A politically connected Brooklyn faith leader has been indicted on sex abuse charges for an inappropriate relationship with a teenager, law enforcement sources tell the Daily News.
Rev. Edward-Richard Hinds — who headed the 67th Precinct Clergy Council, known as “The GodSquad” — is slated Thursday afternoon to appear in Brooklyn Supreme Court, where the indictment will be disclosed, sources said. A special prosecutor from the Staten Island district attorney’s office is handling the case, the sources said.
The charges involve incidents from 2022 with a 16-year-old boy, sources said. Their encounters were not forcible, so any that took place after the teen turned 17 wouldn’t bring criminal charges, sources said.
In one of those incidents, on Christmas Eve 2022, Hinds and the teen performed sex acts on each other, the sources said.
The charges against the cleric include third-degree rape and sex abuse.
Hinds has been involved with multiple programs launched by Mayor Adams’ administration, and the GodSquad holds $10.5 million in active contracts with city agencies, mostly with the Department of Youth and Community Development, procurement records show.
Hinds has also been involved in the Citywide Clergy Collective, an anti-gun violence initiative the mayor established earlier this year.
An Adams spokesperson, however, said Hinds was removed from the collective on Aug. 12 after the GodSquad first alerted the mayor’s office about the accusations against the reverend.
In a statement released on X that day, the GodSquad said it had learned of “serious allegations” against Hinds. The statement didn’t elaborate on the accusations, but it said the GodSquad had informed the Brooklyn district attorney’s office of them.
The Clergy Council’s website has been scrubbed of several references to his position as president there. A link to his bio was taken down earlier this year, and his name was removed from the council’s “board of directors” page. Archives of both pages can still be found online.
A representative for the 67th Precinct Clergy Council did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
In a 2022 interview with NY1, Hinds described mentoring young men as being his calling, telling the station, “Mothers do a tremendous job as single parents. But there is something about a father, a man talking to a young man, shaping them.”
