4 | Beating the System

This call may be recorded or monitored. I have a free call from an inmate at Summit County Jail.

Hello?

Mom.

Yes?

Can you hear me, mom?

Yeah.

The hellacious fight at the Yale Street House just days before Christmas in 2010 landed Chaplain Rich in the Summit County Jail. This time he wasn't playing savior, but allegedly threatening a woman with a gun. And just like nearly every child in trouble, Beasley called his mom.

Well, I told Beth she had to leave last night and she walked next door and called the police and told him I threatened her with a gun.

Oh my gosh.

The caring chaplain morphed from a devout street minister to a persecuted saint framed by the very clients he supposedly served: those women.

They came to the house and they found marijuana seeds in the trash, and they found some lamps and flower pots in the basement. So they said they're going to charge me with cultivation. There were no marijuana plants, nothing being grown, and it was in the trash for the client's side, not mine.

Yeah.

They said they're charging me with menacing because they said I threatened them. They said the lights constituted criminal tools.

Oh my gosh.

Beasley was charged with aggravated menacing, tampering with evidence, possession of criminal tools, possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia – all relatively minor charges. No prostitution related charges yet. Lieutenant Pasko was playing the long game, waiting to gather enough evidence to file charges that would stick. Beasley knew it. He told his mother his days as a street minister were over. He urged her to evict any remaining clients at the Yale Street House. He asked his friends to sell everything inside, right down to the refrigerator, and shared a hard truth with them.

I'm going to lose the house. That's a done deal. Mom and I discussed it. We said, it's not worth making another house payment.

I concur. Even if you paid it off, you don't have anything.

I agree with you.

Police say he was a man watching his carefully crafted world collapse. No more Yale Street house, no more girls, no more back page, no more money, and maybe no more credibility as a man of God. Although he clung to his ties at the Akron Bible Church, spinning a carefully crafted storyline: a righteous man protecting the church's honor, warning the ministries there may be trouble.

Talk to Randy. Tell him what's going on because they repeatedly asked me if I was still employed by Hope, and I said I was never employed by Hope. I was a volunteer there. Okay, so tell him, be prepared. I also begged them. I said, please. I said, don't put Hope on anything. I don't want their name slandered. They help a lot of people… and that's pretty much it.

The more Lieutenant Pasko and his team investigated what exactly went on inside that Yale Street house, the more desperate and despondent Beasley sounded.

If they nail me on this. I'm going away.

Huh?

They nail me on this. I'm going away.

Okay. Thank you, mom. Bye-bye. I love you. Bye. Bye, you.

I'm Carol Costello. This is the God Hook episode four of ten: Beating the System.

Beasley's efforts to distance himself from his own sober house didn't work. Pasko had eyes and ears everywhere.

We got information that he was preparing to move, and so we felt if he moved, we could lose all the computers and all the forensic evidence. Flash drives, little camera cards.

Pasko knew about men like Beasley. Once they were locked up, they would try to bury anything that could bury them.

We also knew that once he got arrested, there would be a high probability that the items might be destroyed or thrown away. That's what prompted us to get the search warrant. Rush in there, get all the stuff we could get.

Pasko got a warrant to search Beasley's house the day after the arrest, and oh boy did he hit the mother lode. Three computers, images of naked women, including Savannah, the young woman Amy had tried so hard to protect.

We knew the computer evidence was going to be the really damning stuff because the girls had told us, “Hey, Rich takes us upstairs. He takes pictures of us, and then he puts it on Backpage.” So we go upstairs to the bedroom when we're doing the search warrant, I go, “Hey, that's the plant, and that's the wall hanging from Amy's photo shoot,” right? So it's real easy to tie him into this organization. It's his house and the headboard's exactly the same and the comforter’s the same. So it was great for us evidentiary-wise. Plus we did a subpoena for Backpages on who purchased the ads and all that stuff, and it was tied to Beasley, so that was a big help.

