Church volunteer faces allegation of child molestation

The Edmonds man was a volunteer at a church where he allegedly fondled an 8-year-old girl during a class.

By Diana Hefley
Herald Writer

EDMONDS — A volunteer magician and puppeteer who worked with a children’s ministry at Westgate Chapel in Edmonds is accused of fondling a young parishioner during Sunday school and sneaking his camera up the skirts of unsuspecting girls and women.

Prosecutors on Tuesday charged Terry Jensen, 55, of Edmonds, with first-degree child molestation and two counts of attempted voyeurism.

The incidents date back to 2006, when an 8-year-old girl reported that Jensen fondled her three times during a class, according to court papers. The girl told her mother, who reported the incident to church officials.

Jensen allegedly apologized to the girl during a meeting facilitated at the time by the church and attended by the girl, her mother and the church’s leadership team, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Adam Cornell wrote.

The girl reported that Jensen “got down on one knee” and asked the girl for another chance, court papers said.

Church officials on Tuesday said that Jensen didn’t confess to any criminal activity during the meeting. Church leaders know that they must report any allegations of abuse against children and would have called police if they believed a crime occurred, Cindi Bowen, an assistant pastor at the church, said.

A church elder and others had no information at the time that Jensen had fondled the girl, Bowen said. Instead, there was a plausible explanation for why the girl may have misunderstood the situation. He apologized, suggesting there had been miscommunication that made the girl feel uncomfortable. The family seemed satisfied with the explanation and remained active with the church, Bowen said.

Church officials did go to police in January, when Jensen was confronted again with allegations of sexual impropriety with parishioners.

Prosecutors allege that Jensen used a small camera to take pictures up the skirts of women and girls at church and on business trips.

Jensen told Westgate Chapel officials he used the church’s camera to take pictures underneath the skirts of some of the teenage puppet workers behind the stage, Cornell wrote.

Two women also reported that Jensen used a small camera that looked like a pen to take pictures of them during business trips.

Edmonds police seized two of Jensen’s computers. They weren’t able to find any images that pertained to the allegations against him. Jensen, Cornell wrote, destroyed a third computer and threw it in the garbage. Investigators were unable to locate the computer, Cornell wrote.

Jensen was removed as a volunteer when the allegations surfaced this year, Bowen said. He had been a volunteer since 2003 and underwent a criminal background screening.

Guns In Church

The Internet is abuzz today over word that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has singed that allows people with concealed-weapons permits to bring weapons into churches and other houses of worship.

The bill does not allow people to simply walk into a church packing heat, however. According to the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, individuals must pass a background check and undergo eight hours of training per year if they want to bring weapons to houses of worship; the idea seems to be that they would serve something like a de facto security force.

In addition, the head of the religious institution - be it a church, synagogue, mosque or anything else - must announce to congregants that the weapons are being wielded for security purposes.

The bill, which will reportedly go into effect on August 15th, is the brainchild of Republican state Rep. Henry Burns, who argues that houses of worship in rough neighborhoods need the protection that a concealed-weapons security force could provide.

The legislation also extends the period to have a concealed weapons permit from four to five years and gives houses of worship the option to hire off duty police or other security forces. It was one of hundreds of measures signed into law by the Republican governor.

Woman Brings Gun To Church

Woman wears gun in holster to church

She drives away and is stopped and ticketed by police

By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel

A Unitarian Universalist church might well be the last place you'd expect to find someone wearing a gun.

Maybe that's why Krysta Sutterfield chose the Unitarian church in Brookfield for an open-carry demonstration on Sunday. If she wanted to bring attention to the gun rights debate, she surely succeeded, though she probably didn't plan on getting arrested in the process.

Brookfield police said Thursday they were called to the church at 13001 W. North Ave. about 10:30 a.m. by a church staffer who said a woman was wearing a handgun in a hip holster. By the time three squad cars arrived, Sutterfield was driving away. She was stopped, and police found the loaded 9mm gun in a zipped case on the passenger seat.

