pete newman kanakuk wife
Former Kanakuk counselor Peter Newman is now serving two life sentences for sexually abusing boys at the camp for many years. After a few minutes we got out of the hot tub, and he took me home. For me it was a trust thing. Its interesting as amazingly gifted and talented as he is, and he certainly is, he mentioned that there isnt a night of the week where there wasnt someone in the hot tub to minister to, White said in the message. Please consider subscribing to support vital local journalism. Since the 1970s, under the leadership of White and his wife Debbie-Jo, Kanakuk has become one of the largest Christian camps in the world. After White purchased Kanakuk Kamps from his father in 1976, he continued the tradition of communal bathing.. When heentered the room, kids chanted his name, Fusch said. OK, I'll pray for you. Like independent house churches, they have no outside reality check if they go sour Without success, the News-Leader attempted to reach Staples for comment several times before publication of this report. He worked there from 1995 until he was fired in2009. WebSample Page; ; Ever since Pete Newmanpleaded guiltyto sexually abusing six boys,Kanakuk has touted itself as a leader in child safety, holding seminars across the nation. Then he made his way up my leg and put his fingers in my vagina, she said. Webfrom dust we come to dust we return quran. We want to insure [sic]that Pete be involved in a lifetime of ministry.. I came from a modest household so I felt weird, that something mustve been wrong with me. This will result in instant dismissal of staff with no chance for rehire and probable legal and parental notification.. Kanakuk guidelines also said counselors should avoid any talk about anything related to sexual relationships, including boyfriend/girlfriend stories. But former campers say they could not escape these conversations because the camps emphasis on sexual purity insinuated sex into everyday camp life. The stated objective: To help Pete understand what healthy ministry is, and to make sure Pete never places himself in a compromising position that his integrity would be in question. You're going to hear some stuff, and I just need prayers. As the News-Leader reported last month, the unsigned open letter argued that Kanakuk should agree to an external, independent investigation by a law firm. '", He added, "It's given me a voice and has given me strength to keep talking and realizing this was wrong. It also offers an all-ages family resort, along withday camps in eight states including Missouri, Illinois and Texas. In 2000, when Morgan was awaiting trial and White knew thathe had confessed to hiw wife that he had sodomizedan adolescent female relative, White gave him off-season housing at Kanakuk. Like Price and Newman, Green was popular. At K-Kountry, counselors and campers all showered together in a facility with no separate stalls or partitions, said former director Will Cunningham. While Caroline was discussing the groping incident with Chancey in 2016, she recalled that hebrought the boy into the meeting. Goodwin indicated there was nothing unusual about Grimes departure. The site, which says it is run by victims and their family members,issued an open letter in February demanding that Kanakuk agree to an independent investigation of abuse claims and calling onleaders to release victims from non-disclosure agreements. Newman was able to capitalize on the camps permissive attitudes and the campers desensitization toward nudity as he groomed his victims. Hoffpauir, now 34, recalledthat during the phone call, Newmantold him, "Things are getting crazy. ", More:Kanakuk camp 'abuse survivors' call for independent investigation into sexual assault accusations. Hed squirt this Gold Bond at the campers like it was baby powder. Jones said Price left and she continued to watch the movie. BRANSON, Mo. Our Kanakuk Child Protection Plan, which contains over 340 identifiable and measurable protective elements, is integrated throughout the Kanakuk organization and has been shared with more than 600 youth-serving organizations across the country. What do I do? the camper asked him, according to White. "They're going to different tables. One night after everybody had left and it was just Pete and I in the hot tub, he suggested we masturbate by hand. And she realized, oh no, something had happened. She's blaming anyone else she can find. Ed Ringheim, a Kanakuk counselor in the 1990s who later volunteered with the Kanakuk-affiliated KLIFE program in Florida, was convicted in2012 of seven sex-related felonies involving underage boys. Kanakuk will forever grieve the victims of Pete Newman and their suffering and continue to pray for their healing and restoration. She accused the boy of lying in the eyes of the Lord.. At minimum, this does not look good. The documents concerning the The newspaper left a voicemail for Staples at First Baptist Church, of Branson, where Staples serves as family life pastor. Were not bringing the Lord into this, Chancey interrupted, according to Caroline. In the old days, bathing in the river and bathing in the lake were commonplace, said White, who also serves a board chair of Kanakuk Ministries. Peter Newman Life Sentence Courtroom Criminal Law Law Crime Kanakuk Kamps Jeff Merrell Missouri Southwest Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Corbie Dale Grimes, a counselor who held a variety of Kanakuk jobsin the late 1970s and 1980s, was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for sexually abusing a boy in Texas in 1999. ", "A lot of times he called me by my last name," Dygert said. Everybody looked up to him.. The connection is so deep, and that loyalty is so strong, that you'll essentially kind of do whatever to keep that relationship. Advocates aligned with No More Victims LLC, a group registered in North Carolina that sponsors a website devoted to publicizing reports of sex abuse allegations and documented crimes linked to the camp, have accused Kanakuk of harboring multiple abusers for decades. I went to California with him. In October 2003, after being confronted about being nude with campers, Newman signed a probationary