Pasko’s team also found handwritten letters from female inmates asking about an escort service. One of those inmates, Savannah, who drew what looks like rays of sunshine around the handwritten address on the envelope. Inside, a letter neatly printed it, read: I'm interested in the escort business. Heck of a lot safer than jumping in out of cars. But when I get started, I'm going to be all business. No screwing up. Cus I'm about the money. Don't get me wrong, Rich. I enjoy having fun. Do you cook?

And then they found the notebook. Page after page filled with handwritten messages, intimate and predatory.

I'm going through a notebook page by page. It's painstaking. I don't want to miss a thing.

Pasko was looking for something specific, something Amy had shared with him.

A warning. What you're about to hear is disturbing.

And I come upon this page, it says, “show me your tits.” And I'm like, son of a bitch. She's absolutely spot on. So I put that in my report to give her version of events instant credibility.

That was the moment Amy's story became undeniable. Beasley knew jailhouse visits were monitored, so he passed notes. Police say that way he could express what he really wanted and escape notice. Did he ever pass you a note saying, because this was in the police report, which is the only reason I'm asking you. I just want you to tell me if this is true, that he passed you a note in the jail asking to show your body parts.

Yeah, he did one time.

What was your reaction to that?

Well, that's when I talked. It was not good. I was like, oh, boy. I knew then that he wasn't godly like he said. But see, back then I didn't have an understanding of godliness yet because we'd been in the streets so long that sex seemed to be something that men needed. It just was normal. And so in a way, it was normalized. And so it was like, okay, well…

If Amy's story held up in court, it wouldn't just expose Beasley as a hypocrite. It could prove predatory behavior, although most likely Beasley wouldn't see it that way.

There's definitely ego involved in that. His knowledge of the Bible, his understanding of it, and it has sort of elevated him above other people in a lot of ways. And when you elevate yourself above people, then you can do things that other people aren't allowed to do.

Criminologist Volkan Topalli.

I'm allowed to do these things. I'm allowed to treat people this way. There's a grand larger plan that I alone am part of. The more he was able to get away with it, the more he believed he was supposed to be able to get away with it. And so when you're talking about prostitution, you're talking about young women in his domain, so to speak. Every instance where he's successful is just more encouragement for him to continue doing these things because it's affirmation that he is as important, as powerful, as strong, as knowledgeable, as legitimate as he thinks he is.

Pasko now had a list of 19 women and an underaged boy all photographed, all posted on Backpage. Everything was falling into place until it wasn't.

Hi. Hello. Did he call you?

Yes, he called me. I went over and got the check, went to the bank, cashed it, went down and paid the bond, and they gave me the papers and I took 'em directly to the jail.

You know something? By doing that, you probably kept me out at 10 o'clock tonight, and they'll probably let me out in the next two or three hours.

Listen carefully. You'll hear the change in Beasley's voice, the relief, the sheer joy as he learns he made bail. That's right. Beasley walked.

Yeah,

They didn't issue a protection order. I couldn't believe it.

Yeah, and he says that they would've put you on a signature bond except there's a pending weapons charge. Really? Okay, come on down and get me.

They're releasing you?

That’s me, I’m Beasley. Come on down and get me.

Alright. I'll be down there in a few minutes.

Beasley made bail until trial. He could celebrate Christmas with his mom. A twice convicted, born-again felon who'd already done time on gun charges beat the system, or so he thought. Beasley's taste of freedom actually lasted just two months. On a cold February day, he was hauled out of his mother's basement by Akron Police, not for Pasko's active prostitution case, not for those pending drug and menacing charges, but on a technicality.

Here's where things get complicated. Stay with me though, because this sets the stage for what's to come. Decades ago, Beasley was sentenced to 40 years in a Texas prison for a string of burglaries. He only served five years, then was released on supervised parole in Ohio. Texas had one rule: if he ever got arrested again, he had to report the arrest to Texas authorities. Beasley did not do that. So Texas picked up the phone and told Ohio, “arrest that guy!” Ohio obliged.

There's a number of states that are involved in this compact that says, we will honor parole in your state. You honor parole in our state. If we issue a holder, meaning if he gets arrested up there, we want him back. Hold him until such time we can come get him. That's how that works.

