Robert Morris, founder and former senior pastor of Gateway Church in Texas who served on President Donald Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board in 2016, pleaded guilty on Thursday to five felony counts of child sexual abuse. Why It Matters Morris, formerly of Gateway—one of the largest evangelical congregations in Texas—resigned from the church last year amid the accusations. The case marks a significant development in ongoing national discussions concerning abuse within religious organizations and the challenges survivors face in seeking justice. The guilty plea and sentencing of such a prominent religious figure cast a spotlight on the mechanisms of...

Peter Collins Simpson, 28, an employee of the Boy Scouts of America has been arrested for sex abuse of a minor in Molalla, Oregon according to police. On Feb. 1, a Molalla Police officer was on patrol when he came across a car after hours at a park. The officer interviewed the driver identified as 28-year-old Peter Collins Simpson. Police then interviewed a minor in the back seat of the vehicle. The Molalla Police Department says information provided by the minor led to the arrest of Simpson for the charge of Sex Abuse III. Molalla P.D. says the minor...

First Baptist Church in Benton has been named, along with other Baptist organizations, in a civil lawsuit involving a 2009 sexual indecency case that resulted in the arrest of the Benton church’s music minister. In 2009, David Kent Pierce, who was 56 at the time of his conviction, was formerly a music minister at Benton’s First Baptist Church for 29 years until he was fired following the investigation. Pierce pleaded guilty in 2009 to 54 counts of sexual indecency with children, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. He was convicted in August 2009 by the Saline County Circuit Court and...

- Tommy Wayne Boyd, a prisoner at Potosi Correctional Facility in Missouri, was taken to Mercy Hospital South for treatment before he escaped early Thursday. - Tommy Wayne Boyd, 45, a prisoner at Potosi Correctional Facility, was recaptured on Watson Road, northeast of Mercy Hospital South, where he escaped, St. Louis County police said shortly after 8 p.m.  - He was recaptured without incident by a county police department team that was following up on a lead, Sgt. Tracy Panus, a police spokesperson, said in an email. - Boyd is serving a 30-year sentence for statutory sodomy,...

- A former volunteer at a York, S.C., church has been sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to improperly touching a child while at church in 2021, according to court records and prosecutors. - Ira James Summerlin, 77, of York, pleaded guilty in York County criminal court Wednesday to third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, said prosecutor Misti Shelton, 16th Circuit assistant deputy solicitor. The crime happened in late January 2021 at Central Baptist Church where Summerlin was a volunteer in a childrens program, Shelton said. The church banned Summerlin from church property after...

A 21-year-old woman who helped GOP donor Anton Lazzaro sex traffic underage girls at "every step of the way" was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison. Gisela Castro Medina, 21, recruited six girls to have sex with now 32-year-old Lazzaro, documents say. The two met in May of 2020 on a sugar daddy website; Castro Medina brought a 16-year-old girl to Lazzaro's condo at the Hotel Ivy, and Lazzaro paid them $600 for sex. 

Former California Highway Patrol officer, Brian Pardue, was sentenced Wednesday morning to a year in jail, two years probation and he must register as a sex offender for attempting to meet a minor for sex in 2020.

- Douglas Sovereign Smith Jr. The BSA’s former national director for youth protection was released from prison last week after serving nearly seven years behind bars. - He was in charge of Scout safety programs in 2005 when police discovered hundreds of images of child pornography and videos on his home computer. Some included prepubescent boys exposing themselves and engaging in sexual acts. - “It certainly shows that the people supervising him didn’t have their eyes wide open,” said Patrick Boyle, author of "Scout's Honor: Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution." - An Eagle Scout who...