Add RSS RSS

Lawyer of the Day: Former Regent Dean Guilty of Sexual Abuse

Regent University school of law.jpgMaybe Stephen McPherson, former Assistant Dean for student affairs at Regent University School of Law, just likes working with young people. Really young people. The former Regent administrator pleaded guilty to sexually abusing children:

McPherson, 39, of Chesapeake entered guilty pleas to two counts of forcible sodomy and two counts of object sexual penetration. He is set to be sentenced May 22.

Regent University is the alma mater of such esteemed lawyers as Monica Goodling.

Back in June, McPherson was indicted on charges stemming from his work with distressed girls:

McPherson and his wife worked from August 1996 to August 2000 as house parents supervising a cottage of as many as eight girls at Hope Haven Children’s Home on North Landing Road in Virginia Beach, said Linda Jones, a spokeswoman for Union Mission Ministries, which operates the home. Hope Haven, founded in 1965, provides Christian-based care for children from “distressed family situations,” according to its Web site. …

After they left Hope Haven, the McPhersons adopted three girls over the objections of Hope Haven, Jones said.

According to the report:

McPherson must wear an electronic monitoring device while free on bond pending sentencing.

I hope that thing is not just strapped to his ankle.

Ex-Regent University official pleads guilty to sexual abuse [The Virginian-Pilot]
Former Regent assistant dean faces sexual assault charges [Ex-Christian]

Comments

avatar
1 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:04 AM

"Just like working with young people"?

avatar
2 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:04 AM

Good old Christian values.

avatar
3 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:07 AM

First to say RegenTTT

avatar
4 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:08 AM

Yet another right-wing Christian turns out to be a sexual pervert. What a surprise.

avatar
5 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:08 AM

Anyone hear anything about possible layoffs at Cahill Gordon?

avatar
6 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:09 AM

like(d)

avatar
7 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:09 AM

What a sorry excuse for a human being.

avatar
8 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:10 AM

like(d)

avatar
9 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:10 AM

i'm not surprised at all. next, you're going to tell me that this guy was abused by some other christian nut-job when he was a child and i won't be surprised by that either

avatar
10 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:11 AM

highlighting regent as perhaps THE premier sham law school. they were f**ked as soon as soon as the republican administration took all of its jobs with it last tuesday.

avatar
11 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:11 AM

RegenTTT? Since their graduates aren't working for the SG, can we expect them to take all the SCOTUS jobs next year?

avatar
12 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:14 AM

I must applaud Regent's strong Christian values for keeping us safe over the years from even worse forcible sodomy by McPherson.

avatar
13 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:14 AM

The regenTTT scumbags will have a lot more time to rape kids now that they're aren't running the country. What a great ChrisTTTian school.

I hope he spends the remainder of his life being raped in prison.

avatar
14 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:18 AM

Divine justice? Karma?

Poor kids...victims of a Christian lunatic.

avatar
15 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:19 AM

Are all Christian law schools like this? Georgetown, Fordham, Boston College, etc.?

avatar
16 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:21 AM

Awesome, this guy single-handedly ruined the lives of tons of young girls and of all of his law students who were already fighting quite the uphill battle for credibility. God Bless America...

avatar
17 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:24 AM

McPherson is a Regent Law grad himself:

"He received his law degree and a master's degree in business administration from Regent in 1996. He earned a bachelor's degree from Old Dominion University in 1991."

18 Posted by nervous T10 1L | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:26 AM

*nervously walks into the offices of one of the deans for a 'special meeting'*

just kiddin, michigan is cool and we have a strong position against forcible sodomy.

-nervous T-10 1L
4 interviews
3 offers
1 sa position

avatar
19 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:33 AM

Can we re-litigate death penalty for child rape? This is one of the more abhorant cases I've heard of, and having gone through law school, that's saying something.

avatar
20 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:38 AM

Has he been disbarred yet?

avatar
21 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:39 AM

We at Regent commend McPherson for personally following the just and righteous example of Lot and avoiding homosexuality:

Genesis 19:6-8,
"Lot went out to the men at the entrance,... [and said to them] Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof."

Genesis 19:36,
[After a drunken Lot is seduced by and sleeps with both of his daughters] Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.

avatar
22 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:41 AM

Such a lay-up for that buttcheek poster. Unless he/she went to Regent.

avatar
23 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:42 AM

Christian conservatives are the worst.

avatar
24 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:43 AM

I am going to sodomize your soul nervousT-101L. You should have stayed gone.

Max Payne

avatar
25 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:46 AM

QUICK WHERE IS THE DOUCHE PATROL

avatar
26 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:47 AM

BITCH SPREAD THE BUTTCHEEKS SO SOME CREEPY GUY WITH "FAMILY VALUES" FROM REGENTTT CAN SMELL THE UNDERAGE INSIDES

avatar
27 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:47 AM

Butt Cheeks Guy here. This is too fucked up for me. I got nothin'.

avatar
28 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:54 AM

You know, if someone would have told me this was wrong...

avatar
29 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:54 AM

if only those kids had been provided with an ASSLOBSTER as a defensive measure...

avatar
30 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:54 AM

T-10 1L is laying about his summer associate offer. Most firms aren't hiring 1Ls at all this summer and the firms that are only hiring under-represented minorities.

avatar
31 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:55 AM

Really, Elie, you just linked to a website whose purpose is to attack the Christian faith? Sure this guy is a total creep who deserves the Lawyer of the Day award and whatever punishment he gets, but if a gay guy did something bad would you link to an anti-gay site? If a black guy did something bad, would you link to a site that attacks blacks? Somehow I seriously doubt it...