All good. Unless you're Terry Pasko, who was trying to nab Beasley on prostitution related charges in Ohio.

There was a chance that Beasley would be sent back to Texas before Pasko could finish his trafficking investigation and sign charges. So the lieutenant did what any good detective would do: he got creative.

Now we enter the totally twisted nonsensical reality of the American criminal justice system. Pasko needed to slap Beasley with more serious charges to keep him in Ohio. So he called his friends in the Akron City Narcotics division to see if they had any open investigation that involved Beasley. And wouldn't you know it? They did.

What happened is he had made a purchase from an undercover officer. He bought drugs. That charge wasn't brought forward because that case was ongoing there.

Narcotics slapped Beasley with drug trafficking charges. Problem solved, right? Kind of. Pasko now had just 21 days to convince prosecutors to file prostitution-related charges before Ohio would be forced to hand Beasley over to Texas. And Summit County prosecutors were not making his investigation any easier.

I remember meeting with the prosecutors and they're like, yeah, we need all these interviews recorded. So go back and try to track down, I don't know, I think it was nine or 10 different girls and get a recorded statement from them,

But there was no choice. Pasko's team hit the streets.

And you got to remember they’re transient by nature, they don't have a permanent address,

And if detectives did get lucky, they were to follow orders.

She's working. We don't care about the arrest. Get her in the car, get her on tape and get a statement. And that was really difficult.

No recorded statement, no case, no justice. Jennifer Rausch knows trafficking cases. As a prosecutor, she's put predators behind bars.

So he builds this case, and I know that you've gone through all the police reports and I thank you for that, but what kind of case did he build?

He built one that was great, but it was incredibly dependent on witness testimony.

Even with the evidence from Beasley's computer, his notebook and visits to various hotels, it was not enough. The computer? The women could have used it without his knowledge. The hotel visits? Beasley could claim the women just needed a ride. And the notebook? Just a jailhouse prank.

For Beasley to face high level prostitution related charges, the kind that would actually put Chaplain Rich away for a long time, Pasko and his team had to connect every single dot.

Well, how do you know Beasley ran the ad? Because the phone is here and that phone was purchased by Richard Beasley, or this phone is used by Amy, and Amy calls Rich on this date, and she's online here. So, there's a lot of analytics that you don't even think about until you sit down and go, okay, now hotels, how do we prove he's at the hotel? We get a receipt that he paid for with his own credit card, which is, yeah, that was a big moment for me. But yeah, it's a lot of grunt work to say the least.

Some of the women would not only have to share their stories on tape but appear in person before a grand jury. They'd have to talk openly about their desperation, their addiction, their sexual activities, and in some cases, their shame. It would be the only way Pasko could get what he really wanted: an indictment from a grand jury.

The detective, because of rules of evidence, can't come in and testify as to what he was told.

Prosecutor Jennifer Raush.

So that testimony, because of the rights and guarantees from the Constitution, the people that are making the accusations or giving the facts have to come in and testify. So that wasn't any fault of his, it was just the way that Richard Beasley operated.

So detectives went looking for more. Their renewed search led them to the churches. They wanted to know how Beasley was able to get his hands on Hope Ministry's official stationary with its letterhead, and use it to write letters to Summit County judges to get women out of jail, like the letter he wrote on Amy's behalf.

Was Richard Beasley using the Hope Ministries to raise money for his halfway house or just using its reputation to gain access to these women?

I think he was using their reputation to gain access to the women. He also knew some of the other employees there, and for a brief time, he was a volunteer, which gave him access to the Hope Cafe, which on South Street is literally in the heart of one of the busier districts at the time for Prostitutions. So a day like today, if it's 90 plus degrees out and the Hope Cafe is open and you're working that street, that's where you're going to go for air conditioning, a cup of coffee, a glass of water, and it's just kind of a waystation for 'em to sit and hang out.