She was handcuffed, taken to the police station, processed and ticketed for having the loaded gun in her car - a state forfeiture citation, not a criminal offense. Sutterfield was then released.

She was not ticketed for openly carrying the weapon into the church, which did not have signs prohibiting firearms.

"We've referred the case to the district attorney," Police Capt. Phil Horter said.

Sutterfield, 41, of Milwaukee, referred questions Thursday to her attorney, Rebecca Coffee, who said she couldn't comment on her client's intentions or actions Sunday.

Caryl Sewel, president of the congregation at Unitarian Universalist Church West, said Sutterfield may have attended a service before but was not a registered member of the church. Because of the Fourth of July holiday, Sunday's service was lightly attended, Sewel said, and a guest minister was speaking about civil rights.

Sewel said that Sutterfield's gun was clearly visible on her hip, but that she didn't ever remove it from its holster or do anything overtly threatening. Still, it concerned Sewell.

"I didn't feel comfortable asking her why she was wearing the gun," Sewel said. "Truthfully, we found it very intimidating," especially in light of the 2005 shootings at a church service at a Brookfield hotel that left eight people dead, and a 2008 shooting at a Unitarian church in Tennessee that killed two people.

But Sewel said other members did ask Sutterfield, and she replied she was expressing her 2nd Amendment rights.

Sewel said other staff called the administrative line of the Brookfield Police Department for clarification about the legality, and the officers responded in force with at least three squad cars. She said she didn't think that was an overreaction, again because of the memories of the 2005 shootings.

The church will probably now post a sign banning guns, Sewel said, but it has no grudge against Sutterfield.

"We'd be happy to have her come back," Sewel said. "Just don't bring a gun."

Gun rights advocates are riding some momentum lately. Last year, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen advised law enforcement that open-carry was not, in itself, a basis for a charge of disorderly conduct. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the 2nd Amendment right of most individuals to possess firearms applies to the states, and within a day, one Wisconsin district attorney said he would no longer prosecute cases of concealed carry or transporting uncased or loaded guns in vehicles. A challenge to Wisconsin law banning guns within 1,000 feet of a school is pending in federal court.

Nik Clark, president of Wisconsin Carry Inc., called the state "behind the times" for prohibiting transport of loaded guns, which most states allow.

"Wisconsin Carry advocates that people follow all Wisconsin firearm regulations, even those we find patently unconstitutional, until such time as we are able to change those laws through legal challenges and/or legislative changes," Clark said.

Jeri Bonavia, executive director of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, disagrees with the basic open-carry tenet that armed law-abiding people deter criminals.

"When people make a decision to carry a gun or that a gun will keep them safer, they have the opportunity to analyze risks and benefits. They get to decide," she Bonavia said. "But when they bring it into public, they're forcing their analysis on all of us."

Broad research shows, she said, that "guns, overall, do not promote public or personal safety."

Man Sentenced for Killing Toddler with Baseball Bat in Church

Wheaton man sentenced for killing toddler with baseball bat in church

A man who accidentally killed a toddler with a baseball bat while attacking her stepfather in a western Minnesota church has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

David E. Collins, 51, of Wheaton, was sentenced Thursday by Traverse County District Judge Gerald Seibel in the death of Aundrea Brownlow, 14 months, as he went after Claude Hankins, in September inside Thy Kingdom Come church.

Collins and Hankins were in a dispute over $20 and a used washer and dryer.

The Rev. Danny Barnes of the Thy Kingdom Come said Saturday he gave the appliances to Hankins, and that angered Collins.

Collins was convicted in a bench trial before Seibel of unintentional second-degree murder and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.

With time served and credit for good behavior in prison, Collins could end up serving as little as 12 1/2 years.

Soon after the killing, Collins' wife said her husband didn't see Aundrea before crushing her skull.

The church's mission includes serving people with drug and alcohol addictions.