Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
What Wouldn't Jesus Do?: Bob Silverman Steals $222,000 From His Disabled Sister
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 9:00 am
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Stories of Catholic priests molesting little boys are almost trite by now, but even by those standards Edward Dudzinski's perversion is extraordinary. Stranger still is that the story came out as part of a bankruptcy proceeding by the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware. This is supposedly the first time victims of sexual abuse were allowed to testify at a Catholic diocese's bankruptcy hearing.
In 1985, Barry Lamb was 15 when he alleges he was repeatedly abused. It occurred during summer trips to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, providing Dudzinski with his own sick amusement. But Lamb was fortunate. At least Dudzinski didn't take as much a shine to him as he did Kevin Heaney.
According to a lawsuit filed by Heaney's parents, Dudzinski abused their son more than 100 times beginning when he was 10.
In one instance, Lamb, Heaney and another boy were taken to a motel south of Wilmington and gang raped repeatedly by a group of men that included Dudzinski and the late Reverend Timothy Mullen, a former headmaster at Claymont's Archmere Academy. Lamb said the other men would talk nasty and cheer each other on while they watched saying things like "get him, get him."
In the aftermath, Heaney started to act out, became involved in drugs and made several suicide attempts before shooting himself to death in 1987. Lawyers for the victims suggested the bankruptcy filing is an attempt to forestall their lawsuits from going to trial later this year.
After being removed from the diocese in 1985, Dudzinski moved to Virginia where he became a counselor. He was placed on probation in 2002 for sharing a bed with an underage client on at least 10 occasions and lost his counseling license a year later when Virginia authorities learned of an $11 million lawsuit against him for his behavior while still a priest. A 2006 news story about the abuse reported that Dudzinski lived 100 yards from a Herndon, Virginia elementary school.
It's sad to think how many good people's donations went to subsidize these human urinal cakes.
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It's not a great week for Delaware's churches. First Presbyterian Church of Newark is still awaiting a restitution hearing for Carol Lind, a former administrator and treasurer who pleaded guilty to theft last year. Two other churches -- St. John's Methodist Church in Seaford and Greenville Episcopal Church -- also reported embezzlement in May, proving greed knows no single denomination. (Though it prefers Benjamins.)
Lind, who is in her 60s, apparently took advantage of turnover at the her church during a period where they had several pastors and interim pastors. She was hired to replace a volunteer treasurer in 2000, and took advantage of the lack of oversight beginning in 2007. Over a two-year period she wrote 35 unauthorized checks worth more than $60,000.
She covered the theft using a color copier she'd leased for the church (or herself, you decide) to create phony bank statements. She kept the real statements in a lock box in a nod to Al Gore. The embezzling was only discovered when a church elder visited the bank in person and discovered the account was $10,000 in the red.
Lind, who drove a Mercedes, owned a house in tony Chester County along the Delaware River, and wore suits from Talbots -- along with the occasional mink -- didn't appear to need the money.
Lind was sentenced to two years in prison, but that was suspended to a year's probation, something the church agreed to under the impression that a restitution plan would be submitted in 90 days. A year later, there's no plan, and according a public defender who represents Lind, she and her husband are having financial difficulties. (Yeah, aren't we all?)
If Jesus can go around in a loin cloth, Lind can manage in a Kia, wearing the latest Blue Light special.
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Melissa Jones' husband, Dean, was the youth minister at the Salem Baptist Church in Decatur, Illinois. (He's now an assistant pastor.) For some reason, Dean thought his wife would be the right person to talk to a 16-year old boy having trouble with an online pornography addiction. Maybe he thought it could be a new "outreach" program.
After numerous phone calls, text messages, and counseling sessions Jones was able to solve his addiction by giving him a taste of the real stuff.
According to the boy, they had sex 2 to 5 times a week from the end of September until the middle of November in 2008, when -- after she confessed the affair to the church's pastor -- he declared the boy cured. Okay, maybe not, but at least he turned Jones into the police, saying he didn't want the church accused of a cover-up, actually citing the flurry of Catholic abuse cases as a learning moment.
Jones was kicked out of the church and sentenced to two years probation, during which she will not be allowed to contact the boy. She will also have to register as a sex offender. (Why am I picturing dozens of Decatur boys checking the sex offender registry right now?)
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Nobody's saying Reverend Tony St. Clair necessarily committed arson at his New Beginning Baptist Church. Police just think it's odd that he was discovered injured outside the burning church, smelling of gasoline. Perhaps he just needed a "new beginning."
The arson did $100,000 of damage to the Vinton, Virginia church, and police suspect it might have been an attempt to cover up embezzlement. Coincidently (or not), St. Clair's wife, Kathleen, is the church's treasurer. It isn't nepotism they're looking into, but the fact that St. Clair gave them a financial ledger with several check stubs whited-out. Records of deposit and account balances weren't complete. (They really should've invested in a color copier.)
State police officers and an ATF investigator searched the St. Clair's house on Thursday. No charges were made, but you get the feeling they were told not to plan any trips out-of-state in the foreseeable future.
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The Beatles suggested that "Love Is All You Need," but Bob Silverman also has a passion for legal tender. Silverman, a former pastor at the Empowering Life Church in Bedford, Texas, diverted money intended for his sister for his own use, to the tune of $222,800, according to a lawsuit filed by sister Cynthia Ball.
The 61-year old Silverman allegedly took the proceeds from the 2005 sale of his sister's Cypress, California home (over $200,000) and cashed several of her government disability checks between 2005 and 2007, when he was in control of her finances. According to Silverman, the money went for her care or creditors. For a year and a half he gave Ball, 58, a monthly allowance. In 2008 her told her the money was all gone, but failed to provide documentation of how it was spent. (But there's nothing up my sleeve...)
Ball was on disability for "severe depression" stemming from a 2004 identity theft that crippled her cosmetic sales and pet-sitting businesses. (Really? Identity theft crippled your pet-sitting business? Really?) She claims two workers she hired to remodel her home stole client records, ultimately costing her $60-$70K of income (that's some pretty expensive makeup), though according to Cypress police, there's no record of the theft. As a result, she's been on disability ever since. (Good work, if you can get it.)
Silverman and his wife Linda founded Empowering Life Church in 2004. He was the pastor until 2007 when his wife Linda took over, and they filed for divorce, though the divorce filing was later dropped. According to the ruling, Silverman now owes his sister over $800,000 in restitution, damages (some of it presumably punitive), attorney's fees, and interest.
According to the church's website, the multicultural, non-denomination, "family-oriented" church is dedicated to the idea that "love never fails." It doesn't saying anything about lying and cheating, which, we can't avoid pointing out, does seem to be "family-oriented."
Personally, I'd rather spend my time with the Adams Family, even if they don't have their own tax-exempt enterprise (though I wouldn't be surprised to discover Cousin Itt was also on disability with bad dandruff.)
Read last Tuesday's What Wouldn't Jesus Do?: Valentin Mejillones Busted With Nearly a Quarter Ton of Cocaine.
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