Posted on 07/12/2008 8:38:19 PM PDT by Coleus
A former youth pastor accused of secretly taping Bible study students changing clothes in his Ellenton home has pleaded no contest to nine counts of voyeurism. Matthew C. Porter, 31, of Ellenton, is scheduled be sentenced on the misdemeanor charges at the Manatee County Judicial Center on Aug. 21.
He faces up to nine years in prison if sentenced consecutively on the charges, Assistant State Attorney Erica Arend said Friday. The maximum sentence for misdemeanor voyeurism is one year in jail. Porter resigned from Bethel Baptist Church after admitting he secretly videotaped his students ages 12-16, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.
The recordings, which took place over a period of two years, show the juveniles undressing and changing in the home, Arend said. His plea on Monday comes a little less than two weeks after Circuit Judge George Brown denied a motion to suppress videotapes and other evidence from the case. Brown ruled deputies had the right to enter Porter's home to take DVD, VHS and and video recording equipment while he was out of town last summer.
Brown made his decision after Porter's attorney Henry Lee filed a motion saying authorities did not have a search warrant or Porter's permission to enter his home in the 300 block of Sally Lee Drive. Instead, a housesitter who found the tapes gave deputies consent to enter the home while Porter was in Mexico, Arend said.
In court, Lee asked the judge to throw out the evidence claiming his client's rights were violated. Lee could not be reached for comment Friday. Porter had been set to go to trial July 14 on the charges. Had Brown not allowed jurors to see the tapes, prosecutors mostly likely would have been forced to drop charges against Porter due to a lack of evidence, Arend said.
I am through with you.
Why do you have to change clothes for a Bible study?
You don’t, unless, for example, you’ve just come from an activity requiring physical exertion, such as a sporting contest.
While I think beating up on your fellow FReepers to prove a point is wrong, I believe your analysis concerning the Catholic church and the sexual molestation of youngsters is incorrect.
There are many layers in the Catholic church which were involved in burying and hiding sex predators for decades. I don't think we'll every really know what the true number is.
Finding and publishing a story about a Baptist here or a Methodist there really proves nothing. Especially when nobody knows what your agenda is.
It is true that the Catholic Church has organizational layers that Protestant communities often don’t have. Further, in a Protestant setting the records are seldom kept, and it is impossible to sue anything but the local church, so few lawsuits are filed. However the rate of abuse seems to be the same, at least judging by the insurance claims, and the rate at which abusers were re-hired despite allegations of abuse is significant in the Protestant communities.
I can corroborate that easily if you want me to.
I agree, however that this entire topic is unproductive, and have no clue why I was pinged to this in the first place. While I make no apologies for my Holy Catholic Church, I did not make is my specialty to post about Protestant sex abuse.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/09_10/2007_09_02_Stephens_PriestAbuse.htm
By LaTonya Stephens
Tri-State Homepage
September 2, 2007
http://tristatehomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=2567
Victims of abuse are asking other victims to step out of the shadows and the Evansville diocese to acknowledge their responsibilities.
The Silent Lambs organization and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests say recent revelations of molestation by a local priest is another example of the church's failure to protect the innocent.
They showed up Sunday at Saint Benedict's Cathedral handing out fliers encouraging members to support abuse victims and to push the catholic church to be honest about abusive priests.
David Clohessy says Bishop Ferald Gettelfinger's recent disclosure of abuse by now deceased Monsignor Othmar Schroeder prompted the action.
Clohessy says for 11 years Bishop Gettelfinger has known that Schroeder is a predator and yet kept silent.
He also says Gettelfinger admitted that there are others whose names he has not disclosed.
Those wanting to learn more about the SNAP victim's group can log onto www.snapnetwork.org.
If I may, I think the purpose is to provide a counterpoint to the slew of articles posted by people such as Alex Murphy which reported on sexually related crimes commited by Catholics. The posts by Coleus show that the issue is hardly a Catholic issue, as some have tried to imply.
And all of a sudden these articles are not quite so funny anymore.
The correlation is not Catholic sexual abuse versus Protestant sexual abuse. The true outrage was not that a Catholic Priest would do such a thing, the outrage was over the hierarchy of the Catholic Church covering it up, moving the Priest to a new parish with fresh victims, and blaming the victim for being “seductive”.
You may be correct. You are the second poster to propose an explanation, but I would like to hear it directly from Coleus. Applying Jesus’ admonition to expect judgment in the very way that I judge, I feel confident that I would not embark on such an antagonistic project without providing at least the courtesy of explanation; therefore, it is not unreasonable for me to expect, and to request, that same courtesy from Coleus. The silence is both deafening and revealing.
You can think that's the purpose all you want, but that would be considered mindreading if you do. But if we did accept that rationale, here are the numbers:
Slew of articles = 13 threads re one priest (Fr. Bob Whipkey, the naked jogging priest) over the course of twelve months.
Providing a counterpoint = 59 threads in 20 days.
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