck sometimes picks up children to take them to church services in the evenings, though they were unsure whether that man was Gonzáles.

"There have been rumors about (sexual abuse at) the churches nearby," Margarita Espinoza, 32, said in Spanish. "If one doesn't go with the children, they shouldn't let them go at all."

Across the street from Templo Nueva Vida, about a dozen people gathered to pray in a small, hot warehouse that is home to the Iglesia de Jesucristo - Salvación Eterna.

The group chanted hymns while someone softly strummed along with a guitar.

"I hadn't heard of anything," said Alex Carmona Jr., whose father is a pastor at Iglesia de Jesucristo. "But anytime something happens against children, it's nothing good."

The sound of the chorus hummed through the colonia while a young girl wandered through an abandoned structure in a diaper and several boys rode their bicycles down the gravel road.

"One thinks some people are incapable of doing anything wrong," Espinoza said in Spanish. "But you have to be careful."

Gonzáles is not a registered sex offender and has no prior criminal history, according to available public records.

He remained at the Hidalgo County Jail on Tuesday night in lieu of a $2 million bond. If found guilty of aggravated sexual assault, he could face up to life in prison and a possible fine of up to $10,000.

Youth Minister William Wilson Arrested on Lewd Act with Child

A former church youth minister has been arrested and charged with sex crimes involving three people.

Multiple media outlets reported that 30-year-old William Ralph Wilson of Gaston was arrested Thursday on four charges.

Lexington County sheriff's deputies charged Wilson with two counts of committing a lewd act on a minor and two counts of exposing minors to sexually explicit materials.

Wilson is the former youth minister at Chapel of Redemption Church in West Columbia.

Three victims made complaints about Wilson to the department this week.

Wilson was being held at the Lexington County jail. It was unclear if he had an attorney.