Pennsylvania Ping!
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Posted on 01/31/2024 9:43:09 PM PST by lightman
A Cumberland County man and “stake president” of the Harrisburg area Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints was charged Wednesday by Pa. State Police after they say he failed to report child sex abuse accusations against a former bishop, Boy Scout leader and lawyer from central Pennsylvania.
Rhett Hintze, 50, of New Cumberland, was charged with one count of failure to report or refer child abuse in connection to the July 2023 charges against Shawn Gooden, a former bishop for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy in French Creek State Park in 2000.
I am delighted to see that other faith groups are being prosecuted with equal vigor.
Pennsylvania Ping!
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Pennsylvania State Police have charged Rhett Hintze, a lobbyist and “stake president” of seven area Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints churches, with being aware of but not reporting child sex assault allegations against a Lebanon County church leader.
The charges were filed on Wednesday and Hintze is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.
Police expect Hintze, 50, to turn himself in. He’s charged with “failure to report or refer” allegations, a third-degree felony. In Pennsylvania, third-degree felonies generally can carry prison terms of up to seven years.
According to police documents, Hintze’s church leadership role made him a “mandated reporter” under Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services Law, which dates to 1975 but expanded in 2014 following the Jerry Sandusky scandal to include more categories of people as mandated reporters and to increase the penalties for not reporting allegations.
Shawn Cory Gooden, who police say held leadership positions with the church’s Lebanon ward, was charged in 2022 in Virginia with sexually assaulting a minor in the Woodbridge area and 2023 in Pennsylvania with sexually assaulting a minor in Berks County. Police said the assaults happened between 1997 and 2000, and the victims were between 8 and 12 years old when the assaults occurred.
State Police also detailed one sexual assault allegation involving Gooden and a 12-year-old boy at French Creek State Park in 2000.
Police say Hintze, who was also chief operating officer of the Harrisburg-based Bravo Group (which tells abc27 News he is on leave as of late Wednesday), knew about the allegations against Gooden as early as October 2020, while Gooden was a church leader and nearly two years before he was arrested. State Police say Gooden and the victim “had disclosed the sexual assault” to Hintze, who “failed to report the abuse to authorities.”
Gooden was 47 years old when he was first arrested in 2022.
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints works actively to prevent abuse. Our hearts ache for victims of abuse, and the Church is committed to addressing such incidents wherever they are found,” the church wrote in a statement provided by Hintze’s attorney. “The Church trains its leaders and supports their lawful efforts. The charges now brought by local prosecutors for failing to report the abuse are misguided, and the Church will vigorously defend him.”
BTW Mormons call Bishop what would be congregation president or so.
Bishop is really nobody in LDS.
Kindly remind “Bishop” Romney.
Seriously.
but going after dead priest is so much easier.
When a cult achieves longevity and accumulates great property it attains respectability...and near untouchability.
All of my usual cynicism aside, I am actually greatly heartened by this news not only because the laser of investigation has turned to a group other than the RCC; but especially because at long last the child abuse enablers (through their silence) are being held to criminal culpability.
The “Sandusky Law” mandating various “child abuse clearances” only ensared the previously convicted—all the while forcing any and all organizations into a “prove your innocence” mode quite completely antithetical to American jurisprudence’s principle of “innocent until proven guilty”.
Sometimes the cost of obtaining these “clearances” was borne by the organization (diverting funds from programs) and sometimes by individuals (”ensuring the death of volutneerism in Pennsylvania” as one Board member once accurately opined) but in either case imposing a burden which would only ensare the previously guilty.
Jerry Sandusky would have obtained all of his “clearances”!!!
So...this VERY appropriate proescution of those who failed to report is not only welcome, but truly “man bites dog” news.
Had such been done a decade ago Pennsylvania non-profits could have been spared hundreds of volunteer hours and mega thousands of administrative staff dollars.
End of rant.
Was his name Paterno?
Sorry - Perhaps my reading comprehension skills are not what they once were, but where in the article is it mentioned that any of the accused clergymen had since died?
Regards,
In response to the allegations, elder Joseph Smith said, “It isn’t abuse if you marry them.”
Never ends for these commercialized churches and pedophile priest. Pathetic.. these scum should be exterminated.
Pennsylvania has the most restrictive policies in the nation when it comes to anyone who engages with youth in church, school and group settings.
It’s called the Child Abuse Registry. Anyone who works at all in a youth setting, even a contractor at a school must complete several background checks and be fingerprinted.
I work with a national Christian youth organization. All of our leaders are background checked with training. The cost for a PA background check is ten times the average.
It was all in response to a dirtbag football coach and the loser head coach who let him continue his predatory perversions.
Obviously it worked well with the Mormons.
Good and glad they’re weeding out these scumbags-—However, why aren’t they doing this with the public schools? They’re sexualizing kids as young as 6 years old-—sounds like sexual abuse in all the public schools and worse yet, we’re forced to pay for it.
Maybe because they have slush fund, somebody wants to go after it!
Because they call that "inclusion" and "curriculum".
/s
+++Because they call that “inclusion” and “curriculum”+++.
I guess “taking out” these scumbags could be considered “equitable justice”....
Multiple studies have shown that the sexual abuse in public schools outnumbers the Catholic Church by several multiples.
While all pedophilia is evil, there is an agenda here to focus on organized religion in order to destroy it.
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