Former Seminarian for Anti-Semitic Church Charged with Sexual Abuse of Boys
A long-haul trucker is under investigation in Idaho and Washington State on suspicion of sexually abusing at least 10 boys, including some while he was affiliated with a hard-core, anti-Semitic church.
Kevin G. Sloniker, 30, was arrested in Menomonie, Wis., and extradited to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where he was booked into the Kootenai County Jail on Oct. 9. Sloniker faces felony charges of rape and lewd conduct involving two underage boys, The Spokesman-Review reported this week.
Authorities say Sloniker, now in jail on a $1 million bond, is suspected of sexually abusing at least eight other boys over the past decade. Some of the alleged abuse occurred when Sloniker took the boys with him while traveling as a long-haul truck driver. He also is under investigation in Spokane County for allegedly sexually abusing and whipping a young boy at his parents’ home in Latah, Wash.
Sloniker became a truck driver after working as a counselor at Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls, Idaho, which is part of the Society of Saint Pius X, and studying to become a church priest. Church officials have refused comment on the criminal case.
The ultra-conservative Latin-rite sect has a theology rife with anti-Semitism. It was formed in a 1970 breakaway from the Roman Catholic Church over reforms instituted when the Second Vatican Council condemned “all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews.” SSPX leaders contend the reforms were the result of a “Masonic plot backed by the Jews.”
Investigators, who are tracking Sloniker’s activities over the past decade, say he attended the society’s St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, Minn., apparently intending to become a SSPX priest. But he was kicked out of the seminary in 2005 for being “mentally unstable” after he tried to circumcise himself, court documents say.
One of the suspect’s alleged victims, police say, was an 11-year-old boy who claims he was raped and sexually assaulted over the past six years.
Another victim said he had contact with Sloniker while attending the society’s Immaculate Conception Academy in Post Falls where Sloniker taught altar boys through the society’s Guild of St. Stephen, the Spokane newspaper reported.
Parents told police they knew or suspected the abuse, but didn’t report it to authorities.