contract. In 2003, I banned Pete from the Leadership Weekend and advised Kanakuk's executive director to fire Pete, Cunningham said in an emailed comment for this story. He was an instructor at Fuller and Denver seminaries and the U.S. Air Force Academy. "We're going to try to renew our vows and do something different because of it. Joe White came into the dining hall at lunch and went on and on about how he was a good man who the Lord would continue to use, said the camper, who asked not to be named publicly. A 2005 edition of the playbook reviewed for this story, for example, specifically forbade nude swimming and nude games, stipulating that bodies should be clothed at all times., It banned [a]ny degree of sexual contact between staff and kamper [i]ncluding verbal harassment or anything with sexual connotations and said [a]ny infraction of the above policy involving even the slightest form of sexual connotation will result in immediate dismissal for the staff with no chances for rehire., The playbook also said We will never, ever, ever in any way display sexual body parts intentionally or touch anothers body parts. On June 9, 2010, Newman, then 34, pleaded guilty in Taney County court to eight charges of sexually abusing six children in connection with his role as a counselor Dygert helped out around the camp and eventually served as a Kanakuk counselor himself, for four years. Why did he leave? The other would shower quickly alone. They were rich. ", Later, Hoffpauir said the sessions with Staples "deteriorated. The new suit seeks$5 million in damages from Newman personally and isthe secondlawsuit against Newman to be filed in Christian County courts in the past three months. Records in Newmans criminal court case document sexual abuse that took place in Kanakuk cabins, in the pool, in the showers, in the gym, on father-son retreats, in the homes of campersand on a mission trip to China. At Grimes' trial, aKanakuk directordisclosed that Grimes had been fired from Kanakuk after an incident involving a young male camper. They're not getting the help and support they need. "And I had still been aware of what had gone on, but at that point, I still didn't know that I had been so successfully groomed in this entire process, thatI still didn't realize it was wrong. She didnt think much of it at first. "He, like, challenged me," Dygert said. ", In a statement on the camp's website, Kanakuk noted that "no charges for failure to report were ever filed against any Kanakuk staff" in connection with the Newman case and that "we were devastated by the deceptive practices of this individual, and continue to grieve with the victims and their families. ", "She, it's horrible," he told the News-Leader. Reporter Gregory Holman was born and raised in Branson, mostly living in Taney County until 2003. Please consider subscribing to support vital local journalism. ", "When that was normalized, when masturbation was kind of an inroad to what he wanted to do with boys, () To me, he kind of made everything else OK," Hoffpauir said. Kanakuk leaders have described convicted child molester Pete Newman as a lone predator but he wasn't the first or last abuser connected to the camp. In a message dictated immediately after the one to Newman, White told Kanakuks executive director, Kris Cooper, to follow up with Newman. The attention he got from Newman felt like "you've got this really special thing," Dygert told the News-Leader. Any victim can reach out to Kanakuk by emailing us at victimsupport@kanakuk.com or access several independent victim advocacy organizations such as ChildHelp.org or Rainn.org, which can provide access to local support services, reporting assistance, and educational resources. Chuck Price, aKanakuk programs director, was fired in 1990, according to a victim, her mother and two former Kanakuk staff members who investigated separate complaints that he inappropriately touched young girls. At a meeting with the detective the next Monday morning, the family was told to expect an arrest that week. When Newman was arrested six months later, the camp issued an alert to camp families that included the sexual abuse allegations. This is worth fighting for. 25 Feb/23. Nudity is just what they do.. In October 2008, less than a year before Newman confessed, Kanakuk CEO White dictated an email congratulating him for a chapel presentation in which Newman bragged about the hot tub Bible studies., In the email, White told Newman he had a tremendous message, it was very appropriate and well received by all. And at that point, I was like, OK, this is weird. They met at a Youth Life event in 1999, a decade before the prayer-request phone call. WebThe USA Today piece, Survivors, ex-employees say Kanakuk Christian camp ministered to its sexual predators , reveals several new cases of abuse of children at the hands of Kanakuk staff and even other campers spanning decades, apparent dismissals and cover-ups of cases, and gross mishandling of reports that from the evidence available Kanakuk plays a key role in Branson, itself a homespun tourism hub andglobal bastion of American-style conservative Christianity. People thought of Paul Green as this God-like figure, said Blake Fusch, who was 14 when he spent a summer in the 30-year-old counselors cabin. I went on many speaking engagements with him. The prosecutor who oversaw the case of Peter Newman said the number of victims could be in the hundreds. Lee Bradbury pleaded guilty in 2013 to four sex related charges involving And then the dominoes started to fall. Pete Newman is serving two life sentences plus 30 years. Like other young Christianswho crossed Newman's path, Hoffpauir described Newman, then roughly 26 years old,as an ideal person for evangelical youth ministry: "Very charismatic," Hoffpauir told the News-Leader in a recent interview. Not all reports of inappropriate behavior went unpunished. When Dygert and Hoffpauir's families learned of the abuse, it caused them to be "damaged from the inside," in the words of Dygert's civil lawsuit papers. Since 1926, a ", "And it was Pete," Hoffpauir said. Kanakuk CEO Joe White also responded to the calls to release victims from NDAs in his first public letter