Logan Riley and Brandon Keith Mitchell of Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania, made a big show of their efforts to secure custody of a baby boy through surrogacy.
Although they apparently started the process in 2019, the homosexual couple began hitting up strangers for cash in 2020 on GoFundMe to help expand their "family by using a gestational surrogate."
A Nov. 3, 2023, update on their now-deleted fundraising page stated: "Since our last post, we successfully created four embryos through an egg donor program in 2020. After three long years of searching, a family friend ... reached out in early 2023 to see if we were still looking. After multiple conversations and a great connection with her family, we decided to proceed."
The couple recently shared a compilation video on social media featuring them repeatedly kissing a baby boy reportedly in their custody.
The video was subsequently reshared on X by critics concerned about the boy's well-being as well as about homosexual adoption in general. Despite accusations of bigotry, it turns out that the critics were right to worry, as the boy is now allegedly in the custody of a registered sex offender.
State documents indicate that Mitchell, age 30 at the time, was arrested and charged in early February 2016 with three felony counts of possession of child pornography; endangering the welfare of children; corruption of a minor; felony sexual abuse of a minor; and felony photographing/videotaping sexual acts in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
RELATED: Gay marriage has a hidden cost — and children are paying the price
At the time of his arrest, he had been a chemistry teacher at Downingtown West High School for roughly five years.
According to a Pennsylvania Professional Standards and Practice Commission memo concerning Mitchell's voluntary surrender of his teacher's certificate, the pedophile engaged in sexually explicit communications with a minor student, "including asking the student for nude pictures, sending the student nude pictures and asking the student to masturbate on video so [Mitchell] could watch." The student was in his class.
The Delaware County Daily Times reported that when investigators executed a search warrant and checked Mitchell's electronic devices and phone records, they found over 12,000 text messages between the pedophile and the victim — conversations Mitchell asked the minor to delete.
"This defendant used his position of trust and authority to engage in serious misconduct with a student," Charles Gaza, then chief of staff of the Chester County District Attorney's Office, stated at the time. "As always in cases like this, where a teacher had access to hundreds of students over multiple years, the authorities are concerned that there may be other victims out there."
According to the Pennsylvania Sex Offender Registry, Mitchell was convicted in October 2016 for sexual abuse of children and for possession of child pornography. Reduxx reported that Mitchell was sentenced to 23 months in prison but was ultimately granted parole after just two months.
'Local authorities must investigate immediately.'
Years after his arrest, Mitchell reportedly "married" Riley, a second-grade teacher from Maryland.
Derek Blighe reposted the homosexual couple's celebratory baby video with the caption, "Unless a miracle happens, this child has almost no chance at a normal life."
Reduxx highlighted how Blighe was initially met with criticism from non-straight activists over his post, which had over 11.4 million views at the time of publication.
RELATED: The pipeline from 'gay marriage' to radical trans ideology
Nathan Hale, the host of "The Spin Cycle" podcast, wrote, "Imagine what would happen if he said this about a divorced mother, or a single father. But yet we tolerate hate because it’s a gay couple."
Another X user noted, "Makes me happy. That baby is going to be raised not to hate people and will be loved."
One leftist commentator suggested, "Being a homophobe in 2025 is such small d**k energy."
After it was revealed that Mitchell is a convicted pedophile, Blighe wrote, "Just wondering if online apologies are a thing on X?"
Bev Jackson, co-founder of the LGB Alliance, deleted her original response, which read, "That is homophobic. If the child has two loving male parents, there is no evidence whatsoever that he or she will not prosper."
Jackson wrote to Blighe, "If it is true that one of the men is a convicted sex offender, then I apologize - regarding this specific case."
Blaze News reached out to Mitchell for comment.
The division of the Pennsylvania State Police responsible for maintaining Mitchell's sex offender registration told Reduxx that the state does not automatically prohibit sex offenders from gaining custody or exercising parental rights over children.
The Keystone State prohibits sex offenders from adopting or fostering kids, but gestational surrogacy reportedly gives pedophiles such as Mitchell a workaround.
"Local authorities must investigate immediately, including exploring removal of the child as an urgent consideration," Helen Gibson of Surrogacy Concern told Reduxx. "Unfortunately this is not the first case of a sex offender procuring a child from a surrogate mother that we have come across; we fear this is the tip of the iceberg. Vetting of commissioning parents in surrogacy is virtually nonexistent and is not comparable with checks we see in adoption."
Even with the supposed checks in adoption, pedophiles still exploit the system.
