Pastor Coated Minors in Honey, Taped Them Washing It Off
In 2007, a 26-year-old Texas youth pastor named Thomas Jason Fortenberry organized a reality show-style activity for four, hand-selected young parishioners. All were minors, and girls. The game, as he'd devised it, was inspired by Fear Factor and involved drizzling large amounts of honey on them, after which they were instructed to "take a shower and wash the honey" off. No red flags there!
But Fortenberry, now 30, was actually videotaping the girls, The Smoking Gun reports, with a camera he'd rigged up in the church bathroom. And no one would have ever been the wiser had he not gone on to date and eventually become engaged to one of those girls a few years later. In an attempt at clearing his conscience, Fortenberry recently admitted to his now 21-year-old fiancee that he'd taped her and her friends those years ago. (She and one other were 17 at the time; the two others were 15.) She wasn't exactly enchanted with the revelation, and told the authorities. Fortenberry later admitted only to having "done things that he should not have done."
Prosecutors announced Monday that they wouldn't purse the case, because "the incident occurred more than three years ago, beyond the statute of limitations for the improper photography/visual recording count." Police are reportedly still looking for a way to nail him. I can think of one unnecessarily cruel but not totally inappropriate punishment once they do. [TSG, image via TSG and Shutterstock]