Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Support independent, faith-based journalism. Donate
Search Search this site

‘Peeping preacher’ case comes to TV

NewsBob Allen  |  October 19, 2015

By Bob Allen

Incriminating video that three years ago helped land a former Southern Baptist evangelist in prison for video voyeurism aired on national television Oct. 15.

sammy nuckollsThursday’s installment of Crime Watch Daily, a syndicated investigative news magazine series that debuted in the United States and Canada on Sept. 14, opened with the story of Sammy Nuckolls, a once-popular speaker at youth events including LifeWay Christian Resources’ FUGE summer camps. He is now serving 10 years in prison for planting hidden cameras to spy on women in a bathroom at his home in Olive Branch, Miss.

The broadcast, shown in two parts, includes clips shown at his sentencing hearing in September 2012 of Nuckolls setting up spy cameras to capture video of female houseguests as they got undressed to shower. Victims testified to feeling shame and violation of trust with descriptions including “video rape.”

“From the first time that I ever entered their home, that was his objective of our friendship,” Ashley Fisher, one of a few of Nuckolls’ victims who has spoken publicly about the crimes, told Crime Watch Daily.

Her husband, Adam Fisher, a youth pastor and worship leader who once looked up to Nuckolls as a role model and mentor, said he had to put their friendship aside when confronted with the revelation that they and other couples like them were being manipulated and abused.

“Looking back, I see there were a lot of different red flags I could have noticed but just kind of threw to the side, because he was a traveling evangelist,” Fisher admitted. “I mean, you can trust those guys.”

Nuckolls was arrested, subsequently indicted, and found guilty after a bench trial of 13 counts of video voyeurism, defined in the Mississippi Code as the act of “photographing or filming another without permission where there is expectation of privacy.”

Nuckolls pleaded guilty to similar charges in two counties in Arkansas but avoided prison with plea bargains. DeSoto County circuit judge Gerald Chatham found Nuckolls guilty of crimes committed in his jurisdiction Sept. 14, 2012, sentencing him to prison and more than $80,000 in fines and restitution. After his release from prison Nuckolls faces another 10 years of treatment and monitoring.

Judge Chatham turned down Nuckoll’s request in 2014 to have his sentence reduced. This summer the case went before the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Authorities in Mississippi say Nuckolls secretly recorded 13 women between 2007 and 2008 at his home in Olive Branch. While that placed the filming outside of a two-year statute of limitations, prosecutors said the act of transferring the videos to a new laptop computer that Nuckolls purchased in 2011 amounted to a “reproduction” of the images within the two-year window.

Nuckolls’ attorney Ronald Michael argued before the Supreme Court June 22 that “photographs, films, videotapes, records or otherwise reproduces” language written to the law in 1999 doesn’t take into account the complex ways media is defined and stored today. Even if Judge Chatham was correct in his interpretation that moving the images to a new computer “reproduces” them, Michael said, “there was no evidence of when the transfer took place, how the transfer took place or who made the transfer.”

If the transfer happened in another state or county, Michael said, DeSoto County would lack jurisdiction to prosecute.

Previous stories:

‘Peeping preacher’ found guilty

Peeping preacher’s prison sentence stands

Hearing reveals impact of clergy abuse

Tags:peopleVideo VoyeurismSammy Nuckolls
Bob Allen
More by
Bob Allen
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • How I learned to care about social justice growing up Southern Baptist in Oklahoma

      Opinion

    • What I learned by listening to women pastors during the pandemic

      Analysis

    • Racism is never an innocent joke

      Opinion

    • Does landmark religious freedom legislation need a fix or is it fine as is?

      Analysis


    Curated

    • Dave Ramsey’s new crusade: Ending COVID-19 mask orders

      Dave Ramsey’s new crusade: Ending COVID-19 mask orders

      March 8, 2021
    • Conditions deteriorating in Myanmar, Baptist doctor says

      Conditions deteriorating in Myanmar, Baptist doctor says

      March 8, 2021
    • Prison Fellowship Sells Colson’s Campus to Alliance Defending Freedom

      Prison Fellowship Sells Colson’s Campus to Alliance Defending Freedom

      March 8, 2021
    • At ancient city of Ur, Pope Francis makes heartfelt appeal for fraternity of faiths

      At ancient city of Ur, Pope Francis makes heartfelt appeal for fraternity of faiths

      March 8, 2021
    Read Next:

    Free Lenten daily devotionals offered

    NewsBNG staff

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • Our needs are holy to God: The Gospel of Dr. Seuss

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • Remember that time you were teaching Sunday school on Zoom and a cat entered the screen?

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Why am I so afraid of my son’s tutu?