Randy Baker, the lead pastor at the Akron Bible Church, would later tell the Akron Beacon Journal that Beasley briefly volunteered at the church and aided their mission of helping people come out of prison. Once Beasley opened his own halfway house and invited women to live there, the church backed away from Beasley because they knew who he really was. As Pastor Baker put it, Beasley was “always up to something crazy. He was smooth.” Others would call Beasley a conman.

Matter of fact, one of the interviews we did with a staff member there said he only paid attention to the females coming in, and it was an uneasy interest in them and everybody else could feel it. And there were people there that had a legitimate interest in them being rehabilitated, and they were not comfortable with what they saw.

I thought about Amy, who risked everything to stop Beasley. I thought about Savannah, the young woman who believed Chaplain Rich could give her a better life. I thought about the church and its mission, and then I thought about how when Beasley became a problem, the church distanced itself.

I guess to me it was like, well, is that all they did? They have done more?

I mean, I think that you could definitely ask that question, but then what more would they do? They're going to call and make a report that he is fraternizing or hanging out with or providing shelter to – whatever kind of word you want to use – to women engaged in sex work. And then what? So then they're going to talk to him and he's going to say, well, yes, I'm doing this, this, and this. Talk to this judge, talk to this person, whatever. And at that point, then you're going to need one of the women or somebody else to give a contrary claim. So if they report it, what exactly are they going to report? And then will that turn into an investigation? Will we think something weird's happening? So then what crime are the police supposed to go investigate on that report?

We reached out to Randy Baker several times for this podcast. He has yet to return our repeated calls. We're still waiting. Pasko also reached out to The Chapel, the big establishment church in town that Beasley attended with his mother, a place where he worshiped alongside Summit County Judges, where he introduced Amy to Judge Unruh and where sometimes he brought a boy with him, Rogan Rafferty.

Yeah. The Chapel still bothers me. The Chapel bothers me because it's such a powerful organization and their reputation as being all welcoming and all this stuff, that never sat well with me because we were essentially given the cold shoulder, basically told, well get a subpoena, or we're not comfortable talking about volunteers. They're not employees, they're just volunteers. We have lots of volunteers. I got what we used to call shuffle, shuffle, tap, tap, the big dance, the full BS treatment. So had I pushed too hard on that, I probably would've had some consequences for being too aggressive, which, it happens from time to time.

And then there were the judges and the jail guards. What did they know? Beasley was allegedly recruiting women right under the noses of the deputies guarding the jail. How was that possible? Here's Emily.

I think when going back to the jail and let's say for a minute that one of the deputies who's supervising things even had an inkling that, oh, this seems a little sketch. Like, what's going on here? Who's he going to talk to? Because once you have this individual who's in there to the outside, he's doing this great service, he's preaching, he's giving them hope. Who is going to say, well, I think that he's really trafficking people? And how is it going to be perceived if you're throwing religion into something and you're deeming it skeptical because of a religious aspect? I mean, that could be career suicide at points, but that's at least my opinion. Jen, I'd love to hear your take on that.

I think that's an interesting perspective, and I think it's also a way that they use that position as cover too. And I don't just mean a religious setting, I mean any kind of position that is viewed with some sort of admiration.

Beasley seemed to have a perfect cover because Pasko could find no evidence of wrongdoing by jail officials or the judges.

First of all, I was still working and I liked working and I wanted to continue working, and I knew what it would take evidence-wise to put something like that together. Not afraid of it. It's just that I didn't see it. I didn't see somebody handing me a smoking gun on paper saying, we said, F it. We're just going to cut 'em loose. Never saw anything like that. Otherwise, yeah, I would've made some noise.

Savannah, the young woman Amy had tried so hard to protect. On March 5th, 2011, Savannah was found dead in a motel room. She was 22 years old.

She was all messed up. She was trying to find love anywhere she could.

Savannah had overdosed on heroin.

She had a very bad addiction, and Rich got her out of jail. She was one of the ones that thought she was going to get sober.

Instead, her body was found in a bathtub.

