Author: Lois | Page 18 | Spiritual Abuse Blogs

United Pentecostal Minister Tony Wayne Sasnett: Sexual Abuse Conviction

This is Part 26 of an ongoing series on sexual abuse in the United Pentecostal Church. I have started to cover a few cases on which I don’t have as much detailed information as I have on some others. When/if I have more details, I will either update these articles or write a new one with the additional information.

Tony Wayne Sasnett was born June 27, 1976 and at the time of his crimes he was married with three school-aged children. He was a project manager at Allied Communications and this is where he was arrested. Since at least September 2013, Tony Wayne Sasnett was the home Bible study director at Greater Faith Apostolic Church located at 3412 Clays Mill Road in Lexington, Kentucky. William J. McGraw has been the pastor for decades. While the church quickly removed the information about him from their website, it is archived in Wayback as seen by this screenshot. He preached at the Greater Faith Apostolic Church at least as far back as 2010 (screenshot).

Sasnett first appears in the 2013 edition of the UPCI Directory, indicating that he obtained his local license in 2012. (Directories are issued in January of each year and are more reflective of the prior year.) The license was granted by the Kentucky District of the UPCI when Scott Marshall was the District Superintendent and William J. McGraw was a Presbyter. As of the writing of this article, Marshall yet holds this position but McGraw does not. Sasnett last appears in the 2016 Directory, which is the year of his arrest. He was the Section E leader for the Kentucky District’s North American Missions Team (screenshot and PDF file).

On February 11, 2016, Tony Wayne Sasnett was arrested at his place of employment. On February 12, he was officially charged with one count of the prohibited use of an electronic communication system, one count of sexual abuse and five counts of third degree rape of a 16 year old girl, who he met at church. In Kentucky third degree rape, a class D felony, in part occurs when the perpetrator is ten or more years older than a person who is sixteen or seventeen years old. All the crimes happened when she was 16. The sexual abuse charge came from an incident that happened in August 2015 that didn’t involve intercourse. Then in a parking lot in October, he initiated sex by telling her, “I’m in charge now,” and that’s when he first raped her. At a preliminary hearing on February 23, one of the rape charges was dropped when it was realized it happened in Jessamine County and not Fayette County. He was being held in jail on a $17,500 bond, which was reduced to $10,000 and he was forbidden the use of any electronic communication system. At the time he plead not guilty. The judge sent the case to a grand jury to review the charges to determine if there was enough evidence to send it to trial. As a part-time employee at Greater Faith Apostolic Church, he was fired after his arrest.

According to news reports (source), on February 23 Detective Tyler Smith testified that Sasnett met the girl when she was ten and threatened her that she would be banned from mission trips and wouldn’t be able to attend the church if she told anyone what was happening. Smith testified that Sasnett “escalated the relationship with the victim from a joke about a massage to sex in parked cars and in Sasnett’s home.” He had sex with her five times and on her phone she had sexually explicit text messages and a nude photo request from him. His victim repeatedly tried to end his contact with her, even asking him in a text message, “I don’t understand why you want to have sex with me because I’m a 16-year-old girl and you have a wife at home.” Part of what was involved in this case is that Sasnett, being a minister and leader in the church, was in a position of trust with the victim. That makes his crimes more serious and usually the punishment is more severe. Any person who holds such a position and sexually abuses someone attending the church is abusing their position of trust. Though his attorney fought the charge, the judge ruled that Sasnett was in a position of trust.

On December 7, 2016, Tony Wayne Sasnett either was convicted, or made a plea agreement (I assume the latter), under Kentucky Revised Statute 510.155, a class D felony which is the “unlawful use of electronic means originating or received within the Commonwealth to induce a minor to engage in sexual or other prohibited activities” and 510.110 [1], another class D felony, which is sexual abuse in the first degree. He was sentenced to one year for the electronic charge and five years for sexual abuse and it appears they are running concurrently. Sasnett is presently incarcerated at the Northpoint Training Center, a medium security prison on Walter Reed Road in Burgin, Kentucky. His expected release date is February 6, 2021. Due to the serious nature of the charges, they do not allow for parole. This is case 16CR303 in Fayette County.

May 13, 2022 update: Tony Sasnett was released from prison in early February 2021. He quickly moved back to Oklahoma. He is a lifetime registered sex offender and lives in Oklahoma. See here.

Sermons by Tony Sasnett:
(5-13-22 Edit: These links are no longer valid)
May 12, 2010
September 28, 2011
January 12, 2013

Articles:
Lexington Church Employee Arrested, Charged With Rape – February 12, 2016
Lexington Bible study director charged with five counts of rape – February 12, 2016
Lexington church worker charged with rape – February 12, 2016
Man with ties to church in Lexington accused of rape – February 13, 2016
Detective: Church worker used his position to pressure 16-year-old into sex – February 23, 2016
Former Bible Study Director In Court On Rape Charges – February 23, 2016
Case against former Lexington preacher moves forward – February 23, 2016

Kentucky Online Offender Lookup (and for when that link is no longer valid go here and here.)

