» SUMMARY: We’re glad a corrupt preacher will spend 4 years behind bars.
One of the most disturbing chapters in recent Culpeper history came to an end Wednesday when Charles Shifflett, pastor at First Baptist Church of Culpeper, was sentenced to four years in prison and $52,500 in fines for obtaining money by false pretenses, tax fraud and filing false workman’s compensation claims.
We speak for most everyone in this community when we say: Hallelujah.
It’s ironic how Shifflett met the same fate as another bully and swindler, the infamous mobster Al Capone. Their legal troubles have interesting similarities.
Granted, Capone was a much worse human being, if you can call him that. He murdered, tortured, robbed and bribed his way into history, thumbing his nose at the legal system’s failed attempts to lock him up. But, unlike Shifflett, Capone didn’t wear a robe, didn’t use the pulpit as a means for fraud and intimidation. In the end, though, both got what was coming to them.
Shifflett’s troubles started a few years ago when several former members of his youth ministry came forward with horrific allegations of sexual, physical and mental abuse that took place in the 1980s and ’90s.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office took a lot of heat in December 2006 when Shifflett received a plea bargain and got off with community service. This time, however, prosecutors got it right. Instead of settling for a slap on the wrist, they went after Shifflett in dogged fashion. And just like Capone, they nailed him for a completely separate set of sins — crimes of the financial variety.
End result? Justice served. The punishment fits the crime.
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