Pastors Arrested in Widespread Clergy Abuse Probes

Across recent reports, multiple pastors are facing serious sex-crime charges in different states. In Kansas, 70-year-old Wade Booth, longtime pastor of the First Baptist Church of Pleasanton, is charged with felony counts including unlawful sexual relations with a minor and witness intimidation and is being held on a $750,000 bond. Booth’s ministry stretches across Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas, with a career dating back to the late 1970s and a current tenure in Pleasanton since 2007. In Indiana, 62-year-old Daniel Willis, a Terre Haute pastor, faces ten counts of possession of child sex abuse material after a statewide ICAC investigation that seized digital media and identified under-12 victims. In Florida, a St. Johns traveling youth pastor, Deshawn Keith Collier, is alleged to have sexually abused a 14-year-old boy, even paying him for acts over more than two years, with questions arising about possible school employment. The reports note ongoing investigations and statements from affected churches, families, or authorities, with some details still awaiting comment.