Reporting by Amanda Gailey, SeeingRedNebraska.com
Court documents show that elders at Crowl’s church–The Belmont Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Lincoln–had “investigated” the abuse claim in 2013, just to see if Crowl was in need of spiritual assistance. According to the documents, one of the church elders, James Newman, claimed that Crowl had denied touching the little girl’s breasts but admitted to massaging her and kissing her. The church had concluded this was no biggie, though–after a 30-minute conversation with Crowl and without talking to the victim, they decided there was no need to report it to authorities.
When Crowl was charged a few years later, his attorney moved to have evidence of the following excluded from the trial:
- Allegations that he had kissed the little girl 1-2 years prior to the assault, so when she may have been as young as 8;
- Law enforcement officers’ claims that his victim is scared of him and hides from him;
- The victim’s belief that Crowl was pursuing her sexually;
- The victim’s nightmares of being raped by Crowl;
- The word “brony” (meaning a man who loves My Little Pony);
- Crowl taking pictures of the girl while she was sleeping.
Some of this was blocked from being brought up at trial by the judge and some of it was allowed. I mention it here for one reason: there were several indicators of grooming efforts and persistent predation over time by Gavin Crowl on this child. In fact, much of this was classic, textbook grooming.
However, the Lincoln Journal Star described a sentencing hearing where none of the adults seemed to think this was that big of a big deal. The victim’s mother, who also seems to have attended the Belmont Jehovah’s Witness church, didn’t want Gavin to go to prison. His attorney argued for probation for the poor lad. The prosecutor acknowledged this was not that egregious of a sexual assault case. Finally, Judge Robert Otte agreed, giving Crowl only probation and 72 hours of community service and assuring this man who had molested an elementary schooler, “Quite frankly, this was an anomaly in your life.”
Such a shame that the “anomaly” of persistent grooming and predation on an elementary schooler over 1-2 years should disrupt his life. Such a promising young man. Judge Robert Otte was a bit of a trendsetter here, sentencing a predator to not even a single day in jail–a whole year before a California judge protected the promising swimming career of rapist Brock Turner.
From his apartment listed with the Nebraska sex offender registry, Renaissance brony Gavin Crowl reveals the tradecraft with which he outsmarted the federal agents whom he believes [redacted] with his sideview mirror doohickey.
Crowl explains his reasons for going to DC on January 6, which involved his experiences working for the Nebraska Secretary of State Elections Division in 2014, his feelings about the Federal Reserve, the totally unfair election, and his suspicion that the China-controlled United Nations was taking over the United States as he had been warned would happen one day as a Jehovah’s Witness. He explained that he had gone around to the side of the Capitol in an attempt to emulate a siege within a specific ancient Roman battle, the name of which he could not remember, but also he was totally there to be peaceful, so I guess it was a peaceful Roman battle. He says that at one point he had yelled at frightened Congressional staff through the windows, “All of your secrets will be exposed!” because, he says, “everyone has skeletons in their closet.” He did not share with the podcaster that his own skeletons include child molestation and perhaps literal skeletons of cats.
One of his videos shows Lincoln’s promising young man Gavin Crowl carrying a flagpole and interacting with a man who was smashing a window of the Capitol open.
In a video I highly discourage anyone from watching unless you want to feel palpably dumber for the rest of the day, Bobby Powell interviewed Gavin Crowl about the events at the Capitol.
Crowl has not been charged in connection with the January 6 attempted insurrection–not yet, anyway.