I was kind of shocked when she overdosed. I mean, at any given time, any one of these girls could have overdosed and died, but she was the one I thought, oh, if anybody's got a chance, she's got enough street smarts to get out, but not so much.

Amy believed that too. To this day, she still wonders if Beasley played a role in Savannah's death.

She knew she ,was one of the only people that knew that I was talking to Lieutenant Pasko.

Amy had sworn Savannah to secrecy. She was not to tell anyone Amy was working with detectives – not Beasley, not anyone.

Lemme check you for wires. Sometimes he got paranoid and he would say, if anyone tries to wear a wire on me or tell on me or anything like that, trust me, I will find out and I will kill you.

In the weeks before Savannah's death, Amy says, the young woman called her from a hotel room. She could hear Beasley's voice in the background.

She called me up and was talking to me, and her and Rich were having words.

The argument escalated.

She had a very fly mouth and she'd have him on the edge. She would talk back real bad, and I always think she had like ADD or something. She was just … real hyper,

And then Savannah slipped.

She started saying stuff to Rich, not about me, but she was saying stuff, screaming at him. You know what? That's all right because your time’s about up. You're going to get busted. I'm going to make sure you get busted. Amy panicked.

I was telling her on the phone, please shut up. She kept going on and on and on. She wouldn't stop.

So did she die of a heroin overdose?

Yeah, that's what they said she died of, but I don't believe she died of that. She was an addict, so there would be no way to know. He is very smart. So he knows. He knows.

There is no evidence tying Beasley directly to Savannah's death. He was in the Summit County jail when she overdosed, but it was clear Beasley was not happy with Savannah. He told his mom she had betrayed him.

I do. I really do feel betrayed by some of these people. Like Savannah and [beep].

Beasley said Savannah didn't appreciate the prayers he sent her way.

I had Savannah and [beep] for example, I had everybody. I had people in the class writing them the letters when they were in jail, praying for 'em.

I know.

I mean, you wrote 'em letters, didn't you, mom?

Absolutely.

There they are, stabbing me in the back.

He said, “they're stabbing me in the back.” Although Lieutenant Pasko is certain: it was Beasley who supplied the women in the Yale street house with their drug of choice.

He was good with oxys and most of the girls were using oxy, some heroin later on fentanyl, some still smoked crack, some did meth, but they would take whatever he had to get high because it's not a good life, and so you have to be numb to go through that.

In the meantime, Beasley, still behind bars for selling drugs to undercover narcotics cops, was working on a way out. Another bond hearing loomed. Beasley talked about his choices with friends: make a deal on the drug trafficking charges, or go to trial.

Mom says you have to make a choice, either trial or plea bargain. My personal preference would be trial.

I don't know what they got.

If you plea bargain you're basically admitting guilt.

Yes, that's true.

So what the difference does it make, a trial or not a trial now?

But in the end, that's the thing. They're saying, well, look, we're going to give you a plea bargain. It's an unreasonable number. I'm like, they're going to make me do it in Texas anyway.

There it was again, Texas: the albatross around his neck. Extradition back to Texas wasn't just a possibility, it was a certainty if things didn't go his way. Beasley had already done five years of a 40 year sentence for what he called daytime burglaries. If Ohio sent him back to Texas, he might not come back to Ohio for a long time. Not in five years, not in 10, maybe not ever. If he pleaded guilty to anything in Ohio, he'd be signing his own death sentence.

We’re all good out here, but we're so worried about you.

I just don't want to end up dying a whole age in prison.

Right.

On Friday, once you're arraigned, is there a possibility of bail?

No. There's a hold around me from Texas. I'll never make bail. I wish I could. I'd be out right now. I mean, they got a $25,000 10% bond. I can be out. That's not a problem, but it’s just with a hold from Texas, it's not going to get done.

Beasley understood the game. Texas had a claim on him and it wasn't going to let go. He would never make bond because there was a warrant for his arrest from Texas for that parole violation. There would be no bond regardless of the offense, but something else was looming too. Bigger trouble was coming, he had to feel it. The walls were closing in, and this time it wasn't just about Texas or the drugs – it was about the women who lived in his Yale street house. Women who whispered things to the wrong people. Women who now had the police paying attention to them. Beasley had to know that because one of his church friends had already cut ties. A chaplain who had done maintenance work at his Yale Street house refused to come back to the property.

