How Could You? Hall of Shame-James Corrigan Clay

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Florida, “in January 2021, child welfare authorities in Florida alleged that 43-year-old James Corrigan Clay, pastor, and philanthropist, had “abused” and “sexually assaulted” one of his underage children whom he had raised with ex-partner Shelley Jean. Clay was arrested March 10^th this year by federal agents, according to an unsealed indictment first released on Thursday by The Daily Beast.

The “U.S. pastor who moved to Haiti and adopted two orphans – has been arrested on child sex abuse charges against one of his children. Corrigan is the co-founder of the “Apparent Project”, a non-profit charity organization established by his ex-partner Shelley Jean. The group has been visited and supported by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is also believed to have helped fund another of the pair’s entities, Papillion Enterprise, through Clinton Foundation grants.

Both families of Shelley Jean and Corrigan Clay have declined to take any public stance regarding the sexual assault of one of their co-parented children. This has included Shelly Jean herself who, in 2021, was said to have hidden behind justice system instructions, avoiding any indication to whether she was aware of such ongoings between Clay and their underage adopted children prior to his arrest. Despite declining to make a direct statement on the sexual assault charges, Jean assured that the children have only lived with her since her learning of the incidents, according to the Haiti-based Ayibo Post.

Prior to this, Clay, Jean, and CEO Marilyn Monaghan founded Apparent Project, designed to “establish childcare for working parents, quality early education, and job skills that provide opportunities for the poor in Haiti.” As with Papillion Enterprise, the Apparent Project has been visited and supported by former president Bill Clinton, alongside various other celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Kim Kardashian, displayed in a now-deleted blog post from Clay in 2012:

Clay’s now-deleted post also included a letter, dated 2016, from a deprived seventeen-year-old Haitian girl expressing her desire to “make love” with him in order to aid her sister with access to medical surgery. Though Clay had expressed in his blog post that he helped the teenage girl without the requirement of sexual deeds, he further admitted to lingering on her proposal due to personal loneliness.

The Clinton Foundation has long-boasted of its ties to Papillion and related groups over the past decade. It was announced in 2016 that Papillion had “grown from less than 100 employees and approximately $150,000 in annual revenues when we first started working with her, including a Foundation investment of $150,000, to now over 300 employees and over $1.2 million a year in revenues” – partly courtesy of the Clinton Foundation.

It has been alleged that close ties remain between the Clinton Foundation and Shelley Jean’s organizations, as Jean continues to attend Clinton Global Initiative meetings in New York. Meanwhile, her ex-partner and co-founder Corrigan Clay faces up to thirty years in prison if convicted.”

Clinton-Backed Haiti Pastor Indicted on Child Sex Charges
[The National Pulse 3/14/22 by Simone Hanna]

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