It’s been said that an image speaks a thousand words.
With that in mind, here are the criminal dockets for Liam Goligher and Susan Elzey having sex in a public park.
Adultery. Perjury. Sex in public places.
Classy, those two.
Criminal dockets for Liam Goligher and Susan Elzey
Thank you for following up on the situation at Tenth Presbyterian. My wife & I found these documents on line last night; they are publicly available. What we couldn’t find was the Lancaster County PA list of ordinances that show that the ordinance broken covered “sex in a public park.” All the Dockett shows without a more detailed view is that they were both arrested by the same officer for “Personal Conduct.” How did you come to the conclusion that this violation represents the activity you reported? While we don’t believe that your reporting is wrong based, in a serious situation like this one, reporting with as much clarity as possible is the best policy in my opinion.
Tenth, by all appearance, has severed its ties with Dr. William “Liam” Goligher.
Hi Scott. Our editor, Eric Bonetti, used to practice law in PA, so he was familiar with charging practices in Lancaster. To be certain, we interviewed persons connected with the case, and checked with the clerk’s office.
Additionally, we have received numerous reports from third parties alleging an ongoing affair between Liam and Susan Elzey, including that he moved to be closer to her. We have largely kept that information in pocket, as we didn’t feel we had sufficient verification to publish.
The other factor in all of this is that Susan Elzey acted as Liam’s attack dog against Phil Snyder, with her perjurious claims that Phil claimed he hears voices, has threatened to kill people, and more. We know Phil personally and these are bold-faced lies. So even before allegations of an affair went public, it was clear that there was an unhealthy relationship between Elzey and Goligher.
Let’s hope Elzey has the integrity to resign and renounce her perjurious statements. Not only is it the right thing to do, but since she likely believes in a literal hell, it’s good fire insurance.
Below is the only reference I have found on the internet to Lancaster and Personal Conduct, as that code referenced in the citations no longer seems to exist in Lancaster City code… and this is not specifically in reference to the code on the citations:
https://co.lancaster.pa.us/DocumentCenter/View/365/Ordinance-No-152-ammended-by–No-153-of-2022-and-No-158-of-2023?bidId=
PERSONAL CONDUCT
No person shall:
A. With the intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof
1. Engage in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior;
2. Make unreasonable noise; or
3. Engage in any other behavior which would constitute the offense of disorderly conduct.
B. Engage in any form of sexual activity.
C. Appear in public in a manner that exposes genitalia or buttocks.
D. Appear in public in a manner that exposes the female breast, including but not limited to topless sunbathing.
All of which begs the question: married Liam Goligher drives to Lancaster, meets with an allegedly married female parishioner, and engages in any of these activities, leading to criminal charges. How is this is even remotely acceptable? Doesn’t matter if they were picking flowers from the tulip patch—we still have an issue.
The boundary violations are shocking on so many levels. Yet no one at Tenth appears to have run a background check, including as part of the GRACE report.
We like and respect the folks at GRACE. But come on folks—this popped right out when we did an updated background check.
BTW, multiple sources have now come forward with information related to these and similar issues involving Goligher and Elzey. Time to clean house, make amends, and start afresh.
In just in case we weren’t clear, Elzey needs to go. Her lies about Phil Snyder and her conduct with Goligher lead us to conclude she is one evil, troubled soul.
Although it appears the activity was sexual…do you really think they were just praying and singing hymns at the top of their lungs? If so, why did he resign and why is her picture now blank under the deaconesses list? Why were they together in Lancaster? Maybe they were studying the Amish belief system? Too much weirdness is going on at Tenth and it is time to wake up and smell the coffee.
Yup. And as we read Susan Elzey’s lies about Phil Snyder, a couple of words come to mind: sociopath, amoral, wicked. We’re not saying those are facts—just that these are questions that should be asked.
No matter how we parse the issue, this is one seriously troubled and evil soul.
Individuals will rarely call for someone to be held accountable when they are doing things for which they need to be held accountable. This is true for church leaders, denominations, politicians, etc.
We’ll see how my former denomination, the PCA, will handle this. My spidey senses tell me that they will hide behind some procedural reason for not directly dealing with it… If this situation even makes it that far.
How far it goes will depend on how desperate this guy is to retain power. The path of lesser resistance would be for him to resign, lay low for about sixteen months and then take another pastoring gig. I will vomit if he confesses from the pulpit and receives a standing ovation. Also, don’t be surprised if he winds up getting a lesser “sentence” than she does.
I don’t see anything here about sexual activity.
Call up the Lancaster police department and tell them you want the arrest records.
Guaranteed it wasn’t a skateboarding violation.
Where do you get that it was an actual arrest? It looks like it was a simple citation, a petty offense. Park rangers are apparently called arresting officer by default in legal terms.
I don’t see where 1 LO § 98-19 §§ B is in the Lancaster City Code…
https://ecode360.com/8115905#8115905
I have scoured the internet and have not found 98-19 B. Does it not exist anymore?
Where do you get that it was sexual activity?
I had the same question regarding the actual charge. But I found PA County Commissioners’ Minutes from Wednesday, February 22, 2022 in which they restated the ordinances for use of Lancaster County Parks…ordinance 19 B (page six of the minutes) prohibits “Engage in any form of sexual activity”…this would correspond to the 19 B that is listed on the arrest form/posted legal document here and elsewhere.
Exactly. We didn’t go down that road lightly. Accusing anyone of adultery is a serious thing, and we made darned sure we knew what the charges were.