He said the police were back down at Hope asking questions again, and he was just in over his head and one of the girls at the house had informed on somebody and there were people looking for her, and he didn't want to be around that.

Again. There is no evidence Hope Ministries or the Akron Bible Church worked with Beasley to set up a halfway house that served women. Beasley was losing control. The churches that once gave him credibility, they had long distanced themselves. His so-called ministry? Crumbling. His Yale Street house? On the chopping block. His money? Gone. His future? A prison cell in Texas. There was no way out.

I think last fall when it was converted to a woman's housing unit, that's caused nothing but problems. So outside of that, I won't know any more until Friday until I get arraigned.

Beasley's bond hearing was set for July 12th, 2011. If there was any time for a miracle, this was it. It was time for a Hail Mary pass because no reasonable judge would let Beasley walk before trial, not with the Texas size target on his back, not with even more serious charges brewing in Akron.

Then against all odds, Beasley caught that long pass in the end zone. Because a Summit County judge approved Beasley's release on $10,000 bond. And just like that, Beasley walked. He had 56 days of freedom until his trial on September 6th. And Lieutenant Pasko? He was stunned.

So when you found out that he was released and they initially didn't even tell you what went through your mind?

I was really to say it politely, aggravated. I was stunned and aggravated and shocked.

The judge, James Murphy has since died, but at the time he was 79 years old and had retired. He'd come back temporarily to sit in for another judge, so maybe he wasn't up to speed on procedure. I don't know. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, Murphy’s signed order said, Texas authorities are only interested in extradition if there is a conviction in Ohio. So he allowed Beasley his freedom before his September 6th trial on drug charges.

They knew this was there. They had him in on whatever low charges that were coming through. They asked for a holder from Texas. The deputies in Summit County did all the right things by saying, Hey, he's on parole out of Texas and you need to come pick him up. And Texas was like, nah, let us know how it goes. And they never picked him up.

Texas authorities dispute this. They say they were willing, able, and ready to come get Beasley and filed three separate warrants for his arrest. Whatever the case, Beasley was free. Not only that, he was gone. As for Pasko and his team, who'd spent 18 months unraveling Beasley's alleged prostitution ring, it all seemed to slip away.

So your case just walked out the door essentially.

I don't know how that transpired. I don't know what triggered. There could have been a legitimate reason from the jail for releasing him. There could have been a violation of protocol between not notifying the jail, their intent to come get him. There's all kinds of things, but I wasn't notified and he walked.

As for Beasley? Dr. Topalli says his faith and his own ability to control his world had been restored.

Most people would see somebody who was repeatedly getting arrested and going to jail as unsuccessful. He didn't see himself as a five times loser or six times loser. What he saw was, I got caught, I got out. And there are guys that are still in there. I walked out of there with guys still in there watching me walk out of there. That can be a very powerful, it's almost an aphrodisiac for someone who's getting out of prison.

A warrant would be issued for Beasley's arrest, but he was nowhere to be found. He disappeared. He was now officially a wanted man.

Next time: The Fugitive.

Beasley had disappeared, but there was one person who knew exactly where Beasley was hiding, and what he had in mind to disappear: a 16-year-old kid, Brogan Rafferty. And to hear him describe this plan is chilling.

Did Richard instruct you to bring anything with you, or what did he tell you when you guys were going to be doing, before you went?

He said that he was going to need to get another identity for this gentleman, that he had to have me help him do it.

Okay, and what were you going to do?

I wasn't told we're going to take him down here and murder him. He just said that he needed a new identity and that this guy looked similar to him, and he said that he needed to somehow murder him and then make his appearance overall similar to that gentleman's.

Okay.

But point being, I got in the car with him and Mr. Geiger, and then we drove down to Caldwell, Ohio.