M. Spencer Green / AP, file

Jeri Wright was charged with two counts of money laundering, two counts of making false statements to federal officers, and seven counts of giving false testimony to a grand jury.

CHICAGO -- The daughter of President Barack Obama's controversial former pastor was indicted on Wednesday on charges of money laundering and lying to federal authorities, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

Jeri L. Wright, 47, the daughter of Jeremiah Wright, was accused of participating in a fraud scheme led by a former suburban police chief and the chief's husband that involved a $1.25 million state grant, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield.

Wright, of the Chicago suburb of Hazel Crest, was charged with two counts of money laundering, two counts of making false statements to federal officers, and seven counts of giving false testimony to a grand jury.

The state grant was for a not-for-profit work and education program called We Are Our Brother's Keeper, owned by Regina Evans, former police chief of Country Club Hills, and her husband, Ronald W. Evans Jr.

According to the indictment, Wright, a close friend of the couple, received three checks in 2009 worth about $28,000 that were supposed to be for work related to the grant. About $20,000 of that was allegedly deposited back into accounts controlled by the Evanses.

Jeremiah Wright was the Chicago pastor whose inflammatory church sermons, which often condemned U.S. attitudes on race, poverty, the Iraq War and other issues, became a focus during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Obama quieted the controversy with a speech putting the quotes in the context of race relations.

The money laundering count Jeri Wright faces carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison, while the other charges carry penalties of up to five years in prison.

Jeri Wright could not be reached for comment. Prosecutor's office spokeswoman Sharon Paul did not know if she had yet retained a lawyer.

An American pastor who has been jailed in Iran since September has been sentenced to eight years in prison, the U.S. State Department said Sunday.

Spokesman Darby Holladay said the department is calling on Iran to respect Saeed Abedini's human rights and release him.

Earlier this month, Iran's semi-official news agency, ISNA, quoted Abedini's attorney, Nasser Sarbazi, as saying his client stood trial in the Revolutionary Court on charges of attempting to undermine state security by creating a network of Christian churches in private homes.

The pastor, who is of Iranian origin but lives in Boise, Idaho, has rejected the charges.

"Mr. Abedini's attorney had only one day (Jan. 21) to present his defense, so we remain deeply concerned about the fairness and transparency of Mr. Abedini's trial," Holladay said.

'Devastated'
Following the court presentation, ISNA quoted Sarbazi as saying the court would issue its verdict later, and that Abedini would be allowed to leave Iran and meet his family in the U.S. after posting bail.

"The promise of his release was a lie," said the pastor's wife, Naghmeh. "With today's development, I am devastated for my husband and my family. We must now pursue every effort, turn every rock, and not stop until Saeed is safely on American soil."

Her comments were provided by the Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice, which focuses on constitutional and human rights law around the world. The center is representing the pastor's family in the United States.

Holladay said the State Department is in close contact with Abedini's family and actively engaged in the case. Abedini and his wife have two children.

"We condemn Iran's continued violation of the universal right of freedom of religion," Holladay said.

The Associated Press

BROOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- As police frantically worked to figure out how his fiancée's 24-year-old daughter had vanished, a Michigan pastor who had turned to God to shed his violent past went to his flock with a request: pray for her.

But all along, authorities say, he knew the sordid truth about where the young mother was.

The pastor, ex-convict John D. White, later confessed to killing Rebekah Gay to fulfill a fantasy of necrophilia, police said Friday. White drank four or five beers before going to the woman's mobile home and repeatedly striking her head with a mallet and strangling her with a zip tie, according to court documents.

Police said White stripped her dead body but does not remember if he carried out his sexual fantasy. After dumping the body early Wednesday, he returned to Gay's home and dressed her 3-year-old son in his Halloween costume, then later dropped him off with the boy's father.

"He kept saying he's a bad person, he's a pastor, he felt bad for the people in his church. ... I don't recall him being real remorseful at all with regard to the victim or anything else," Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski told The Associated Press.

"He just basically said he was attracted to her, thought she was a very cute girl. It's a crazy, tragic situation," the sheriff added.

The case shocked the pastor's roughly 14-member congregation and raised questions about how a man who had found religion after a criminal past could return to that dark history.

White was in jail without bond Friday, a day after he was charged with first-degree murder in Gay's death in a rural area in Isabella County, 85 miles northwest of Lansing. The 55-year-old has asked for a court-appointed attorney.

White was engaged to Gay's mother and regularly watched her young son while she worked, said Donna Houghton, a church elder who had a role in hiring White three years ago to be pastor at Christ Community Fellowship. Church members, she said, were "absolutely floored" by the allegations.

