In a recent Tennessee police bust, 32 men people were arrested by Knoxville cops for human trafficking. Among them were two priests: Jason Kennedy, a children’s pastor as well as Zubin Parakh, who works as a pastor for Life House Church.
In addition to human trafficking charges, the arrested were accused of patronizing underage prostitutes. Both men got already fired by their churches. This would be quite unlikely if these were Catholic priests, since in those cases the priests get suspended pending internal investigations.
Both are facing a 60-year old sentence just for soliciting an underage prostitute. That could be nearly equivalent to a life sentence for 45-year old Kennedy and 32-year old Parakh.
“Finding these people who are trying to buy Tennessee children is a priority for us,” claimed Mark Gwyn from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TDI). “We want anyone responding to these ads to think there may be a TBI Agent on the other end of it. We will do whatever we can to make a difference in reducing the human trafficking that takes place in Tennessee.”
This bust is certainly a police success in busting sexual abuse of minors. However, the suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.