[Note: My former pastors/elders at Grace Bible Fellowship of Silicon Valley – Cliff McManis, Sam Kim, Bob Douglas, and Tim Wong, repeatedly told me in a meeting in which they screamed at me and threatened me that “child porn wasn’t a big deal.” I had discovered that a new church member was a Megan’s List sex offender/child pornographer while doing a legal research project for a former sex crimes prosecutor in Santa Clara County, California. The pastors/elders’ repeatedly defended the man, said he was “coming off Megan’s List” because “he said so”. The California Attorney General, which maintains California’s Megan’s List of sex offenders, and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department (whose sex offenders’ task force who has supervision of this sex offender) called the Grace Bible Fellowship of Silicon Valley pastors/elders’ stories about the sex offender “all lies” and “total lies”. The Grace Bible Fellowship of Silicon Valley pastors/elders put him in a position of leadership and trust, over a team, which sex crimes experts around the world have criticized them for and said that’s NEVER supposed to be done. A convicted felon, who served prison time, is on Megan’s List, gets carte blanche access to the church, its activities, and its children. The GBFSV pastors/elders even invited him to volunteer at the summer 5-day basketball camp for children. They permitted him to come to Bible studies at the house, hosted by a man who is now an elder, and the Bible study I used to go to in which parents brought their children and had no idea a Megan’s sex offender was present. The sex offender whipped the entire Bible study into a frenzy of anger one night about all of the “bad people in prisons”, manipulatively omitting that he had served prison time, was a convicted felon, and was on Megan’s List of sex offenders. The Megan’s List sex offender/child pornographer sat back and smiled as the room of 17 people erupted into anger and bought his manipulation. I went home and opened up Megan’s List on the California Attorney General’s website. Beneath this sex offender’s picture, I described what he had done at the Bible Study that night. I told the California Attorney General, “Don’t EVER take him off Megan’s List of sex offenders.” My message was also fowarded to the sex offender’s supervising law enforcement agency.
Sam Kim, chairman of the Grace Bible Fellowship of Silicon Valley elder board, read me a Scripture at the end of the meeting that I was destined for Hell and not one of us — for discussing child safety in light of A CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER AT CHURCH ON MEGAN’S LIST!! Outrageous!
Mr. Kim called me at home and told me that I was to never contact the Santa Clara County Sheriff, the California Attorney General, or any law enforcement agency about the sex offender because the GBFSV pastors/elders’ “said so” (in other words they are going to obstruct justice which is a crime and engage in a criminal conspiracy which is an agreement among two or more persons).
“If they’re not crying, we assume they must not be hurting.” – Sarah Chang
Sarah Chang is a federal prosecutor who specializes in child exploitation crimes.
(Gérard DuBois for The Washington Post)During my first week as a federal prosecutor of sexual abuse crimes against children, one of my colleagues told me her chief coping mechanism: Turn the sound off when you have to watch a video multiple times. This advice scared me. I imagined children screaming, crying and shrieking in pain — the stuff of nightmares.
My office is responsible for investigating and prosecuting such crimes, namely the production, possession and trafficking of child pornography. My first case file contained multiple CDs and DVDs showing a young girl being sexually abused by her father, who filmed his crimes with a handheld camera. Despite my colleague’s warning, I knew I couldn’t remain deaf during my first pass at the evidence. I went to our forensic computer lab and braced myself.