"I protested his innocence until I had the absolute news that he confessed. Then he had no leg to stand on," she told the AP.

Before his arrest Thursday, White called Houghton to ask that she contact other church members and start a prayer chain for Gay, who still was missing at the time.

"He was pretty shook up. He said the police were giving him a hard time," Houghton said.

White confessed that day after being told the woman's body was likely to deteriorate in the cold, wet weather, Mioduszewski said. He said his fantasy had been fueled by pornographic videos.

'Contrite' over criminal past
Houghton said the congregation was aware of White's criminal past when he joined the church. He was released from prison in 2007, after serving nearly 12 years for manslaughter in the death of a 26-year-old woman in Kalamazoo County, according to the Michigan Corrections Department.

He had previously been sentenced to probation for choking and stabbing a 17-year-old Battle Creek girl in 1981.

"He was absolutely contrite," said Houghton, 76. "All kinds of people turn around and meet the Lord and they are a different person. He was doing a lot of good in the community. ... He was doing a lot of good and Satan did not want him doing good and Satan got to him."

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She said White got on her roof and cleaned her neglected gutters last week, a chore that inspired his Sunday talk. She recalled him saying during that sermon that "we need to check closely the seeds we sprout in ourselves. Nothing can be hidden from God."

At the trailer park on Friday, pictures of pumpkins and other Halloween decorations were still on Gay's home. Park resident Matt Brown said White regularly cut through his yard to visit Gay's trailer that was one street away.

Brown, 21, said White seemed to have scratches on his face when he told residents Wednesday that Gay was missing and that her car had been found outside a bar.

"It looked like he was in a struggle," Brown recalled.

Charles Kenworthy, another resident of the park about 11 miles west of Mount Pleasant, said the killing so close was "just scary."

"I would think they'd want to look into different people and their background before they let somebody live here," the 53-year-old said.

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The wife of the man who police say beat a pastor to death in a Texas church said Tuesday that her husband was mentally ill.

Police say Derrick Birdow, 33, killed Danny Kirk Sr. Monday after ramming into Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church in Forest Hill with his car.

Birdow died after police used a stun gun to subdue him.

"I am torn, because not only did I lose my pastor, I lost my husband," said Shanellia Harris Birdow, his widow.

Harris Birdow, an active member of Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church, said her husband did not know Kirk, although he had attended church there in the past.

Police: Texas pastor killed, suspect dies after being subdued by stun gun

She said that her husband, who had a lengthy criminal record, was mentally ill and had sought treatment last week at a Fort Worth hospital.

"He was sick," she said. "He was really sick. Even these last couple days, he was trying to get help, but he didn't get it."

She attended a vigil for Kirk on Tuesday night, unsure of how the congregation would react.

"I wanted them to know I didn't have anything to do with it," she said. "I don't know the reasons. I don't have answers to the questions that they have."

Candlelight vigil 
Church members and Kirk's family remembered the pastor at the candlelight vigil.

"Daddy, I am not going to do you wrong," said Danny Kirk Jr., the pastor's only son. "I am not going to bring shame to your name. You named me Danny Kirk Jr. for a reason."

He assured the congregation that he would take care of his mother and the church in his father's absence.

Danny Kirk Sr. had a daughter, Danielle, who died when she was just 3 years old. Church members say the family was still struggling with her death. His son said he takes great comfort in knowing his father and sister will now be together.

Forest Hill police say Birdow rammed his car into the front of the church on Monday afternoon before going inside and beating Kirk, the church founder, to death. A janitor trying to stop the assault was also injured, police said.

Barbara Moore, the church secretary, witnessed the attack and called 911. She told NBC 5 that she locked herself in her office while the men were fighting.

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"I saw them tussling in the truck, and he was trying to subdue him and he couldn't," she said. "I ran and called 911."

Police said Birdow was still attacking Kirk and the janitor when officers arrived. Officers used a stun gun to restrain him, arrested him and placed him in a police car.

Officers found him unresponsive about 10 minutes later, police said.

 The pastor at a Kentucky church says he will nullify a vote taken by members of his congregation that bans interracial couples.

Stacy Stepp, who is pastor of the Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church in Pike County, told the Lexington Herald-Leader on Saturday that he plans to declare the vote approving the policy null and void.

The move comes after Stepp, who says he opposed the policy, asked for advice from the Sandy Valley Conference of Free Will Baptists.

The conference met Saturday and issued a statement saying it had determined there weren't enough members voting in favor of the proposal, which would require a change in church bylaws. The vote last week at the church, which has about 40 people who attend, was 9-6.