For instance, an LGBT activist couple in Georgia were convicted in December of brutally sexually abusing their two adopted boys over the course of years. Blaze News previously reported that child rapists William Zulock and Zachary Zulock, who were accused of adopting the boys to produce child pornography, both pleaded guilty to numerous counts of aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, incest, and multiple counts of child exploitation of children.
The homosexual couple, who frequently hashtagged their social media posts "gayfamily," were both sentenced to serve 100 years in prison without parole.
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The Trump administration faced significant backlash over the Justice Department's July 6 conclusion that Jeffrey Epstein did not have a client list — a list that Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed in a Feb. 21 interview to have sitting on her desk.
While President Donald Trump has indicated he does not personally share the public's continued fascination with the Epstein case, he told reporters on July 15 that he would instruct his administration to release any "credible information."
'The FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.'
The DOJ, acting on Trump's instruction, is working to check off some items that appeared on Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk's list of "10 immediate credible action items" Bondi could take that might satisfy Americans' hunger for answers, namely pressing Epstein's former lover and co-conspirator for answers.
Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse minor girls as young as 14 with Epstein, going all the way back to the early 1990s.
According to evidence presented at her trial and allegations in court documents, Maxwell "assisted, facilitated, and participated in Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18."
In addition to grooming minors for abuse, Maxwell — whose father the Telegraph indicated was a newspaper baron who had "known links with MI6, the KGB, and the Israeli intelligence service Mossad" — apparently did her best to normalize the abuse, allegedly discussing sexual topics with the victims, undressing in front of them, hanging around when the victims were being stripped, and encouraging the victims to massage Epstein.
RELATED: Charlie Kirk outlines '10 immediate credible action items' Pam Bondi can take on Epstein case
Besides Epstein, it is unlikely there is anybody more familiar with the monstrous operation than Maxwell.
A source close to Maxwell recently told the Daily Mail that the convicted groomer "would be more than happy to sit before Congress and tell her story."
"No one from the government has ever asked her to share what she knows," said the unnamed source. "She remains the only person to be jailed in connection to Epstein, and she would welcome the chance to tell the American public the truth."
'No lead is off-limits.'
Charlie Kirk recommended that all of Maxwell's grand jury testimony should be unsealed and that the administration should "green-light Maxwell to speak freely and learn what she knows."
"President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in statement on Tuesday. "If Ghislane [sic] Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say."
Blanche indicated that he reached out to Maxwell's counsel at Bondi's direction "to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department."
RELATED: Why the Epstein story cannot be buried
"I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days," continued Blanche. "Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government. That changes now."
"No one is above the law," Blanche added in a separate message, "and no lead is off-limits."
While the convicted sex offender might volunteer some satisfactory insights, it's clear that the DOJ is not budging in the meantime on its conclusion regarding the existence of the Epstein list.
Blanche noted that the DOJ and FBI's controversial conclusion "remains as accurate today as it was when it was written. Namely, that in the recent thorough review of the files maintained by the FBI in the Epstein case, no evidence was uncovered that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!The Department of Homeland Security has publicly blasted a left-leaning media outlet for its seemingly sympathetic coverage of illegal immigrants who have been convicted of child sex crimes.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the arrest of 11 illegal aliens convicted of sex crimes in the Minneapolis area between June 6 and June 11. The illegal immigrants are from Laos and Thailand, and some were convicted of committing sexual abuse against children.
'Why does the media continue to peddle sob stories of criminal illegal aliens — including child pedophiles — but ignore their American victims?'
"Under Tim Walz’s leadership, these depraved individuals have been walking freely around Minneapolis with impunity terrorizing American children," the DHS stated.
DHS public affairs Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, "These pedophiles and sex offenders are the sickos our brave ICE law enforcement are putting their lives on the line to arrest and remove from American communities."
"Governor Walz and his fellow sanctuary politicians are fighting to keep these sex offenders and other criminal illegal aliens in our country," McLaughlin continued. "Instead of comparing ICE to the Nazi-Gestapo, Governor Walz should be thanking our law enforcement for removing these pedophiles from Minnesota."
Photos of the arrested sexual predators were posted by the official X social media account for the Homeland Security Investigations field office in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
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Earlier this month, the Minnesota Star Tribune reacted to the arrest of the illegal aliens convicted of sex crimes by publishing an article with the headline, "Two dozen Hmong Minnesotans await deportation to Laos after new round of ICE arrests." The subheadline for the article read: "The deportations bring anxiety to the Hmong community, and accusations of cultural misunderstanding."
