Deep Thoughts: Youth pastor Angelo Golatt arrested

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Youth pastor Angelo Golatt arrested

Youth pastor Angelo Deboray “Doogie” Golatt was arrested on sex-crimes charges related to children from Donahue Family Church.

Golatt, who no longer works at Donahue, faces one count of aggravated rape, one count of sexual battery and two counts of molestation of a juvenile, authorities said.

Doogie was a youth pastor in charge of the junior high school children. Authorities think there are more victims. Doogie got his job because they trusted him.

"Harvest Celebration Church merged with Donahue Family Church in 2003. "Doogie" was a part of Harvest Celebration Church when they merged with Donahue Family Church. "Doogie" was highly recommended by the pastor of Harvest Celebration Church for the position of Jr. High Minister. After being interviewed by the other staff pastors of Donahue Family Church was placed in the position of Jr. High Youth Minister until he left Donahue Family Church sometime in 2005. He was under the direct supervision of the current Youth Minister at the time, who also recommended "Doogie" highly for this position. When I first heard of these accusations my heart was broken and my prayers go out to everyone involved in this situation."

He got his job via an interview and recommendations. A key piece of information, if a background check was run on the young youth pastor, was not mentioned in the statement. That’s most likely because one did not happen. They also failed to mention his qualifications. I always assume there must be qualifications to be a youth pastor. A degree in sociology or counseling, or some equivalent, right? Why would adults let an unqualified young man lead a group of impressionable children? It is a recipe for child abuse, yet the storied is repeated over and over again.

Technorati Tags: Clergy Sexual Abuse,Baptists,Child Molestation,Rape

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deleted8470268 143p · 741 weeks ago

I use to make fun of the stupid people who would leave they're kids alone for over nights with Michael Jackson at the Never land ranch .When are people going to stop trusting they're kids with UN-vetted youth pastors ? Cheese puffs ,and NyQuil for snack time kids ?

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Olive · 740 weeks ago

I just have a few thoughts...

1. There actually was a background check run on this young man. Clean as a whistle.
2. He has a degree.
3. Aren't we forced throughout life to trust all authority (teachers, politicians, bosses, etc.) in our society, like it or not?

4 replies · active 736 weeks ago

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stella · 740 weeks ago

I went to college with him:

1. I've no doubt that his record came back clean--he is a "never saw it coming" kind of guy. Super friendly and, as far as I could tell, incredibly religious.
2. He does, in fact, have a degree.
3. Pretty right on about that.

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LOSTGURL · 736 weeks ago

YOU COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT NO BETTER STELLA I AGREE 100 PERCENT BECAUSE I WORKED WITH HIM AND HE IS VERY BELIEVABLE

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deleted8470268 143p · 740 weeks ago

I would not exactly use the term forced to trust authority figures most of the examples you give have safe guards in place for vetting Sexual Predatory behavior . ie Teachers have supervisors,and School boards,Bosses have Human Resource Dept. with 1-800 numbers.Police have Internal Affairs investigators ,and so forth. Yet any Deviant with a bible stolen from a motel6 can call himself a Pastor,and the truth is most times given complete access to they're victims with little church oversight Raping his victims for years ! This is what must change.

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Olive · 740 weeks ago

Most churches I have been affiliated with have safe gaurds in place to avoid this from happening in their organization. I know that not all are so fortunate and that is a tragedy. So I will agree that there is no doubt in my mind this is something the church needs to step up its game on.
However, simply because of the "connection" to God and religion, society sees a fallen minister as so much worse than the average criminal. There are sexual predators hiding around every corner, but when they are caught the media doesn't have as much fun with it as they do when its a minister. That is also a tragedy.

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deleted8470268 143p · 740 weeks ago

Stalla, Mojoey has been developing a profiling formula; being a recent collage grad, single, first time pastor posting are some of the (red flags ) he has correlated among others to look out for . It's a work in progress,but maybe when he completes his research it may help , parents ,and faith organizations determine what level of Supervision or safe guards should be in place so these kind of things can be avoided in the future,and maybe a good profiling tool for Police when preforming an investigation. The fact he ( Golatt ) has a degree means nothing outside the scope of the big picture.If you look over at the side bar you will see he has accumulated a vast,and varied Data base of 275 cases that he has posted. Clergy Sexual Abuse.

1 reply · active 740 weeks ago

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Olive · 740 weeks ago

I merely brought up Golatt's degree and clean record because the blog eluded to him not having "qualifications" for ministry. How could this church have safe gaurded itself? Should there be a "do you plan to rape our youth" question on the application? I seriously doubt this guy would have answered yes. In fact, I doubt he had that intent when he applied (but I know that is taboo for me to say).

Ok, I may have taken that a bit far, but I am not asking this question in a rhetorical manner. I legitimately want to know how you, as the hiring church, would have safe gaurded yourself against this guy?

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travis · 739 weeks ago

I actually know this man personally. He served as a the youth pastor for my church for a year. We did a background check on him and he does have a Bachelors in Social Science or something along these lines.

The background check came back clear and he worked bi-vocationally with a social services company who did an even more thorough background check. If these allegations are determined to be true, then it is obvious that he was never caught before this time so there would be nothing to discover.

I can say that in the year he worked for us, there was nothing to suspect foul play that arose. Later, approx 4 years after the fact, I found out that there may have been need for concern.

