Legal Defense for Predators: The Dark Reality Behind HOPCC’s Fundraisers

⚠️ CONTENT WARNING ⚠️This article contains deeply sensitive information, including an account of child abuse that has already been reported to authorities and is now being tried in court. What you are about to read is upsetting and disturbing—even to write these words feels heavy and wrenching. Please take care of your heart and mind as you proceed.

We share this not to sensationalize, but to shed light on truth, to give voice to what was silenced, and to refuse to let darkness hide behind closed doors. Abuse in any form is evil. We denounce it. We mourn with those who have been wounded by it.

If you or someone you know has endured abuse of this nature—or any kind of abuse—we urge you: please go to law enforcement. Please speak. Please seek safety. You are not alone, and there is help.

Brief History of Present Indictment

On September 10, 2025, the mask slipped. Multiple HOPCC ministers were arrested in the early morning hours, charged with crimes ranging from fraud to sexual abuse. Among them: Pastor Bernadel Semexant, facing a five-count federal indictment that includes:

• Enticement of a Minor to Engage in Sexual Activity

• Sexual Abuse of a Minor

• Transfer of Obscene Material to a Minor

• Receipt of Child Pornography

• Possession of Child Pornography

(United States Attorney’s Office – Southern District of Georgia, 2025).

If you live in Hinesville, you may have already seen HOPCC members on street corners, clutching flyers, asking for donations to fund the “legal defense” of these men. At first glance, it may look like a desperate but innocent plea for help. But pause. Look deeper. Peel back the layers.

Because among those they are raising money for is a man federally charged with preying on a child. And every single minister standing beside him in these arrests knew what he did, covered it up, and protected him—not the victim.

The Timeline They Don't Want You to See

On September 7, 2024, Hinesville Police Department was notified of an anonymous complaint that a pastor with the House of Prayer Christian Church (HOPCC), Bernadel Semexant had engaged in a sexual relationship with an underage parishioner. Let’s start there. That’s the root. That’s the wound. Initial investigation determined Semexant was acting as both a pastor and teacher at the Hinesville, Georgia location of the church wherein he taught minors Haitian-Creole. He admitted in a police interview to having a sexual relationship with the victim starting when she was 15 years of age.

• Review of Semexant's devices revealed over 150,000 communications between

  November 2023 and September 2024. Generally, the communications could be

  described as grooming – beginning with Semexant creating a bond with the victim until

  in or around January/February 2024 when the texts begin to become overtly sexual.

  At that point, Semexant begins to describe in detail the types of sexual acts he wants

  to do with the victim. In March 2024, during a long series of messages for example,

  he fantasized about getting caught by his wife engaged in sexual acts. DUE THE THE GRAPHIC NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE DESCRIBED IN THE COURT DOCUMENT, WE WILL STOP HERE AND SUMMARIZE THE CHAIN OF EVENTS.

• Leadership knew. Rony Denis knew. The ministers knew. Instead of reporting it, they hid it.

• His own wife found pornography on his phone. What was the church’s solution? Not accountability. Not justice. They sent him away—to Killeen—for a short “cooling off” period. Then quietly shuffled him back into Hinesville.

• Anonymous sources eventually reported the crime. Semexant was arrested and sat behind bars for over 90 days before bonding out.

• Even then, Denis’s concern wasn’t for the victim. A source shared a call where Denis scolded Semexant—not for violating a child—but for turning over his phone and confessing. Denis told him, “You never confess. You get an attorney.”

No remorse. No repentance. No care for the child whose life was shattered.

And it gets darker.

At a worship gathering, with Semexant phoning in from afar, Denis invoked scripture: “Where are thine accusers?” Semexant proudly responds, "YES SIR!" He mocked the very idea of accountability, treating the abuse as if it were a test of Semexant’s faith, as if the victim’s trauma was irrelevant. The other ministers arrested were aware.

A Fundraiser for Monsters

Now, in the wake of these arrests, HOPCC is once again circling the wagons. They are raising money for the legal defense of these men. Jim Benton has already indirectly in his son's name funneled more than $7,000 into this cause. The fundraiser, organized by Priscilla Bercini, doesn’t go toward helping the victim. It doesn’t go toward supporting families broken by these abuses.

It goes toward protecting predators. Toward paying lawyers to defend men who covered up crimes against children.

Let that sink in.

This is the “cause” HOPCC members are begging you to support when they hand you a flyer on the street corner. This is what your money buys: a shield for child predators.

Heart of the Matter

This is why so many of us speak out. This is why survivors and advocates risk ridicule, threats, and harassment to keep telling the truth. Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about abstract charges or faceless headlines.

It’s about a child.

A life scarred.

A voice silenced by leaders who claimed to be shepherds of the flock but instead became wolves.

And now those wolves want you to feed their defense fund.

We cannot stay silent. We cannot look away. Every flyer passed out, every dollar collected, is a slap in the face to the victim and every survivor of abuse.

HOPCC wants to paint this as persecution, as if their “ministers” are martyrs. But the truth is simpler, uglier, and impossible to deny: this is the cost of enabling predators and calling it “ministry.”

When you read Bercini’s fundraiser description, the language is drenched in manipulation.

“This is the greatest cause on the face of the earth. THE KINGDOM OF GOD and making an end of religious bias and persecution.” 

Do you see the sleight of hand here? They take the Kingdom of God—the most sacred, holy cause imaginable—and twist it into a shield for their own corruption. They clothe themselves in righteousness, but the threads are rotten.

Then they plead:

“Our church has been persecuted for over a decade just like yours and now we need your help!” 

They position themselves as martyrs, victims of injustice, saints under fire. But who are they really? Leaders who have built their kingdom on lies, intimidation, and exploitation. This isn’t persecution—it’s accountability knocking at their door.

The most telling line:

“We are fighting hard to erase this false narrative that has been told about our Pastors and our Church. We hope to silence the gainsayers and storytellers…"

This isn’t about truth. This isn’t about justice. This is about erasure. Their goal is to silence those who dare to speak. Survivors. Whistleblowers. Families. People like us who refuse to let the truth die in the shadows.

Make no mistake—this is not a battle for the Kingdom of God. This is a desperate bid to protect men who have preyed on the innocent. They want to raise money not for righteousness, but for lawyers who will defend child abusers and predators. They dare to call themselves persecuted for Christ, but they are only being confronted for their crimes.

They cry persecution while raising funds to protect the very darkness that has destroyed lives.

To those still inside, hear this clearly: You are being asked to fund the defense of men who protected a child predator. You are not standing for righteousness. You are being used to cover sin.

And to the victims: You are not forgotten. Your story matters. Your pain matters. And your courage to survive in the face of betrayal and abuse is greater than their entire empire of lies.

Yours truly— Blackhawk Missions