ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

Victor Barnard, the Minnesota man who authorities allege ran a cult in Pine County that victimized young women, was arrested Friday in Brazil after nearly a year as a fugitive.

Brazilian media outlets reported that Barnard, 53, was arrested in Rio Grande do Norte, the northeasternmost state of the South American country.

Barnard, 53, had eluded law enforcement since he was charged in April 2014 with 59 crimes related to the sexual abuse of girls who lived at his River Road Fellowship camp near Finlayson, a small town just off Interstate 35 southwest of Duluth.

He was added to the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 Most Wanted Fugitives list in November.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor February 28, 2015

Over the centuries, court politics at the Vatican sometimes have had a seriously nasty side. If anyone was wondering whether that aspect of its culture had been killed off in the Francis era, or had simply gone dormant, late February 2015 provided a fairly clear answer.

In a word, the nasty is back.

The focus this time is Cardinal George Pell of Australia, the pope’s chosen fix-it man on Vatican finances. Francis tapped Pell a year ago to end a cycle of scandal and corruption in money management, and in the year since he took over a newly created Secretariat for the Economy, he’s become a lightning rod of the first order.

This week the Italian newsmagazine l’Espresso published leaked receipts from Pell’s new department purporting to show that it has racked up more than a half-million dollars in expenses during its first six months of existence, including a tab of more than $3,000 at Gammarelli’s, a famed clerical tailor shop in Rome.

A rumor ensued that Francis had called Pell on the carpet about those expenses, something the Secretariat for the Economy called “completely false” and “complete fiction” in a statement on Saturday. In fact, the statement insisted, the new department’s expenses are actually below the budget set when it was established last March.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/AP) — The former leader of a rural Minnesota religious community who fled the U.S. after facing sexual abuse charges was captured Friday by Brazilian military police.

According to the Brazilian newspaper Globo, 53-year-old Victor Barnard was arrested in a beach condo on the country’s northeastern coast. Taken into custody with him was a 33-year-old Brazilian woman.

Barnard, originally from Finlayson in Pine County, was added to the U.S. Marshall’s 15 Most Wanted list in 2014.

According to a statement from the U.S. Marshals Service, authorities eventually determined Barnard was living in Brazil. Investigators then coordinated efforts with Brazilian law enforcement to take the fugitive into custody Friday.

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OKLAHOMA
NewsOK

A Tulsa man accused of sexually abusing boys he met through church and as a volunteer at a local Department of Human Services shelter was bound over on 14 criminal counts Friday.

Special Judge Cliff Smith ordered Timothy Shawn Cato, 50, to stand trial on two counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, a single count of possessing child pornography and 11 counts of child sexual abuse — five of which prosecutors added Friday.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Sunday, March 1, 2015, 00:01 by Mark Anthony Falzon

Mgr Charles Scicluna comes across as an intelligent, humane and outstandingly eloquent person. He has said that reform of the Curia will be high on his agenda as Archbishop.

Which is a good sign, because it suggests two things. First, that his point of departure will be to tidy up his own house. Second, that his approach will be restrained and realistic. I would have loathed someone who said he wanted to transfigure Maltese society with his smile or some such nonsense.

I don’t think Scicluna will be foregrounding himself to lead by charisma. He is more Pope Benedict than Pope Francis. We can expect clarity of thought and expression, a respect for tradition and ritual, and a sense of custodianship. I wouldn’t be surprised if he borrowed his episcopal motto from the watch advert: “You never actually own the Church; you merely look after it for the next generation”.

There are several reasons why his planned reform of the Curia stands a good chance of success.
Unlike Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona, who joined the court very much as an outsider clueless to its intrigue, Scicluna can draw on his experience as Auxiliary Bishop and more recently Apostolic Administrator. In many ways he has been the de facto mover since 2012.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Posted: Sunday, March 1, 2015

By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph

• December 12, 2013: Timothy Probert, a former youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church and mentor with the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect program, is arrested on 38 counts of child sexual abuse related charges.

• December 18, 2013: A Bluefield Daily Telegraph investigation reveals Probert was accused of similar crimes in 1999.

• February 4, 2014: Graphic testimony is recounted during Probert’s preliminary hearing by Sgt. M.D. Clemons, with the West Virginia State Police Crimes Against Children Unit. Probable cause is found, and the case is bound over to the grand jury.

• March 2014: Probert is placed on house arrest after a man testifies at a hearing that he was propositioned by Probert when he went to his Bluefield home seeking to do yard work or other labor.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Posted: Sunday, March 1, 2015

By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — A special judge has been called in to try the case of a former church volunteer accused of sexually molesting young boys after all three Mercer County circuit court judges recused themselves from the case.

Retired Fayette County Judge Charles Vickers has been appointed to try the case of Timothy Probert, 56, of Mercer County, who is facing 50 charges related to alleged sexual abuse of children, Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ash said.