Overall, this is a very sad situation and my heart goes out to anyone who was harmed by Doogie's actions. This is completely unacceptable and rightly punishable offenses, should he be convicted.

It is not right, however, to bad-mouth the churches where he was at, especially if there was nothing to discover or suspect. The fault lies solely with Doogie and his choices. I interviewed both the pastor of Donahue Family Church and the Lead Youth pastor he work under and again no concern was raised.

5 replies · active 738 weeks ago

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Mojoey 107p · 739 weeks ago

It is right to question the church. Let me tell you why. I've looked into abuse at over 100 baptist churches. 40% claim background checks, but what many of them really meant was they looked the youth pastor up on Google. If the church did a background check, they should provide proof.

The church should have a fraternization policy and a guide establishing behavioral norms for staff. They should have formal training. They should have a safe 3rd party reporting service. They should have security and monitory of the youth pastor's computer and phone. They should educated parents and children about the risk of text messaging with adults. Their should be no case where a youth pastor is alone with a child. I can go on and on.

The church can answer these questions and admit its part in allowing the abuse to happen. Or show how they did their best to prevent it. Instead they opt for silence.

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No2Religion 85p · 739 weeks ago

What you just described is what is required to work with children in public education. As a Pre-K - 12 employee I had to be finger printed and have my record checked against a DOJ database. I see no reason why anyone who works with children shouldn't be checked the same way.

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Mojoey 107p · 739 weeks ago

It makes sense right? The minimum one would expect is finger printing, DOJ database, and a general background check.

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Olive · 738 weeks ago

It makes a lot of sense and I agree with you that safety measures should defintely be in place in EVERY setting that involves working with children. I just don't believe we can lump all churches, Baptist or not, into the same category of sticking their head in the sand when it comes to background checks. I can assure you that if this church would have taken ALL the precautions you listed, Doogie would have still shown up clean as a whistle.
Its truly a tragedy that things like this happen all the time, but one that I don't see as 100% avoidable. Evil is everywhere and we as parents just have to do the best we can to be an active part of our children's lives to reduce such harmful influences.

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amom · 733 weeks ago

I knew this man a few years back when he worked volunteering at calvary baptist church in alexandria, he was a college student and came highly recomended by staff, he was a mentor to my teenage boy, now grown, I called him this morning and we talked about this, he said there was no sign of anything, they were always in a public setting and always had other people around, I was horrified this morning, I trusted this man and the staff who suggested him, knowing what I know now about things I know that some things can get swept under the rug and to avoid scandal things sometimes get "dealt with privately" I am not saying that was the situation at my church, I am only saying that may be why the records came back clean,, more importantly I think he was clean and devoted to his "calling" back then, he didn't have the opportunity at my church that I know of, these things develop over time and he may not have always been like that. I knew him before his marriage. I feel condident with my conversation with my son this morning that he was ok, at least back then, or maybe just with my boy, I took precautions though, I talked to my boy about these things at a young age so he also could protect himself.

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avery1 · 739 weeks ago

I personally know Doogie he is a good person. I don't think he would harm a child. Yrd we all hve faults but I do he is falsely accused. God sits high n.look low. God will bring the truth out. I can't stand for people to lie like these old boys r doing. Y they didn't come forth n.2003. Them n their families r liars.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Mimi · 738 weeks ago

You are a f*****g idiot, avery1!!! The reason these boys didn't come forth in 2003 is because they were CHILDREN!!! They trusted this man and in the years since have been living with guilt and shame for something they never wanted or asked for. One boy could no longer hold it in any longer and had to tell someone. Then the police got involved, and after the story broke, other boys were finally able to come forward. The only liar in this situation is Doogie.

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Linda · 739 weeks ago

Did this church use to be Donahue Baptist Church? Was James Greer the pastor at one time? If so, I used to be a member there when I lived in Tioga. I now live in Brandon, MS. Was just wondering.

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Confedantal · 738 weeks ago

I was in his youth group in idaho i thought he was kinda wierd glad nothing happened

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Hurting in LA · 738 weeks ago

The fact of the matter is you could have done background checks all day and nothing would have come back negative. If you haven't been caught previously then your backgrOund is squeaky clean. Unfortunately the only way to obtain a negative backgrOund is for someone to get hurt or basically get caught committing a crime. So whether or not a real thorough backgrOund check was performed or not it still would have come back clean.

On a second note I am deeply saddened for all parties involved. This is coming from someone who once considered this man one of closest even best friends and never seen This coming. I am still in shock and disbelief, but unfortunately as much as you trust someone some still have a way of hiding deep dark secrets. This has been a Painful month, but I pray for all involved victims, family, and anyone whose trust was broken in this revelation.

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IKnewDoogie :( · 720 weeks ago

I knew Doogie, he came to Trinidad, WI with a team of missionaries to help us build our church, that was in 2005 I believe. He was super with kids, very kind, very humble. This IS one of those "never saw it coming" type of things! I could hardly believe it was the same Doogie when I first heard about this. Its so sad when the people we trust with our kids would turn out to be this kind of person *sigh*

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Concerned · 714 weeks ago

Linda, the church Doogie was youth minister at was Donahue Baptist Church but it was after James Greer had left that Doogie started there.

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john · 691 weeks ago

So does anyone know when the trial date will be held (if he doesn't make a plee)?

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