This is Part 25 of an ongoing series on sexual abuse in the United Pentecostal Church. I am going to start covering a few cases on which I don’t have as much detailed information as I have on some of the prior cases I’ve covered. When/if I have more details, I will either update these articles or write a new one with the additional information.
Michael Rodney Jones was born on November 19, 1970 and at the time of these events he was married with four young children; three girls and a boy. He came from a broken home and started drug use at an early age and later became addicted to marijuana and cocaine. In his mid-20s, he made his way to the Salvation Army’s adult rehabilitation program where he began his recovery and later ended up at an an affiliated UPCI church called Norfolk Apostolic Church, where for decades Michael Blankenship has been the pastor. He became a licensed minister. The church is located at 3131 Azalea Garden Road in Norfolk, Virginia. At the time when he was interviewed by The Virginian-Pilot in 2007, he had allegedly been clean for ten years and was very involved at the church. His older brother Marcus, now deceased, had been the pastor over the church outreach to the Lawrenceville jail.
Michael Rodney Jones first appears in the 2005 edition of the UPCI Directory, indicating that he first obtained his local license in 2004. (Directories are issued in January of each year and are more reflective of the prior year.) The license was granted by the Virginia District of the UPCI when Jack Cunningham was the District Superintendent and Michael Blankenship was the District Secretary. As of the writing of this article, Jack Cunningham and Michael Blankenship yet hold these positions. In 2006 he received a general license, as is reflected in the 2007 UPCI Directory. He is last seen in the 2015 Directory with a general license, which was the year of his arrest. During the entire time he held license, he was part of the Virginia District of the UPCI. He was an associate pastor, youth pastor, musical director and worship leader at the Norfolk Apostolic Church. (This PDF flow chart shows since at least January 2014, Michael Rodney Jones was an associate pastor at Norfolk Apostolic Church.) Jones had also been the director of the Alcohol Chemical Treatment Series program at the church, though I am unsure if he still was at the time of his arrest. The following crimes were committed while he held general license.
As soon as I can start to take responsibility for what I am then I can start to change,” he said. “You have to have a vision for your life and for what you want your life to be. – Michael Rodney Jones, 2007 interview
On December 3, 2014, Michael Rodney Jones entered the home of a fellow associate pastor in his early 50s and installed a camera in the bathroom. With this he captured nude images of the man’s wife and 19-year-old daughter. After four months of secret surveillance, on April 8, 2015, he again entered the home, this time placing one or two cameras in the daughter’s bedroom, facing them toward her bed. Video surveillance at the home caught him entering through the back door and police were notified by the owner that day. According to news reports, Jones was fired from his positions at the Norfolk Apostolic Church on April 9, 2015.
On April 17th, 2015, Michael Rodney Jones was arrested. He was charged with burglary under Virginia code 18.2-92, which is a class 6 felony. It is a charge for breaking and entering with the intent to commit a misdemeanor. He was also charged twice under Virginia code 18.2-386.1, a class 1 misdemeanor. This is the charge is when a person “knowingly and intentionally create(s) any videographic or still image” of a “nonconsenting person if that person is totally nude, clad in undergarments, or in a state of undress so as to expose the genitals, pubic area, buttocks or female breast.” If the person being photographed is under the age of 18, it would be a class 6 felony. These are Norfolk Circuit Court Criminal cases CR15001264-00, CR15001264-01 and CR15001264-02. In addition he was charged under Virginia code 18.2-89, a class 3 felony, which was later amended to 18.2-92. This is case CR15001265-00. The church had given Jones an Apple Macbook laptop and this was seized during the execution of a search warrant on his home.
I do want to point out it’s not the ministry that failed, it’s a man that failed. – Pastor Michael Blankenship, 2015 interview
Soon after being charged with these crimes, Michael Rodney Jones entered a plea of guilty on July 9, 2015. On January 22, 2016, he was sentenced to “ten years for two counts of burglary and 24 months for two counts of taking nude video without consent of the subject. Norfolk Circuit Court Judge Joseph Migliozzi suspended the 10-year felony sentence.” (source) For the two felony counts, Jones was placed on supervised probation that was to start the day of his sentencing and last three years. On September 20, 2018 he requested an early release from probation that was granted on the 24th. It appears he was charged court costs of $1,378.00 as well as $2,400.00 for restitution. He didn’t pay much of a price for what he did in violating the privacy of these two women.
His actions cause one to wonder how long activity like this had been going on. Did he do, or attempt to do, the same or similar to others? What a horrible invasion of someone’s privacy. What would have been his next act, had he not been caught after installing the other camera? Something like this isn’t a spur of the moment event. It took careful planning and it happened twice. He now gets to go on his merry way, while these women will forever remember what was done to them.
The week that Jones was arrested, pastor Michael Blankenship was supposed to be on vacation, but that was cancelled due to what happened. He shared in a sermon on April 12 that it turned out to be one of the worst weeks in his life. Near the end he stated, “But your brothers’ failure, or your sisters’ failure, is not a license for you to fail. It should be a warning that should rattle you to your core and cause you to come to this altar and find God and say, ‘God, I wanna talk about my cup, not his cup or her cup. It’s my cup I wanna deal with.’ The Spirit of the Lord is sending, and has sent, a purifying fire on Norfolk Apostolic Church and he is uncovering sin and is cleaning things up. I doubt that it is done because I think there’s a number of things that are very contrary. But the good news is, it’s not the enemy’s fire, it’s the Lord’s fire.” When he started to address 1 Timothy 5:20-21, the video goes silent as he most likely directly addressed what had been happening. The message is cut short due to this. Then on April 15, 2015 he preached on betrayal and processing hurts.
Added April 10, 2020:
In a similar situation at another Oneness Pentecostal Church in Silsbee, Texas, on March 4, 2020 21-year-old Noah Quillen was arrested. It is alleged that he set up cameras in at least two homes of members of the First Pentecostal Church where Homer Looper is pastor. Quillen has been charged with burglary of a habitation, possession to promote child pornography and invasive visual recording. It was shared that one of the homeowners discovered a camera and called the office of Sheriff Mark Davis. For more details, see this news report.
June 4, 2022 Edit: A follow up on Michael Rodney Jones being used in leadership positions at another UPCI church is found here.
Articles:
Norfolk man converts from addict to minister and drug counselor – October 17, 2007 (old article on Jones and his work with addicts through the church)
Former Norfolk pastor accused of spying on young woman via hidden surveillance camera – May 6, 2015 (includes video)
Ex-Norfolk pastor sentenced for taking nude videos of woman, teen – January 25, 2016
Ex-Norfolk pastor sentenced for sneaking into house, taking nude video – January 25, 2016
Ex-Norfolk pastor sentenced for taking nude videos of woman, teen – January 25, 2016 (June 4, 2022 edit: Link is no longer available and is excluded from Wayback.)
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
Hello,
You’re right about this not being a spur of the moment thing that he did. I am disgusted to learn he is now free. I am a relative of this man and a victim. I wouldn’t mind emailing you with my story. He is a sick man and deserves to rot in hell.
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You will find our contact page here: http://www.spiritualabuse.org/contact.html
Can confirm this man had a pattern of preying on young women throughout his time at NAC. I grew up in this church and he was the youth pastor for a little bit even after his pattern of preying on young girls was made aware to the pastor.
We always knew something was off with him because his sermons were 95% of the time on sexual sin.