FYI, we’ve blocked several comments—two coming from an IP address that likely is Liam’s home—suggesting this is all Phil Snyder’s doing.
For the record, we unearthed the criminal records without the help of any third party. And if you read our other posts, we are just as likely to come to the defense of a beleaguered clergy person (like Jill Williams) as we are to go after one who engages in bad behavior.
We have no bias one direction or the other, but knowing firsthand the suffering that comes from misconduct, we invariably try to protect those hurt by the church.
And while we are more than a little incensed about issues at Tenth, nothing would make us happier than to see the church restored to health. And yes, that includes making peace with Phil Snyder, who had the courage to call out the problems long ago.
We recommend that the childish and hateful attacks against Phil stop, and that folks sit down with him, have a heart-to-heart conversation, and ask the question, “How can we fix things?”
I also was looking for the local ordinances Lancaster County for Ordinance 98 and did not find anything that matched.
However, Ordinance 98 was repealed and replaced with Ordinance 152 in 2022, which can be found here:
https://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02232022-2414
Ordinance 152, Section 19 lists “Personal Conduct” offenses of which part B is [No person shall] [e]ngage in any form of sexual activity.
Thank you for posting this. I had been in touch with the park rangers (since the police and the judge’s office knew nothing about these ordinances, nor could they find 98-18 B)… in an attempt to try to understand if the code had changed since 2014. It seems it has. Thank you for your research. This seems to confirm that this was a sexual act that they were ticketed for in the park by a park ranger. Further research shows that the two individuals named above were the only ones involved in the incident.
It appears that Goligher has been removed from both the elder and staff pages on the tenth pres website.
It would be helpful to have the original Ordinance 98, to confirm that 19-B stayed the same before and after the change to Ordinance 152.
It would also be helpful to have any additional notes from the incident, i.e. from the “arresting officer”, Chief Ben Arnold. Perhaps a FOIA request would accomplish this?https://www.nfoic.org/pennsylvania-sample-foia-request/
Ira, It didn’t stay the same. If you search for the archived Ordinance you can see 19:B specifically referred to sexual behavior. Search it.
Ok, that would mean it stayed the same.
If it’s so easy to search, then post a link. There seems to be no way to search it online or in the archives. The County Commissioners Office had to be contacted.
The ordinance was changed years AFTER Liam and Susan were arrested.
If you search the archives you can see the archived ordinance that states it clearly:
19 B: Engage in any form of sexual activity
Please post a link.
The Lancaster County Commissioner’s Office has confirmed that 98-19 B was listed as: “Engage in any form of sexual activity.”
Below is the link to the Ordinance 98-19B. The document comes from the Lancaster County Commissioners Meeting of December 15, 2010. It provides all sections of Ordinance 98. Section 19 is on page 7 of the document. 19B states that “No person shall engage in any form of sexual activity.”
The link is: https://co.lancaster.pa.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_12152010-252
It is sickening what’s become of Tenth…
Maybe it was always like this and now it is being exposed. Most churches have issues.
Things really have gotten ugly in recent years. Phil Snyder should be celebrated for doing the right thing and standing up to abuse. The fact Goligher, Elzey and others were willing to commit perjury to try to get him is nothing short of demonic. And that’s saying something, coming from us Episcopalians!
Again, we call Tenth Pres to repentance on this issue.
PS Elzey and the other perjurers should be excommunicated and barred from the church, just like they did to Phil.
It sounds like Phil has had a terrible time of it.
Clarifying point: According to staff at Lancaster County Department of Parks & Recreation, this was 99% likely just a citation, not an actual arrest. Even traffic tickets are written in legal terms as an “arrest” with an “arresting officer”.
Incident: July 18, 2014
No Falling Word (weekly radio broadcast from Goligher)
“The Taming of the Gods
Posted: July 19, 2014
Christians like to place blame on secular education and popular culture, but the church itself is often hostile toward God and disobedient to his Word. Take for example, the Israelites, who tried, quite literally, to put God in a box. Whether the idols in our lives are physical statues or are simply priorities that we place before God, they all share one common trait: they are given life by the people who worship them?”
https://www.alliancenet.org/nofallingword?page=29
Found in the comments of https://thewartburgwatch.com/2023/12/06/what-in-the-world-happened-to-pastor-liam-goligher-pastor-carroll-wynne-and-others-at-tenth-presbyterian-church/ : “They were caught in a park in Lancaster, Pa., which is a nearly two hours drive from the church in Philadelphia. The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is headquartered in Lancaster! (The Alliance was founded in the 1990s by James Boice, then pastor of this Tenth Presbyterian Church) … Goligher had a radio ministry with the Alliance, seems to have ended right when C-19 hit in 2020: https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180513/https://www.tenth.org/resource-library/blog-entries/no-falling-word-2/ “No Falling Word is a weekly radio broadcast by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, presenting the biblical and scholarly teaching of Dr. Liam Goligher, Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia.”
According to the judge’s office, no further info can be found on this incident because the case file was destroyed, because it is too old. All files more than 6 years old are sent to the incinerator.
According to the judge’s office, there are no further records because all detailed case info is incinerated after 6-7 years. I guess those dockets are all anyone is getting, unless someone had requested that detailed incident report info prior to 2020 / 2021.
Here is an anonymous shareable link to all the county info gathered on this case so far, including the Signed Ordinances:
https://cryptpad.fr/drive/#/2/drive/view/TQTMAjAY9YZP9AcBCTj2MEN3WsYkwKBjo3kXHWRwoaM/