The Minnesota Star Tribune noted, "Two dozen Hmong men who have lived in Minnesota for decades are being held in Minnesota and Iowa jails awaiting deportation, according to the executive director of a Twin Cities-based Hmong advocacy organization."
The Minnesota Star Tribune claimed that the sex offenders may not have understood the U.S. laws that bar adults from marrying 14-year-old girls because of their culture.
The left-leaning news outlet stated, "Some Hmong Minnesotans say they suspect many of the decades-old arrests that led to the deportations were a result of Hmong culture encouraging girls as young as 14 to date and even marry older men, which is against U.S. law."
"Their lives in Southeast Asia often lacked education, several Hmong Minnesotans said, and it’s not uncommon that they didn’t understand American laws," the newspaper contended.
State Sen. Foung Hawj – a Democrat – told the Minnesota Star Tribune that when Hmong people – an ethnic group with origins in East Asia – come to the United States, they don't know American marriage laws prohibit marrying underage children.
"These are people whose parents fought and died for this country, and they don’t know what the repercussions are of sending them back to our enemy state," Hawj said. "Here we are, sending their children back over some petty misdemeanor, or things like early marriage that are transitioned by culture."
The Minnesota Star Tribune wrote:
Cher Her of St. Paul, a surgical instrument repair technician who was there buying medicinal herbs, said people with extensive, violent criminal records deserve deportation.
But he pointed out the cultural complications in a Hmong culture where people often marry young. He married at 16; he’s now 41, married to the same woman, and has eight kids. He’s been a U.S. citizen for decades. He worries how shifting deportation tactics could affect his brother, who got in trouble with the law as a teen but has since matured and has a job, wife, and family.
The Department of Homeland Security blasted the Minnesota Star Tribune's "reporting" on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of "child pedophile criminal illegal aliens."
The DHS highlighted the arrest of Chia Neng Vue, who is described as a "criminal illegal alien pedophile" convicted of criminal sexual conduct with a child under 13 years old in 1998. Vue was also previously arrested for committing a crime for the benefit of a gang, domestic assault, and a violation of a domestic abuse no-contact order.
McLaughlin unloaded on the Minnesota Star Tribune's reporting.
"We have seen a lot of gross reporting, but this may take gold for despicable," McLaughlin began.
"There is no excuse for anyone to commit crimes against innocent children," McLaughlin added.
"This illegal alien repeatedly broke our laws, committed sex and other violent crimes," she said before asking, "Why does the media continue to peddle sob stories of criminal illegal aliens — including child pedophiles — but ignore their American victims?"
McLaughlin concluded, "Instead of glorifying child pedophiles and violent criminal illegal aliens, the Minnesota Star Tribune should be thanking our law enforcement for removing these pedophiles from Minnesota."
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Georgia authorities arrested 19 men over the course of a four-day sting operation aimed at flushing out sexual predators keen to molest and/or traffic children. Among those charged was a failed Democratic politician who apparently previously discussed killing President Donald Trump online.
While ultimately executed from April 24 to 28 by the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the Georgia Internet Crimes against Children Task Force, Operation Lights Out was apparently the result of months of planning and the collaboration of 12 law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Secret Service.
Undercover investigators posing as children engaged in conversation with various suspects on social media, dating websites, and other online platforms. In a number of exchanges, suspects allegedly "directed conversations with the child toward sex."
According to the GBI, 35 cases were established that met the threshold for arrest on the basis of the investigators' interactions online. However, in the 19 cases that ultimately resulted in arrests, suspects attempted to meet the "child" in person.
In some of these cases, suspects provided authorities additional cause to make an arrest, allegedly sharing pornography and other obscene content to the individual they figured for a child or asking the "child" to produce and send child pornography.
The arrestees, whose ages range from 21 to 68 and included at least three illegal aliens, "traveled from areas around Columbus, Georgia, with the intent to meet a child for sex," said the GBI. "GBI digital forensic investigators were on hand during the operation to forensically process 21 electronic devices that were seized as evidence during the operation."
Carl Sprayberry, a Democrat who ran last year for election to the Georgia House of Representatives but lost in a landslide to Republican state Rep. Carmen Rice, was among the suspected predators charged with human trafficking.
'Closely monitor your children to ensure they are not communicating with these individuals.'
According to the Gateway Pundit, Sprayberry tweeted in February from his now-suspended X account, "Donald Trump has committed an act of High Treason. Should Congress refuse to take action, he will be killed by the people, as per the Second Amendment's existence."
