By PETER SMITH and JULIE CARR SMYTH

A former missionary with an Ohio-based ministry has been indicted on federal charges of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with four different minors in Haiti over multiple years.

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Jeriah Mast, 44, of Millersburg, Ohio, was indicted for alleged actions during his multiple visits to Haiti between 2002 and 2019. Mast — who according to authorities admitted to abusing about 30 victims in Haiti and more in Ohio — worked for part of that time for the Millersburg-based Christian Aid Ministries, which coordinates missionary activities for Amish, conservative Mennonite and related groups.

It marks the second court case against Mast, who was sentenced in Holmes County court in 2019 to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two minors in Ohio.

Mast received an early judicial release in October after serving just under six years, according to Ohio’s inmate database. As a condition of his release, he was placed on three years’ supervised probation and required to complete an intensive supervision program, including sex-offender specific programming.

Court records indicate that presiding retired Judge Edward Emmett O’Farrell of Tuscarawas County granted Mast’s release based on “an exemplary record” behind bars and “most importantly, the Defendant’s stated and demonstrated remorse for the crimes he committed, and the emotional and psychological pain and suffering he inflicted upon the child victims and their families in this case.”

Mast was arrested on the federal charges on Nov. 5 and formally indicted on Tuesday. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal court in Cleveland.

“Crimes against children, like those mentioned in these allegations, are reprehensible,” U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio said in a statement. “Such appalling and morally corrupt behavior will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We commend the work of Homeland Security Investigations and the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office, whose thorough work led to these federal charges being filed today.”

The charges are based on a U.S. law that prohibits citizens from “traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person,” according to court filings.

The court docket indicates Mast is represented by a public defender, who did not immediately return email and phone messages seeking comment late Wednesday.

The Mast scandal came into public view in 2019 after he abruptly returned home from Haiti. In a subsequent interview with Holmes County authorities, he admitted to molesting about 30 children in Haiti between about 2003 and 2019, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court by Special Agent Jason M. Guyton of Homeland Security Investigations. Details of his admission indicate many if not all of the reported victims were boys.

The federal charges accuse Mast of abusing four different minors in 2004, 2007 and 2011. One was a 13-year-old boy Mast met through his missionary work and allegedly molested in a tent, according to the criminal complaint.

The case was among those that drew attention to issues of sexual abuse in Amish and related, plain-dressing church communities such as conservative Mennonites and the Charity churches that Mast belonged to. Advocates have said victims have been pressured to forgive abusers and not to seek prosecution outside the disciplines of the largely closed religious communities.

Holmes County, where Christian Aid Ministries is based, is the hub of one of the nation’s largest Amish settlements. In 2019, CAM placed two of its managers on leave amid revelations that they knew as early as 2013 that Mast had confessed to sexual activity with young men, yet kept him on the job.

A CAM spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.

CAM’s work in Haiti came into the spotlight in 2021 when 17 missionaries and their children were kidnapped by a gang. They went free later that year, some ransomed by a third party, CAM acknowledged. CAM said most of the rest escaped.

On Wednesday, Joly Germine, alleged to be the founder and leader of the gang, was sentenced in federal court in Washington to life in prison for orchestrating the kidnapping.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

A now-former Washington County sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to four months in the workhouse and four years’ probation for driving drunk while off duty and crashing head-on into a family’s SUV on an Afton highway, seriously injuring the driver, who was heading to an apple orchard with his wife and several children.

Campbell Johnston Blair, 59, of Hastings, was intoxicated and wearing his sheriff’s office uniform while heading south on Minnesota 95 (St. Croix Trail) at Scenic Lane just after 10:30 a.m. Oct. 27, 2024. His duty pistol was on the front passenger seat.

Campbell Johnston Blair (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Erik and Heather Sward, of Woodbury, were on their way to an apple orchard to celebrate their daughter’s second birthday. The couple’s two other children, ages 6 and 8, and their two cousins, 7 and 9, were also in the 2022 Ford Expedition, according to the state patrol.