Probert was indicted in February on the charges. Ash said after indictments are handed down, cases are assigned to the judges.

“It came out assigned to (Judge Omar) Aboulhosn,” Ash said. Aboulhosn cited a conflict of interest, and the case was then sent to judges Derek Swope and William “Bill” Saddler, who also cited conflicts of interest.

Because the judges disqualified themselves, a senior status judge was assigned to the case, Ash said.

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BRAZIL
The New York Times

Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian authorities said Saturday they arrested a self-professed minister put on a U.S. most-wanted list for allegedly molesting two girls in a “Maidens Group” at his religious fellowship in rural Minnesota.

A statement posted on the website of the Public Security Secretariat for the Rio Grande do Norte state government reported the arrest of Victor Arden Barnard, 53. The U.S. Marshals Service also confirmed the arrest in a statement.

The Brazilian statement said police captured Barnard late Friday in an apartment near a paradisiacal white-sand beach in northeastern Brazil. He was being held in the city of Natal to await extradition to face charges in the U.S.

Barnard, who faces 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct, was on the most-wanted list of the U.S. Marshals Service.

According to a criminal complaint in the U.S., two women said they were among about 10 girls and young women who were chosen to live apart from their families in a camp that Barnard set up near Finlayson, Minnesota, about 90 miles north of Minneapolis.

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UNITED STATESf
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

The Roman Catholic Church used to be a safe haven for gay priests and pedophile priests – where they were guaranteed to find gay partners in the most exclusive boys’ club on earth – and where they could tap on an ample source of supply of little boys (and girls) in Catholic churches packed with idiots Catholics, in parochial schools run by stupid Catholic nuns, in devout Pope John Paul II & rosary worshipping Catholic families, in rectories filled with adulating altar boys. And with additional perks to – the sure supply of gay men and little boys – priests had the backing of the Vatican Billions and the cover-up of bishops and cardinals and popes who imposed secrecy on their clandestine gay and pedophilia orgies – especially the two new saints John XXIII and John Paul II – thus making the Catholic Church as the most secure place for gay priests and pedophile priests to satiate their bestial priestly lust for gay men and young boys (and girls).

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JENNIFER BROOKS and LIZ SAWYER , Star Tribune staff writers Updated: February 28, 2015

His arrest on sexual assault charges ended global manhunt

A Minnesota cult leader who had been the subject of a yearlong global manhunt was arrested Saturday in a beach town in Brazil.

Victor Arden Barnard, 53, was wanted on 59 counts of sexual assault on girls and young women in the isolated religious community he founded in Pine County. The U.S. Marshals Service coordinated with Brazilian military and law enforcement officials, who arrested Barnard early Saturday. Pictures of a handcuffed Barnard appeared in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

The arrest took place in a condominium by Pipa Beach, considered one of Brazil’s most beautiful coastal locations. Barnard was reportedly staying with a 33-year-old Brazilian woman who previously lived in the U.S. Federal police confiscated religious papers, diaries, computers, flash drives and cellphones from the condo.

Two young women have told Minnesota investigators that Barnard raped them after they were chosen, at ages 12 and 13, to be separated from their families and live near him as part of a cloistered group he called his “maidens” in the River Road Fellowship near Finlayson.

One of the women who stepped forward to report Barnard was Lindsay Tornambe, who was 13 when Barnard informed her parents that he had chosen her to join the maidens. She told Pine County sheriff’s investigators that Barnard raped her soon afterward, and that the abuse continued for the next nine years.

“I am ready to have him locked up,” Tornambe told the Star Tribune. “As soon as I got the news, I started crying. It feels so surreal. I knew the day would come, but it finally came and it’s almost numbing.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Lorna Benson Minneapolis, Minn.
Feb 28, 2015

Victor Arden Barnard, wanted by Pine County for 59 counts of criminal sexual assault, was arrested Friday night in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. Marshals Service has confirmed.

Brazilian media outlets reported earlier in the day that the former Minnesota cult leader accused of sex crimes involving underage girls was taken in to custody at a beach condominium in the state of Rio Grande do Norte.

Barnard, 53, has been a fugitive since he was charged in Pine County last April. Pine County authorities allege that Barnard assaulted girls as young as 12 years old between 2000 and 2009. The girls were members of a Christian group Barnard led called the River Road Fellowship, based near Finlayson.

The arrest involved coordination between the U.S. Marshals Service International Investigations Branch and law enforcement and military in Brazil. Barnard will be held in Brazil until he is formally extradited to Pine County.

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MINNESOTA
Daily Mail

Fugitive American sect leader arrested in Brazil over allegations he sexually abused two girls at his Minnesota camp over a period of ten years

By Myriah Towner For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

A self-professed minister and one of America’s Most Wanted for allegedly molesting two girls in a ‘Maidens Group’ has been arrested following a year-long search, according to Brazilian authorities.