on the issue. Jones said she was laying down to watch the movie when Chuck Price sat next to her and began tickling her foot. Although organized as a separate nonprofit, KLIFE continues to refer to Kanakuk Kamps and other affiliated organizations as sister ministries., Asked in a March 2021 interview whether he was aware of any improper conduct while Ringheim worked at Kanakuk, Goodwin an employee of the camp and related ministries for 36 years said No. "Bonding" was just one of the justifications Dygert and Hoffpauir say that Newman offered for his abuse. But there was a heavy concentration on what I did sexually.. An in-depth investigation released in March 2021 by former ACLJ and Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel and National Review author David French and his wife for the online journal The Dispatch revealed a number of victims of Kanakuk were under non-disclosure agreements which were signed as part of legal settlements. He was imprisoned following his 2010 sentencingon seven felony counts of sexually abusing boys, in connection with his role as a Kanakuk counselor. That just destroyed her, and my family was shocked.". How's your family? WebI have not seen Kanakuk publicize their knowledge of former camp director Pete Newmans extracurricular nude activity with minors. Carolineand one other girl gathered the courage to relay what happened. In a 2011 email to one victims father, CEO White admitted that Newmans nudity while running through camp was serious, against kamp policy, and treated with sobriety and frankness.. Nobody really reacted, Jones said. So this isn't sexual. After Newman's trial, civil lawsuit allegations emerged. The prosecutor who oversaw the case later estimated the actual number of victims could be in the hundreds. The newspaper also emailed Staples through a general inbox at First Baptist Church and tried to make contact with Staples though the church's Facebook inbox, as well as through an email account linked to Staples in a public records database, and through an email form on a listing of licensed professional counselors published by Psychology Today. But not everything is cracked up to what it seems, she said. We are unable to do so, as these concern people who are no longer employed at Kanakuk and/or concern confidential matters that Kanakuk is not authorized to disclose without parental consent., More:Kanakuk's statement provided in response to the News-Leader's questions. WebDygert, 34, is a Branson resident the News-Leader interviewed Friday night, shortly after Kanakuk posted its new comments on child sex abuse online. He'd take me out for ice cream, one-on-one. Kind of a step further than that is holding Kanakuk responsible. Administrators response to the violation fell far short of the Kanakuk playbooks threat of instant dismissal, however. One of its two main campuses sits on 42 acres near Lake Shore Drive, across Lake Taneycomo from the lights of downtown Branson. He added that Newman "already established in my brain that this masturbation stuff was not wrong, because I wasn't lusting. It was during that Thanksgiving visit that Fusch said he woke one night and could tell that Green had been reaching into Fuschs underwear from his adjacent trundle bed. The Turner Report: Pete Newman from 2008: Kanakuk kounselors will just suck your kids right up to heaven The Turner Report This blog features observations from She's blaming herself. Years and years ago, he said, referring to the 1950s when he began attending camp. They throw all these bubbles on you. In early February 13years after Hoffpauir told his wife about theabuse, and more than two decadesafter he says it began Hoffpauir finally, for the first time, told his parents about the pain that he suffered in secret. I couldnt afford to go to Kanakuk even if I wanted to. His mother resisted the idea, but "eventually," Dygert said,shechecked with "one of my friends' parents who had known Pete longer. I was a young girl, a virgin at the time, she said. Pete Newman Sexual Abuse Steve Rabey Steve Rabey is a veteran author and journalist who has published more than 50 books and 2,000 articles about religion, spirituality, and culture. The next morning, Caroline said, three other girls tearfully told her theyd been assaulted by the same camper. Dygert referred Hoffpauir then living overseas to Staples, who talked to Hoffpauir using the Skype app. The camp responded with a prepared statement attributed to "Kanakuk Communications," which the News-Leader is reproducing here in full, noting however that victims and former camp employees have disputed the timeliness of Kanakuk's termination and reporting of Newman. Every time we talk, she cries about it. In the book he says he left out the details but asked her to sit down and advise the camper on the teenagers masturbation and lust issues. I sure love being on your team!. The first time former Kanakuk camp director Pete Newman was reported for being nude with kids was in 1999 the same year he became a full-time employee at the Branson-based Christian athletic camp and a decade before he confessed to abusing multiple underage boys he met through Kanakuk and related ministries. Everyone else said, 'it was so long ago. Caroline asked to go home but says she was told that could only happen if she were injured. "I don't think I really questioned why, I was just kind of flattered by it. The fact that Newman regularly hosted boys in his hot tub was no secret, although his supervisors at the camp maintain they didnt know of the nudity or abuse. The limited scope of the guilty plea concealed the sheer scale of the abuse," wrote David French and Nancy French with The Dispatch. That culture of forgiving extended to Newmanas well. When my counselor heard about this, he warned me to stay away from Pete., Other counselors followed Newmans lead, Clark said, making the parties a staple for a time.. Growing public awareness of controversy linked to Kanakuk camp began early last year. Currently, the camp's websiteprices four-week sessions at $4,800 per child. He continued the tradition of communal bathing not bringing the Lord.. minimum... 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