Douglas Overmyer, a pastor from Mattoon, Illinois, described liberalism as an “ungodly, inhumane mental disease.” He was the pastor of Zion Hill until his recent suspension after his arrest for distributing child sexual abuse material.
He founded Seers See, an organization that describes itself as a resource for those with spiritual gifts. He also was the Executive Director of CHI RHO Outdoors where young boys can get weekly outdoors experiences in hunting, fishing, marksmanship, and more.
He was arrested in early December, 2025, charged with possession of child sexual abuse material. He is being held without bail. His Illinois Case Number is 2025CF610.
John Emanuel Banuelos is an insurrectionist. He brought a gun to the insurrection and fired it twice inside the Capitol. He was still pardoned in the mass pardon of January 6 participants, even the violent ones. He was arrested for the stabbing and killing of a man in 2021, though the DA decided he acted in self-defense and did not charge him. However, during interrogation for that offense, he bragged to detectives about being at the Insurrection, even pointing himself out on video. When indicted for that he was making light, telling the judge Trump would win the election and pardon him. Well, that happened. However, his DNA was collected and it matched a 2018 rape case, leading to his most recent indictment for eight counts of sexual assault and one count of kidnapping. These crimes happened in Utah, though he has since moved to Illinois.
According to the charges, the victim was newly houseless. “The victim recounted that the day she met the defendant was the first day she had experienced homelessness, and she was scared and vulnerable. She reported that she accepted the defendant’s offer of a house party because she knew it would provide her with a place to be. What she didn’t realize at the time was the defendant’s deception. The defendant lured the victim to his home, drugged her, and then sexually assaulted her for over 12 hours.”
Michael S. Ritchason is the Lead Pastor of Riverside Community Church and was elected to the City Council of Pekin, Illinois. He is also a former elementary school teacher. He was recently arrested for crimes against a juvenile, specifically disseminating harmful materials to a juvenile.
The definition of harmful to minors makes clear this is not about sex ed. “That quality of any description or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse, when, taken as a whole, it predominately appeals to the prurient interest in sex of minors, is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community in the State as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”
Stewart Ruch is a bishop in the Anglican Church of North America, the schismatic group that left the Episcopal Church in opposition to its “liberalism” in allowing the ordination of women, inclusion of LGBTIQA members, and gay marriage. He is facing an ecclesiastical (church) trial over allegations that he covered up serial sexual abuse of children.
He is not accused of committing sexual abuse of children, but of protecting priests who abused children. From the presentment of the case against Ruch, it is alleged that Ruch “demonstrated a pattern and practice of knowingly and silently welcoming men into the ranks of church leadership without first informing his congregants of their past incidents of violence and/or abuse…he has transformed what should be, of all spaces, a sanctuary for the most vulnerable, into a target for predation.”
The case against him also alleges he showed more support for alleged abusers than for their victims. They went on to include the evidence of his cover-up and protection of seven alleged sexual predators. In another presentment from the Bishops who worked on the investigation, it is alleged there were twelve accused of abuse and six admitted it.
For more information, see ACNAtoo, a group formed in 2021 in response to allegations of sexual abuse and its cover-up.
Theodore Middendorf is one of the January 6th insurrectionists pardoned by Trump.
He was previously convicted of predatory sexual assault of a child and sentenced to nineteen years in prison. The child was seven years old. He was thirty-one.
He is currently in custody in Danville Correctional Center.
Rev. Rand York is a priest of Church of Our Light Anglican (COLA). He filed for the position of Republican precinct committee person for Big Rock 2 precinct in Kane County, Illinois in the primary and general election. He was a mentor to Mark Rivera who raped so many children. When the mother of the nine-year-old girl whom Rivera sexually abused learned what happened to her daughter, she reached out to York, her great=uncle who officiated at her wedding, seeking help and support. Later, another victim who was his own goddaughter told him Rivera raped her and he again stood with Rivera, attempting an organizational coverup.
Instead of offering to go with her to the police or to report the abuse himself, he advised her against telling the police. Informing other people in leadership in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), he told them that he believed Rivera was innocent and that they needed to make sure this was not the end of COLA. He convened a meeting with church officials and the child’s mother to let her know she was not required to report that her child has been sexually abused to the police.
After the victim’s mother reported the assault to police, York canceled the baptism of her newborn son. He cut off contact with the victim’s family and asked the mother to resign from the church vestry and discouraged the family from attending, cutting off and isolating the family. “Overnight, we lost all of our community and friends, all of our support…We lost my children’s best friends since infancy. And we just were on our own.”
ACNA paid for counseling and legal advice for Rivera but only paid for four sessions for the victim. They did not talk to or support the other victims who came forward. Basically, the wagons were circled around serial rapist Rivera and the victims were cut off from pastoral care and their church community.
Mark Rivera was a pastor at Christ Our Light Anglican Church, in Big Rock, Illinois when he sexually abused a nine-year-old girl who was a member of his church. The abuse spanned two years, 2018 to 2019 He was originally charged with twenty-nine counts but they were cut down to three and he was convicted in a bench trial on two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and a charge of criminal sexual abuse.
He was sentenced to fifteen years. Six years for each count of criminal sexual assault and three years for criminal sexual abuse. He gets credit for the three years he spent in jail and on home-monitoring.
While in prison for raping a child, he pleaded guilty to raping his neighbor in 2018 and 2020. He was sentenced to an additional six years.
He is alleged to have abused ten other survivors.
Christ Our Light Anglican Church is part of the Anglican Church of North America that split with the Episcopal Church over their opposition to homosexuality and gay marriage. The mother of the nine-year-old girl has stated that the church urged her not to report the sexual assault of her daughter.
David Cornelius was a math, science, and Bible teacher at First Baptist Church in Danville. When allegations of abuse arose, they moved him on to another church without informing anyone of what happened. He was charged in 2003 with sexually abusing a young child in his wife’s daycare, as well as soliciting sexual favors from a high school student at his new school position with Schlarman High School. He pleaded guilty in 2004. He was sentenced to four years probation.
Tivo McCrary was the Executive Pastor of Cornerstone Church in Marion, Illinois, was fired for committing sins against teenage members. They are working with law enforcement as well as reviewing their hiring practices and abuse prevention.
Ferrell M. Kissiar was the assistant preacher for United Pentecostal Church of Patoka and was also recently a teacher’s aide at Cornerstone Academy in Nokomis, a private Christian school. He was arrested in March 2021 and charged with several crimes involving Child Sexual Abuse Material and for being part of a Child Sexual Abuse Material ring.
In 2023, he changed his plea to guilty. He was sentenced to 30 years for his role in a Child Sexual Abuse Material ring.
Republican Sexual Predators 