Victor Arden Barnard, 53, was captured late Friday in an apartment near paradisiacal white-sand Pipa Beach in northeastern Brazil, along with a 33-year-old Brazilian woman, who he was reportedly living with.

Authorities were eventually able to determine that Barnard was living in Brazil and coordinated efforts with Brazilian police to arrest him, according to CBS Minnesota.

He faces 59 counts of criminal misconduct after two women said they were among ten girls and women, who were chosen to live apart from their families and with him at his River Road Fellowship camp in rural Minnesota.

One woman alleged Barnard sexually abused her beginning at age 13 and continued until she was 22, while the other said her abuse occurred between the ages 12 and 20.

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MINNESOTA
Concord Monitor

By BRAD BROOKS and AMY FORLITI
Associated Press

Saturday, February 28, 2015
(Published in print: Sunday, March 1, 2015)

Brazilian authorities said yesterday they arrested a self-professed minister put on a U.S. most-wanted list for allegedly molesting two girls in a “Maidens Group” at his religious fellowship in rural Minnesota.

A statement posted on the website of the Public Security Secretariat for the Rio Grande do Norte state government reported the arrest of Victor Arden Barnard, 53. The U.S. Marshals Service also confirmed the arrest in a statement.

The Brazilian statement said the police captured Barnard late Friday in an apartment near a paradisiacal white-sand beach in northeastern Brazil. He was being held in the city of Natal to await extradition to face charges in the U.S.

Bernard, who faces 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct, was on the most-wanted list of the U.S. Marshals Service.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

[with video]

(ABC 6 News) — A Minnesota man wanted for 59 felony counts of criminal sexual assault from allegations that he abused young women while acting as their pastor was arrested in Brazil Friday.

According to the U.S. Marshals Service, District of Minnesota, 53-year-old Victor Arden Barnard was arrested in Pipa, Rio Grande do Norte—the northernmost part of Brazil.

Barnard allegedly assaulted young women at a compound he established in Finlayson called River Road Fellowship.

According to a report from the U.S. Marshals Service, Barnard recruited members from all over the country to attend services at the compound and convinced several of his followers to allow their daughters to live with him there.

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MINNESOTA
International Business Times

By Mark Hanrahan
@markdhanrahan m.hanrahan@ibtimes.com on March 01 2015

A fugitive Minnesota cult leader, who is wanted in connection with a long list of sex charges in the U.S. was arrested in Brazil Saturday, according to media reports.

Victor Arden Barnard, 53, was arrested late Friday by Brazil’s military police at a condominium in the beach resort of Pipa, on the southern coast of Rio Grande do Norte. Also arrested was a 33-year-old Brazilian woman, who police said was giving cover to Barnard, Brazil’s Globo News reported.

Barnard is wanted in the U.S. on 59 counts of sexual assault. A criminal complaint alleges that he sexually abused two girls, beginning from the time they were aged 12 and 13, for up to a decade.

In the mid 1990s, when Barnard was a Minnesota pastor, he set up an isolated religious community called “Shepard’s Camp”, in the town of Finlayson. and convinced some of his followers to send their first-born daughters to live with him there, where they were known as “the maidens”.

The girls lived under Barnard’s supervision, and sewed, cooked and cleaned for him. He reportedly told the girls that he was Christ on Earth. “Everything that a wife would do, they did for him,” Ruth Johnson, a former member of Barnard’s River Road Fellowship told CNN.

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BRAZIL
CNN

[with video]

By Steve Almasy, CNN
Updated 12:20 AM ET, Sun March 1, 2015

(CNN)Victor Arden Barnard, an American pastor wanted for 59 counts of sexual assaults in Minnesota, was arrested by Brazilian authorities on Friday, the office of the governor for the State of Rio Grande do Norte said Saturday.

The 53-year-old suspect was wanted by the Pine County, Minnesota, Sheriff’s Office for allegedly sexually abusing two young girls who were members of his church, the U.S Marshals Service said.

Barnard — who was featured on CNN’s “The Hunt With John Walsh” in 2014 and again earlier this week — was last seen in the United States in Raymond, Washington, in 2014.

In April of that year, prosecutors in Pine County, Minnesota, issued a criminal complaint that accused him of 59 felony counts of criminal sexual conduct. The manhunt began after a two-year investigation into allegations from two women about Barnard’s alleged conduct while he was preaching to a religious group in Finlayson, Minnesota.

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UNITED STATES
Sky News

A self-proclaimed pastor accused of systematically assaulting two young girls at his religious fellowship in the US has been arrested – 11 months after he went on the run.

Victor Arden Barnard, who was one of America’s most-wanted men, was detained by police in Brazil – following a raid on an idyllic apartment near a beach resort.

He faces 59 counts of sexual assault against the girls, who investigators believe were abused throughout their teenage years between 2000 and 2012.

They were among 10 young women who had moved away from their families to live at his camp in rural Minnesota – and both victims were apparently housed in isolation, enabling the abuse to take place.

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