In a subsequent post, Sprayberry reportedly implied that a U.S. Secret Service agent "should shoot him," adding, "It's time to kill Trump. This is why the Second Amendment exists."
In a Feb. 19 tweet, he apparently wrote, "bomb Mar-a-lago," the president's Florida residence.
When campaigning against Rice, Sprayberry called his Republican opponent an "extremist who is out of touch with Americans" and characterized her pro-life views as "morally repugnant."
Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman said during a press conference on Wednesday, "It takes a sick individual to want to take away a right that a child has and the freedom and the safety and the comfort that a child has to bring harm to these children."
"There were no children at harm at all in this," said Brian Johnston, GBI special agent in charge. "Had we not been there as law enforcement working in an undercover capacity, these very same perpetrators that were arrested would have been talking to our children in our community and they would have been talking about sexual acts and meeting up for sexual acts and exchanging pornography."
"I want to make a plea with parents to closely monitor your children to ensure they are not communicating with these individuals," said Countryman. "These predators will travel from near and far to victimize your children. We take these crimes against children very seriously. It will be our focus to find these predators so they may be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
GBI noted that individuals with information about these cases or other cases of child exploitation in Georgia should contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit at 404-270-8870 or report via the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline at CyberTipline.org.
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A New York City Police Department officer allegedly sent obscene material to an undercover cop posing as a 14-year-old girl, according to authorities.
Travis DeSouza — a 35-year-old NYPD officer of Briarwood — was charged with attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors in the first degree, official misconduct, obscenity in the third degree, and attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child. If convicted, DeSouza faces up to four years in prison.
'I should be telling you to stop ... but your maturity and the way you act is different.'
DeSouza — who was released without bail Thursday, according to court records — reportedly worked in the Law Enforcement Explorers program at the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn.
The program "provides young men and women from the city's diverse communities with an introduction to a career in law enforcement or a related field in the criminal justice system."
"Explorers are taught the importance of higher education, self-discipline, and respect for diversity and human dignity through training, involvement in community service projects, and other Exploring events," the program description states.
The program is said to employ "positive adult role models," including "law enforcement officers who help young adults see officers as fellow human beings."
The program is "geared" toward young people ages 14 to 20.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a Friday statement: "On October 3, 2024, at approximately 5:49 p.m., an undercover officer, posing as a 14-year-old girl, met with DeSouza, who oversaw the program. DeSouza asked for the undercover officer’s age, and she told DeSouza that she was 14. The undercover officer asked DeSouza for his phone number, and he provided it."
The undercover officer reportedly had conversations with DeSouza on the Snapchat app from Oct. 8 to Oct. 10.
The DA's office stated, "On October 10, at approximately 10:11 p.m., DeSouza allegedly told the undercover, 'You something else.' About a minute later, DeSouza sent the undercover a photo of a man wearing boxer shorts with his hand on his genitals."
Citing the criminal complaint, the New York Post reported that the undercover agent asked DeSouza on Snapchat: "What’s under those shorts?"
DeSouza reportedly replied, "Something big, maybe more than you can handle."
DeSouza allegedly set the social media messages to disappear immediately.
The Post noted that DeSouza acknowledged the age difference and allegedly told the undercover cop, "And I don’t know even why you got me thinking things I shouldn’t because of how far we are of age LOL I should be telling you to stop ... but your maturity and the way you act is different."
DeSouza allegedly sent some of the illicit messages from a New York Police Department building in Queens.
DeSouza has been suspended without pay from the NYPD, according to the department.
Katz stated, “As alleged, this defendant took advantage of his position with the NYPD to prey on someone he thought was a 14-year-old who happened to be a police officer on assignment."
Katz continued, "The Explorers is an amazing program and our kids need to trust and have faith in its leaders. Although he was told that the ‘girl’ was just 14, the defendant allegedly sent explicit content to her. Thank you to our partners in the NYPD for their assistance with this investigation."
DeSouza is scheduled to return to court on June 11.
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Joseph Seiders, the 44-year-old drummer for the indie rock group the New Pornographers, was charged earlier this month for alleged possession of child pornography, annoying/molesting a child, invasion of privacy, concealing a camera with intent to invade privacy, and attempting to conceal a camera without consent.
The Riverside County Sheriff's Office revealed Thursday that deputies assigned to the Palm Desert Sheriff's Station were alerted on April 7 to a "suspicious circumstance" involving an 11-year-old boy. The child claimed that a man had filmed him using the restroom. According to jail records, the incident took place in the restroom of a Chick-Fil-A.