You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.

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United Pentecostal Minister Michael Rodney Jones: Caught Capturing Nude Images of A Minister’s Wife & Daughter

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 and still did in 2024. 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.

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United Pentecostal Church Rules Regarding Sexual Immorality & Ministers

The United Pentecostal Church makes it quite clear in their yearly Manuals that if a person is guilty of committing immoral conduct regarding sexual matters, that they are not eligible to be licensed. If such happens while they hold license with them, their license is to be revoked and never reinstated. In addition, such people are not supposed to be ministering in any of their churches, whether or not they hold license. Yet despite what appears to be very clear directives, one discovers that for years there have been men holding license who have been immoral, as well as people preaching in their churches who have been immoral.

Let’s go straight to the 2019 UPCI Manual. These four rules have been in place since at least 1991, with most of it being in effect since at least 1965. In their 1952 to 1957 Manuals, they had a reinstatement procedure in place for ministers who they believed had repented of adultery or fornication. Other immoral acts were not noted. The repentant individual would be silenced for two years and then could apply for a one year probation of being permitted to preach, followed by them being able to apply only for a local license. They were never to be allowed more than a general license. [1952 UPCI Manual screenshot] By the 1965 Manual or prior, this reinstatement process was no longer in place. (For information on their three levels of licensing, read this.)

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Article VII Section 9. Immoral Conduct. [2019 UPCI Manual screenshot]
1. For the purpose of ministerial membership in the United Pentecostal Church International or for ministering in a United Pentecostal Church International church, immoral conduct shall be defined as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, incest, and/or any other sexual acts determined by the District Board to be perverted or immoral (Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:9; I Corinthians 6:9; Romans 1:24-28). [Bold emphasis mine- This shows that even if one does not hold license, they should not be welcomed to preach in a UPC church.]

2. Any minister affiliated with our organization proven guilty of adultery or fornication, or committing any other immoral offense, shall forfeit his or her papers immediately. Immoral offense shall include sexual molestation of minors. [Note: The last sentence wasn’t added until the 2003 edition.]

3. In the event a minister confesses in writing to immoral conduct and surrenders his or her fellowship card, no trial shall be granted. In either case, such minister shall never be qualified for reinstatement into the ministry of the United Pentecostal Church International.

4. Any minister formerly affiliated with any other organization, (or any other minister) who has been proven guilty of committing the act of adultery or fornication, or committing any other immoral offense, either by confession or conviction, shall not be eligible for license or ordination in the United Pentecostal Church International.

Then under Section 10, Moral Obligations, it quotes two sets of Bible passages: I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9 without any commentary.

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Last October I wrote about one such case from Colorado, where a former youth leader received his UPCI license after having allegedly committed an immoral act. He obtained it in a different state and is yet licensed today. There is another case from Colorado which I will be writing about, where another youth minister from this same church was able to retain his license for years after allegedly assaulting several boys. In February I wrote about a case in Texas where a licensed minister allegedly committed immoral acts in the 1980s while a pastor. He either turned in or lost his license and was granted another in 2004 in a different state, where he is currently the pastor of an affiliated UPCI church.

I’ve written extensively about Steven J. Dahl who, while he never held license with the UPCI, he has been allowed to preach at their churches after repeatedly sexually abusing Debbie McNulty and also going after his wife’s younger sister. One of the pastors at Calvary Gospel Church in Madison, Wisconsin signed for a man to apply for his local license after they had been informed he sexually assaulted a minor. He was granted license in 2014 and had preached at the church prior to then. Another man from Calvary Gospel Church, who was an assistant pastor, was stripped of his license and made to confess to adultery in front of church members. He moved to Illinois and later ended up as a family pastor and has preached numerous times at an affiliated UPCI church. I have heard of cases where licensed UPCI ministers have covered for the sexual immorality of a son and they were later able to obtain license. How many stories of sexual immorality have we heard through the years of people attending one of their Bible colleges and yet were later afforded licenses?

A preacher may fall into sin, be forgiven by God, be restored to the church, and even be restored to many areas of service, but this does not automatically entitle him to his former position of leadership. He must once again meet the qualifications of being blameless, having a good report, and so on. This takes much time, and in some cases total restoration may never be possible. …Moreover, some sins-such as child molestation, incest, and rape-may indicate deep personality problems that would permanently disqualify someone from many leadership positions. – David Bernard, January-March 1988 Forward

Prior to writing this article, I asked people in a couple of groups if they knew of someone in the UPCI who was able to keep their license even though people knew they had done something immoral. I quoted from the Manual what was considered as immoral. It quickly became evident that this is, and has been, an ongoing problem in this organization and many people have known about or witnessed it. Almost 20 different people responded. Two claimed to know of 11 cases. Two others mentioned knowing three cases. Several responded without giving a number. One mentioned a well-known evangelist and another mentioned a legacy minister. Another shared they knew of multiple cases but those had their licenses revoked. Yet another brought up where both a pastor and his son had molested people, with the son going on to obtain license (though not now holding one). The pastor is still licensed. A minister in a southern state was mentioned who was caught with a teenage girl and later started an independent church, which at some point was welcomed into the UPCI with him as a bishop and his son as pastor. Though not involving immorality, another mentioned a man being previously turned down for license in Ohio due to multiple marriages but after he started his own church, he was later granted license while married to his third wife. [This is another area to be addressed as the UPCI Manual has rules regarding marriage and divorce among its ministers.] I’ve heard that the Ohio District has had a number of cases of sexual immorality through the years as well as other problems.