Blair, driving a 2024 Subaru Crosstrek SUV, crossed over the center line and smashed into the couple’s SUV at 55 mph, the criminal complaint said.

Erik Sward’s injuries included a spinal fracture and fractures to his lower left leg. Heather and three of the children emerged with minor injuries, according to prosecutors.

Blair was put on administrative leave from his job and resigned Feb. 1. He’d been a deputy since 2020 and was assigned to the court security unit.

The Washington County Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case, but court proceedings were held in Anoka County District Court to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

In September, Blair entered a Norgaard plea to felony criminal vehicular operation-causing substantial bodily harm and a gross misdemeanor charge of criminal vehicular operation-causing bodily harm.

Under a Norgaard plea, a defendant says they are unable to remember what happened due to drug use or mental health impairment at the time, but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.

Six other charges were dismissed at Tuesday’s sentencing as part of a plea agreement Blair reached with the prosecution: carrying a pistol while under the influence of alcohol, which is a misdemeanor, and five additional counts of criminal vehicular operation.

Under state sentencing guidelines, Blair faced a presumptive 12-month stayed prison sentence.

Anoka County District Judge Todd Schoffelman handed down a 364-day workhouse sentence, then stayed all but 120 days. Blair will receive one day of jail credit toward the workhouse term, which will begin Jan. 2.

The sentence includes a stay of imposition, which means Blair’s felony conviction will be reduced to a misdemeanor if he successfully completes terms of probation.

55 mph crash

According to the complaint, state troopers called to the crash found Blair in his uniform and conscious but covered in blood from lacerations. His duty vest and pistol were on the front passenger seat. He told a trooper he had worked overnight at Regions Hospital in St. Paul and got done at 7 a.m. He said he had been called to return to work at the hospital.

Field-sobriety tests were not conducted at the crash scene because Blair had to be extricated from his SUV and transported to Regions Hospital for medical care.

Blair gave a statement to investigators while at Regions, repeating that he had been called back to work at Regions. He smelled of alcohol, but denied that he had been drinking. He agreed to give a preliminary breath test, and gave a “weak sample” that registered a 0.09 blood-alcohol level, the complaint read. The legal limit for a driver in Minnesota is 0.08.

Investigators later learned that Blair had not been called back in to work, and that he did not work again until that night. “It was unknown why Blair was in full uniform with his duty vest and pistol,” the complaint said.

Several motorists said they saw Blair weaving over lane lines and driving erratically.

Troopers believed that Blair hit the couple’s SUV at 55 mph without braking, since no marks were found on the highway, the complaint said.

Erik Sward told investigators while hospitalized they were struck with no warning and that he did not have time to hit the brakes.

He also took prescribed Ambien

In a sentencing memo, Blair’s attorney, Stephen Foertsch, said Blair testified at his plea hearing that he took Ambien per his prescription instructions and remembered drinking one beer.

A sample of Blair’s blood taken at the hospital showed a 0.089 BAC and the presence of the sleep disorder drug, according to Foertsch.

“Mr. Blair’s offense was caused by an unexpected reaction to Ambien and alcohol, a reaction that, again, Mr. Blair had no reason to anticipate,” Foertsch wrote.

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Blair testified that he remembered waking up in the hospital, but had no memory of putting on his uniform, according to Foertsch. Blair testified that he was not scheduled to work, nor called in to work, and he did not know why he put on his uniform.

Assistant Washington County Attorney Erin Stephens said last week in the state’s sentencing memo that Blair should have known the dangers of drinking and driving since he was a deputy at the time.

Yet, he chose to consume alcohol and his prescribed Ambien dosage, Stephens said.

“Unfortunately, this day, he was an actual danger to other motorists, causing significant harm in the lives of many,” the prosecutor wrote.

By THALIA BEATY

Americans gave $4 billion to nonprofits on GivingTuesday in 2025, an increase from the $3.6 billion they gave in 2024, according to estimates from the nonprofit GivingTuesday.

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More people also volunteered their time on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving this year, which fell on Dec. 2 and has become a major fundraising day for nonprofits. This year, 11.1 million people in the U.S. volunteered, up from, 9.2 million last year.