Deputies received a second report at the same location on April 9. An employee indicated that the man from the previous incident, later identified as Seiders, was "entering and exiting the restroom with juvenile males at the business."
Deputies apprehended the alleged molester and booked him into the John Benoit Detention Center in Indio, California.
According to the RCSO, the Palm Desert Station Investigations Bureau searched Seiders' residence, vehicle, and cell phone, finding evidence that allegedly implicated him in the two reported incidents at the Chick-Fil-A as well as additional crimes, including the possession of child pornography.
At the time of publication, Seiders — dubbed the "cocktail drummer" by the Daily Beast — was still in jail with his bail set at $1 million.
Seiders' band, the New Pornographers, said in a statement, "Everyone in the band is absolutely shocked, horrified and devastated by the news of the charges against Joe Seiders — and we have immediately severed all ties with him."
"Our hearts go out to everyone who has been impacted by his actions," added the band.
The New Pornographers made Rolling Stone's list of top 100 bands of the 2000s and performed on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." The Guardian noted that the band reached No. 13 in the U.S. charts in 2014 with its album "Brill Bruisers."
The band with the alleged pedophile drummer has been highly critical of President Donald Trump, bashing him in a Rolling Stone article and noting in 2017, "Trump got 4% of the vote in DC. Where are we most popular? DC. Make of that what you will."
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A grand jury in Oklahoma indicted Robert Morris, founding pastor of the popular Texas-based Gateway Church, on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. The Wednesday indictment concerns alleged sexual abuse that dates back to the 1980s.
Cindy Clemishire, the victim by Morris' own admission, expressed relief that after four decades, the former pastor might finally have to answer for his alleged crimes.
"There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children," Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement. "This case is all the more despicable because the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done."
Prior to his resignation in June as senior pastor, Morris admitted in a statement to the Christian Post, "When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying. It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years."
Clemishire suggested that by "young lady," the former pastor actually meant a 12-year-old girl.
"He says there was no sexual intercourse, but he did touch every part of my body and inserted his fingers into me, which I understand now is considered a form of rape by instrumentation," said Clemishire. "I was an innocent 12-year-old little girl who knew nothing about sexual behavior."
"I was 12 years old. I was a little girl. A very innocent little girl," added Clemishire, now in her 50s.
Clemishire first publicly accused Morris in June, telling the Wartburg Watch, a watchdog blog that details incidents of abuse within various churches, about how Morris morphed from family friend to villain.
'The law has finally caught up with Robert Morris.'
Clemishire indicated that she and her family first met Morris in 1981 at a youth revival in Tulsa. Morris was subsequently invited to participate in a youth revival in Clemishire's hometown of Hominy, Oklahoma, then began regularly preaching in town. He soon befriended Clemishire's family, staying with them on occasion.
While visiting with the family on Dec. 25, 1982, Morris allegedly told Clemishire to go to his room and then molested her. According to Clemishire, Morris repeated this behavior until 1987.
When the girl's father found out about the abuse, he reportedly informed the head pastor of Shady Grove Church, where Morris was then a pastor, and threatened to involve law enforcement unless the alleged pedophile abandoned the ministry.
Morris told the Christian Post, "In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of. I submitted myself to the Elders of Shady Grove Church and the young lady’s father. They asked me to step out of ministry and receive counseling and freedom ministry, which I did. Since that time, I have walked in purity and accountability in this area."
Morris apparently stepped down for two years — a resume gap Morris attributed to an excess in pride in his 2011 book "From Dream to Destiny."
The former pastor suggested further that when he rejoined the ministry in March 1989, he had the blessing of the victim's father and church elders.
When Clemishire went public with her story, the Gateway Church's board of elders downplayed their founder's alleged pedophilia and characterized Morris as a purified man, stating, "Since the resolution of this 35-year-old matter, there have been no other moral failures. Pastor Robert has walked in purity, and he has placed accountability measures and people in his life."
The church's board of elders changed its tune amid growing backlash, announcing on June 18 that it had accepted Morris' resignation and retained a law firm to "conduct an independent, thorough, and professional review of the report of past abuse to ensure we have a complete understanding of the events from 1982-1987."
The five instances where Morris allegedly molested Clemishire identified in the criminal indictment all took place between Dec. 25, 1982, and Jan. 24, 1985.