Besides all these situations alleged by those who responded to my question, for many years I have heard directly from people, and also read posts by others, who have known of men retaining or gaining their license after sexual immorality. I recall reading that a man in Michigan still retains license after allegedly committing more than one act of sexual immorality. I know of something disgusting an ordained minister in the NJ/DE District did to a female church member. He did not lose his license, though District officials were aware of it. It should have caused his license to be revoked.

What good are these rules if licensed ministers and District officials are allowed to break and circumvent them? In an organization that states they have the ‘whole Gospel’ and ‘the truth’ and claims to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, how is it that these things happen and are allowed? Do Oneness Pentecostal pedigrees come into play? Is it because they give a nice amount of money to all the fundraisers in the organization? Is it because they have dirt on other ministers? Are they close friends with a District or General official? Are they married into the right family? I can find no excuse for allowing anyone in the United Pentecostal Church to hold license who has been immoral. I can find no excuse for allowing men to preach in their churches when they have been immoral. Their rules are clear. Either learn to abide by them with no wiggle room, or cut them out of your Manuals, because they are worthless if not followed. Instead, they give you and others a very false sense of security.

The United Pentecostal Church doesn’t appear to want to hear about these things, or from those who have survived sexual abuse in their churches. Last November, General Superintendent David Bernard deleted posts from and banned a woman on Facebook after having promised to look into a situation at one of their churches. He never got back to her. Just recently this month on the UPCI Facebook page, they removed the review section after some people were posting about these cases and how Calvary Gospel Church had hit the front page news of the Cap Times for unreported cases of child sexual abuse going back decades. Their Ladies Ministry Facebook page did the same thing after only one woman reached out to them in a review. At least they first made a response before shutting it down. Then there are people like UPCI Pastor J.R. Sellers of North Carolina, who wrote the following on August 23rd in a public Facebook post using his wife’s profile. This was his response to a quote from Jennifer Brewer’s book, Free: From Legalism to Grace Breaking Out of the United Pentecostal Church.

Hi Jereme. This is Sondra’s husband, J.R. Yes, I am a UPCI, Apostolic to the core pastor. I read the blurb in your wife’s best seller that the UPCI made her ashamed of her body and her curves and that she was never able to express herself. I thought I might warn you as her husband that now she is liberated to express herself with her body and her curves you better keep an eye on her next pastor because he might be enjoying her curvy expression a little too much and be like one of those pervo pastors that are being outed on your favorite spiritualabuse.org website. In this case my friend you may be out in the cold and she will have to write another best seller about a different kind of abuse. 😂– J.R. Sellers, Pastor of Spirit of Life UPC, Kinston, NC

It is extremely disturbing to see one of their ministers openly suggest and then laugh about the possibility of a woman being assaulted. Apparently, the United Pentecostal Church has quite a ways to go when it comes to getting rid of the thought that a female is responsible for any man sexually assaulting her. There is going to come a time when the United Pentecostal Church will be forced to openly address the multitude of sexual issues that have been present in their churches for decades.

Connie Baker, a licensed professional counselor in Oregon, shares her thoughts on sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church and whether these assaults happen more there as compared to other churches. In June she released a new book, Traumatized by Religious Abuse: Courage, Hope and Freedom for Survivors.

EDIT: Since this article was written, at the 2019 UPCI General Conference, they passed a position paper on Abuse and Sexual Abuse.

You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.

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How Much Is A Little Girl Worth? Book Giveaway

As with all of our giveaways, this is only open to those with a USA mailing address.

You’re beautiful, worthy, and you should be loved
Because of all that you are.
Different from anything else in the world,
You are precious beyond the stars. – Rachael Denhollander

This is your chance to receive a new copy of How Much Is a Little Girl Worth? by Rachael Denhollander. One copy will be given away. The book does have some denting at the corners due to prior shipping to me. Set to release as a hardcover in September 2019, it’s available to pre-order from Amazon for $13.49. You may read my review of this beautifully done book here.

There are many voices competing to tell our daughters what they are worth, and most of them would teach our girls to define their value by something outside of themselves. By what they can do or what they wear or how they look or who their friends are.

This giveaway is a drawing and not a first come, first served giveaway. To enter, just leave a comment to show you wish to be included. The drawing will close on Tuesday August 27 at 8pm (eastern time), after which I will draw the winner. You will then need to email me your mailing address if I do not already have it. There is absolutely no cost to enter. Don’t be alarmed if your comment does not immediately show as they require approval when you are commenting for the first time.

We always provide these at no charge to our readers.

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