GivingTuesday started in 2012 as a hashtag and a project of the 92nd St Y in New York and has since become an independent nonprofit. The organization estimates how much was given and how many people volunteer using data from a wide variety of sources, including giving platforms, payment processors and software applications that nonprofits use.

Woodrow Rosenbaum, the chief data officer for GivingTuesday, said both the number of people giving and the overall donation amount may have increased this year as people seek a sense of belonging and connection.

“Generosity is a really powerful way to get that,” Rosenbaum said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But I think mostly it’s just that when people see need, they want to do something about it and GivingTuesday is an opportunity to do that in a moment of celebration as opposed to crisis.”

Overall donations increased 8.1% from last year when adjusted for inflation. GivingTuesday has also seen the average donation increase in size over time and Rosenbaum said people may be seeking additional ways to give as well.

A person stocks their trolley with food from a One Love Community Fridge, Nov. 15, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

“Volunteering is a way that you can add to your impact without it costing you money,” he said.

Not everyone who volunteers their time does so through a nonprofit. They may volunteer with mutual aid groups or by helping out family members or neighbors, he said.

GivingTuesday does not include donations from corporations or foundations in their estimate, Rosenbaum said, as they are focused on the everyday generosity of individuals. That means they did not include the gift from billionaires Michael and Susan Dell of $6.25 billion to encourage families to claim new investment accounts created by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump hosted the Dells at the White House Tuesday, calling their commitment “one of the most generous acts in the history of our country.” The Dells will offer $250 to 25 million children 10 years old and younger to invest in accounts that the U.S. Department of Treasury will create next year. The “ Trump accounts ” were part of the administration’s tax and spending legislation passed in the summer.

A significant portion of charitable giving to nonprofits happens at the end of the calendar year and GivingTuesday is an informal kick off to what nonprofits think of as the giving season. A combination of economic and political uncertainty has meant it is hard to predict how generous donors will be this year. Rosenbaum said that the generosity demonstrated on GivingTuesday is an extremely encouraging bellwether for how the rest of the giving season will go.

“What we really hope is that nonprofits and community groups see this as an opportunity that we are in a moment of abundance and that people are ready and willing to help,” Rosenbaum said.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday released never-before-seen photos and videos of Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous private island, offering what they called a “disturbing look” into the world of the late convicted sex offender.

The newly released material includes dozens of short videos and still photographs of the compound, including one showing a particularly bizarre room filled with an old-fashioned dental chair, Ikea-style metal cabinets and nearly a dozen caricature-like male face masks arranged irregularly on its walls.

An image released by House Democrats showing a bedroom at Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island estate. (Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands)

Other images show a desktop computer displaying surveillance footage of the property; a bedroom in the compound; a shower room with several pillows; a room with a chalkboard with the words “power” and “deception” written on it; and a desk telephone with four names that appear to have been redacted.

An image released by House Democrats showing a bedroom at Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island estate. (Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands)

Members of the Oversight Committee received the images in response to a Nov. 18 request to the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Justice for information to aid the ongoing investigation into the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

“We are releasing these photos and videos to ensure public transparency in our investigation and to help piece together the full picture of Epstein’s horrific crimes,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat in the committee.

The images offer a “harrowing look behind Epstein’s closed doors,” Oversight Democrats said on social media, inviting the public to “see for yourself.”

An image released by House Democrats showing a bathroom at Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island estate. (Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands)

The committee also received records from J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank, lawmakers said, adding that those files will be reviewed and should be made available to the public “in the days ahead.”

“We won’t stop fighting until we deliver justice for the survivors,” Garcia said. “It’s time for President Trump to release all the files, now.”

An image released by House Democrats showing words on a chalkboard, some redacted by the House Democrats, in a room apparently being used as a library at Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island estate. (Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands)

Last month, in a stunning show of bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans in both chambers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill to force the Justice Department to release all of its unclassified files on Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days.

Trump signed the bill on Nov. 19, but it remains unclear how much of the files will be released to the public, as the Justice Department can withhold or redact certain information under the law’s provisions.