And no, I'm not a Regent grad, but just someone looking for Elie to tone down the overt bias that's rapidly destroying this site...

avatar
32 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 10:58 AM

No word on Choate layoffs or Bingham salary freezes?

avatar
33 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:01 AM

31, the ACLU just called... they want to know if you renewed your sponsor-level membership this year?

avatar
34 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:04 AM

Christian2Holers = TTT

avatar
35 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:04 AM

30 - He didn't say it was with a Biglaw firm. It could be an unpaid internship with a slip-and-fall solo.

avatar
36 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:06 AM

31 - The difference is that black people and gay people are mostly good people who make positive contributions to society.

avatar
37 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:06 AM

Does anyone know of a website where I can see what law firms are picking up major deals? Such as Wyeth-Pfizer?

avatar
38 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:07 AM

37: Absolutely. www.google.com.

HTH

avatar
39 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:07 AM

What are the odds on the Christian fundamentalists using this crime as support for their assault against LGBT adoption rights because, according to the prevailing Christian fundamentalist view, gay parents will be attracted to their adoptees?

avatar
40 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:09 AM

Conservative Christians have been using Regent law school grads to sodomize America for years.

avatar
41 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:09 AM

39 - Wasn't he touching young girls, though? How does that affect Christian wackjobs saying gay adoptive parents will abuse their kids, when he was abusing opposite sex kids?

avatar
42 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:11 AM

BREAKING NEWS: "Six Americans gang-rape undocumented immigrant"

Oh, wait. I have that backwards...which is why it won't become national news:

"Six Illegal Aliens Gang Rape Woman"
http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?s=9725759


.

avatar
43 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:12 AM

21 - Are you saying that the Bible says it was the girls' fault for seducing McPherson?

avatar
44 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:15 AM

41: You didn't get 39's joke on the irrelevance of the distinction. It was a lame joke but still a joke, I think.

avatar
45 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:21 AM

Ass rape is the new black.

avatar
46 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 11:50 AM

Guys at my high school used to rape children while fighting to deny civil rights to gay adults all the time, it was no big deal.

-- ATHEIST STUD

avatar
47 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 12:05 PM

15: I know the Catholic Church has had its own sex abuse disgraces, but please don't conflate Catholic institutions with Christian fundamentalist right-wing nutjob institutions.

avatar
48 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, January 26, 2009 12:31 PM

31:

Not news: minority (or majority) is a pervert

News: An organization with a very rigid view of what constitutes appropriate human sexual relations (that is, within the confines of a heterosexual marriage) and seeks to impose that view on the rest of the world through legal action, has a prominent member whose sexual conduct is so immoral as to violate criminal law and offend virtually all diverse segments of society.

avatar
49 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, January 27, 2009 5:22 PM

48 - couldn't have said it better myself!

avatar
50 Posted by guest | Permalink Wednesday, January 28, 2009 12:17 PM

I think it is important to remind people that Christians (those who actually follow Christ's teachings) profess to be neither perfect nor without sin. In fact, to be saved, one must admit that he is a sinner in need of Christ's sacrifice to pay the penalty for that sin.

Every sin is an offense against God. Every single one, no matter how great or how small, and sitting in a jail cell does nothing to undo that offense in the eyes of the Lord. There is nothing a human being can do, on his or her own, to reconcile or "make amends" with God.

Stephen McPherson has admitted to sinning against God and to breaking the law of man as well. The jail time will pay his debt to society. Only Jesus could pay his debt to God.

Being Christian is not about being righteous or sinless. It is about admitting that you are a sinner struggling with temptation to do evil and accepting Christ's blood as the sacrificial price to cover each time you fail in that struggle.

Stephen McPherson is no hypocrite. By being a Christian he is a self-professed sinner. Though his sins may be reprehensible, they are not unforgivable. He was forgiven the moment he accepted Jesus.

I do not approve of what he had admitted to doing with those girls, but he will be punished, and it is not my place or your to judge him. Rather, we should forgive him because we know that we have also sinned, though perhaps in different ways. If you ever want to be forgiven, then you must first forgive. At least, that's the Biblical perspective.

avatar
51 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, February 19, 2009 12:42 AM

I graduated from Regent. It leans to the right and some people are a little fanatical in their religion, but most people that go there are pretty normal. I knew Dean McPherson (and no, I was never called into his office for a *special* conversation). I would never have imagined this happening! Regent is a good school and most of the professors are outstanding (again, I said most).

Please don't assume that everyone that goes to Regent is a Republican or is a mindless Pat clone.

Further, just because Monica Goodling graduated from Regent doesn't mean everyone there is just like her. I'm one of the best private attorneys in my area (and I can say that since five attorneys with over ten years of experience each have said that to me). I passed the bar on my first try.

I respect everyone's comments, but since I assume most of you are liberal, I would've hoped that you would've had open minds and wouldn't have made such prejudicial remarks about a school or a situation that you know nothing about.

avatar
52 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, March 17, 2009 10:40 AM

# 50 thank you for letting people know that all have sinned and fallen short mcphearson admitted his wrong doing and god will forgive we to will learn to forgive the act was very sick but we dont know the whole story we should not judge unless we are ready to be judged our self

Post Your Comment