
A former Western Massachusetts reverend who is wanted in Berkshire County on indecent assault on a child charges was arrested in Florida on Monday.
On April 16, a Berkshire County Superior Court jury indicted 80-year-old Eric Anderson on two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, the Berkshire County District attorney’s office said in a press release Thursday.
The charges stem from alleged crimes that occurred in June 1980, the district attorney’s office said. According to The Berkshire Eagle, the offenses are tied to Anderson’s alleged conduct while part of the now-defunct The Bible Speaks church location in Lenox.
How Anderson was apprehended
Following Anderson’s indictment, the district attorney’s office issued an arrest warrant with limited extradition that included Virginia — the state in which his last known residence is located, the district attorney’s office said. Upon further investigation, detectives discovered that he had another residence in Florida and updated the warrant to also include extradition from this state.
Using license plate reader technology and other investigative techniques, detectives discovered that Anderson’s car had recently been driven in Bradenton, Florida, the district attorney’s office said. They then contacted the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, whose detectives successfully arrested him.
Anderson is contesting extradition to Massachusetts, the district attorney’s office said. He is currently being held without bail by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office on a fugitive from justice charge.
“Upon his return to Massachusetts, the Defendant will face long overdue justice for his heinous crimes,” Berkshire County District Attorney Timothy Shugrue said in the release.
Anderson is scheduled to be arraigned on the fugitive from justice charge in a Florida court in coming weeks.
Allegations against Anderson and The Bible Speaks
The indictments against Anderson came in response to an investigation by The Baltimore Banner documenting numerous child sexual abuse allegations that involve a Baltimore evangelical megachurch called Greater Grace World Outreach. Greater Grace became the next evolution of The Bible Speaks after the church community moved out of Lenox in 1987, the Eagle reported.
Greater Grace World Outreach did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
The Baltimore Banner’s article included numerous child sex abuse allegations involving the Anderson family. One of Anderson’s sons was previously convicted of molesting a boy, while another has been accused of sexual misconduct but never faced criminal charges.
Following the Banner’s reporting, a woman named Erika Slater filed a police report in Massachusetts detailing allegations against Anderson dating back to 1980, the Eagle reported. She accused him of groping her multiple times during her first grade year at the Stevens School of the Bible at The Bible Speaks. At the time, he was the school’s principal, she alleges.
The Bible Speaks moved its headquarters to Baltimore at the behest of its founder, Rev. Carl Stevens, after a court ordered him to sell his chapel and bible college in order to pay restitution to a former church member, the Eagle reported. The former member sued Stevens — who died in 2008 — for convincing her to give millions to the church using "undue influence.“
In 1985, a Berkshire Eagle investigative series revealed that Bible Speaks members often sold their homes in order to give the church huge donations that enabled its growth in Lenox, the Eagle reported. The members would then move to the church’s Berkshire campus, only to later be charged rent.
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