Here’s a roundup of recent incidents and announcements from Ventura County agencies:
Former Fillmore minister pleads guilty in online sex case
A former Fillmore minister pleaded guilty last week to sending harmful matter to a child and arranging a meeting with a minor for a lewd purpose.
Barry Don Fike, 68, was arrested last July after he allegedly began communicating online with a subject he believed to be a 15-year-old girl. The conversations were sexual in nature and Fike shared explicit photos of himself with the subject, who was actually an undercover officer, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release issued Friday.
Fike was a minister at Fillmore Church of Christ and previously taught at Oaks Christian High School and Pepperdine University, according to the DA’s release.
The chatroom Fike used did not have safety features in place to verify a person’s age or to monitor the communication, the news release said.
The defendant, identified as a resident of Fillmore, is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. July 15 in courtroom 11 of the Ventura County Superior Court in Ventura.
4 charged in illegal gambling operation in Simi Valley
Four individuals have been charged with felonies connected to an illicit gambling operation run out of a residence in Simi Valley, authorities announced late last week.
The defendants were charged with three counts of pimping, three counts of pandering and one count of bookmaking. Two of them face an additional charge for money laundering. Each count carries a special allegation that the manner in which the crime was carried out indicates planning, sophistication and professionalism. They have all pleaded not guilty.
The defendants live in Simi Valley and Los Angeles, according to the DA’s office.
Simi Valley police said they began investigating a residence in town suspected to be the site of an illegal gambling operation along with drug sales and other criminal activity after receiving information last August. They ultimately found the location was hosting illegal gambling and prostitution and providing illegal narcotics, according to a statement from the Simi Valley Police Department
On May 28, the department served search warrants in the 1800 block of Marcella Street on the city’s southeast side, at two other residences in Simi Valley and three residences in the city of Los Angeles. They arrested five people on suspicion of various crimes related to the operation and cited 40 others on suspicion of misdemeanor illegal gambling.
These items may be updated.