Clemishire's attorney suggested last year that the statute of limitations for criminal or civil action had likely run out. However, Drummond's office indicated that the "statute of limitations is not applicable in this case because Morris was not a resident or inhabitant of Oklahoma at any time."
Each of the sexual battery counts with which Morris has been charged are punishable by three to 20 years in prison.
Clemishire said in a Wednesday statement obtained by the New York Times, "After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me."
"My family and I are deeply grateful to the authorities who have worked tirelessly to make this day possible and remain hopeful that justice will ultimately prevail," added Clemishire.
Gateway Church said in a statement Wednesday, "We are aware of the actions being taken by the legal authorities in Oklahoma and are grateful for the work of the justice system in holding abusers accountable for their actions."
"We continue to pray for Cindy Clemishire and her family, for the members and staff of Gateway Church, and for all of those impacted by this terrible situation," added the church.
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A Catholic priest who once worked in Maryland and Louisiana will soon be deported to his native Colombia after he impregnated a teenage girl and lied in the process of obtaining U.S. citizenship.
On Monday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana announced that Jorge Antonio Velez-Lopez, 69, had been "civilly denaturalized as a United States citizen" after District Judge Dee Drell sentenced him to 12 months in prison for passport fraud.
Velez's case actually started all the way back in 2001, when he moved from Bogota, Colombia, to serve in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Within a few years, whispers began that he had been having an inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl. According to a 2023 investigative report issued by the Maryland Attorney General's Office, he was even caught naked in bed with the girl, though both separately denied it.
The complaints against Velez were initially not deemed credible. However, they eventually "cast some doubt regarding Father Velez’s ability to minister effectively," according to a 2010 letter written by an individual identified in the AG report only as Official B, and the archdiocese stripped Velez of his ministerial "faculties" there, the AG report said.
Velez was then transferred to the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana. Before he left Baltimore, however, the girl became pregnant with Velez's child. While in Louisiana, Velez signed an affidavit acknowledging that he is the father of the child, and the child's birth certificate lists him as the father, the AG report said.
The victim claimed the sexual relationship with Velez began when she was just 15 years old, the AG report said. Velez claimed it began in June 2005, according to the U.S. attorney's office press release, when he 49.
'We will ensure that justice is done.'
Meanwhile in 2013, Velez took steps to become a naturalized citizen. During that process, he swore under penalty of perjury on his application that "he had never committed a crime for which he had not been arrested." He also swore that he had never given "false or misleading information ... for an immigration benefit" or "lied to any U.S. Government official to gain entry or admission to the U.S.," the press release from the U.S. attorney's office said.
He later confirmed during an oral interview with an immigration officer that he had never lied or given false or misleading statements to secure citizenship, the press release said.
So in May 2013, Velez took the Oath of Allegiance and became a U.S. citizen. Four months later, he applied for a U.S. passport and his citizenship certificate. Once again, Velez swore under penalty of perjury that he had not submitted any false documents as part of the application.
By 2016, the victim had come forward and reported the abuse by Velez. "When confronted, Velez admitted that everything the victim said was true," the AG report said.
That same year, the Diocese of Alexandria issued a decree declaring that "well-founded allegations of sexual misconduct with a female minor" had been leveled against Velez and that he had been removed from his duties at two local parishes, his Hispanic outreach, and his ministerial work at a federal prison.
In 2020, Velez was arrested in Maryland and charged with five counts of third-degree sex offense and one count of fourth-degree sex offense. The following year, he pled guilty to sexual abuse of a minor for whom he had temporary responsibility for supervising and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, though 16 years of that sentence was suspended, leaving him to serve nine years.
Since then, Velez has been locked up in Jessup Correctional Institution in Maryland. He has also been forced to register as a sex offender.
Velez will remain in the U.S. until he completes both his state-level sentence related to child sexual abuse and federal-level sentence for passport fraud. Once they are over, he will be remanded to the custody of ICE and deported back to Colombia. Whether he has been laicized by the Catholic Church remains unclear.
"The United States Department of Justice, ICE, and our other federal law enforcement partners will use every tool in our arsenal to protect children and will prosecute and seek deportation of those who fraudulently obtain U.S. citizenship," said acting United States Attorney Alexander Van Hook.
"This case sends a clear message to individuals who commit any type of sexual offense, particularly those involving children, during the naturalization process — we will ensure that justice is done," said acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth.
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Since the rent-a-womb industry is expected to continue growing at a rapid rate, it’s only logical to conclude that heartwrenching cases like that of this boy will only continue.
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