      OpinionHanne Larson

    • Equality Act stirs passions about the definition of religious liberty and RFRA’s role

      AnalysisMark Wingfield

    • Racism is never an innocent joke

      OpinionChris Conley

    • Students and alumni express concern about restructuring of OBU’s storied music program

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Pandemic plans: Keep on coping

      OpinionDavid Jordan

    • Learning to breathe in the Spirit by confessing, ‘I can’t breathe’

      OpinionPatrick Wilson

    • Does landmark religious freedom legislation need a fix or is it fine as is?

      AnalysisMark Wingfield

    • How to follow a leader

      OpinionPaula Mangum Sheridan

    • Black Baptist women in ministry and the principality of patriarchy

      OpinionAidsand Wright-Riggins

    • Author of Eugene Peterson biography was one of many shaped by America’s pastor

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Transitions for the week of 3-5-21

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Evangelicals are in trouble: Reclaiming ‘Oberlinism” could bring some redemption

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • U.S. agency calls for more religious freedom in Nigeria

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Repressing my sexual orientation cost me my health — permanently

      OpinionAmber Cantorna

    • World religious leaders remember Shahbaz Bhatti as martyr 10 years later

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • How I learned to care about social justice growing up Southern Baptist in Oklahoma

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • The charismatic story is part of the Baptist story, historian contends

      NewsPat Cole

    • Finding charity amidst the chaos one year into the coronavirus pandemic

      OpinionCurtis Ramsey-Lucas

    • Son’s legacy lives on through Kansas City ministry for children with special needs

      NewsHelen Jerman

    • Maybe your church needs a minister of loneliness

      OpinionErich Bridges

    • Rural churches need to understand the cultural capital of their communities

      AnalysisBrian Foreman and Justin Nelson

    • How slavery still shapes the world of white evangelical Christians

      OpinionRichard T. Hughes

    • New study finds affirmation of Black church experience even as attendance declines

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Remember that time you were teaching Sunday school on Zoom and a cat entered the screen?

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Students and alumni express concern about restructuring of OBU’s storied music program

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Author of Eugene Peterson biography was one of many shaped by America’s pastor

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Transitions for the week of 3-5-21

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • U.S. agency calls for more religious freedom in Nigeria

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • World religious leaders remember Shahbaz Bhatti as martyr 10 years later

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The charismatic story is part of the Baptist story, historian contends

      NewsPat Cole

    • Son’s legacy lives on through Kansas City ministry for children with special needs

      NewsHelen Jerman

    • New study finds affirmation of Black church experience even as attendance declines

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Christian nationalism deeply embedded into American life, Tyler warns

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Faith community nurses ‘carry the hope’ during COVID-19 pandemic

      NewsLiam Adams

    • Coronavirus challenging denominational summer conventions yet again

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Some Methodist churches finding greater mission results with simplified governance

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Diverse religious coalition urges Congress to finalize the Equal Rights Amendment

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • She’s Gen-Z, became leery of the church but practices faith with fitness

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • LGBTQ inclusion and clergy sexual abuse treated equally in SBC expulsions

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • As people walk away from the church in droves, Russ Dean hopes to tell the old story in a new way

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The strange saga of the Riley Foundation lawsuit now forces SBC to figure out who has the right to remove a seminary trustee

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • In-person worship dropped in January as more churches were directly affected by COVID

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Caldwell succeeds Anderson as chair of BNG board

      NewsBNG staff

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Final vote sounds the death knell for capital punishment in Virginia

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Reeves to lead Fellowship Southwest

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Three years later, Leah Sharibu is still held captive, reportedly for refusing to renounce her faith

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Our needs are holy to God: The Gospel of Dr. Seuss

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • Why am I so afraid of my son’s tutu?

      OpinionHanne Larson

    • Racism is never an innocent joke

      OpinionChris Conley

    • Pandemic plans: Keep on coping

      OpinionDavid Jordan

    • Learning to breathe in the Spirit by confessing, ‘I can’t breathe’

      OpinionPatrick Wilson

    • How to follow a leader

      OpinionPaula Mangum Sheridan

    • Black Baptist women in ministry and the principality of patriarchy

      OpinionAidsand Wright-Riggins

    • Evangelicals are in trouble: Reclaiming ‘Oberlinism” could bring some redemption

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • Repressing my sexual orientation cost me my health — permanently

      OpinionAmber Cantorna

    • How I learned to care about social justice growing up Southern Baptist in Oklahoma

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Finding charity amidst the chaos one year into the coronavirus pandemic

      OpinionCurtis Ramsey-Lucas

    • Maybe your church needs a minister of loneliness

      OpinionErich Bridges

    • How slavery still shapes the world of white evangelical Christians

      OpinionRichard T. Hughes

    • Faith leaders call for an end to racial bullying in the Indiana legislature

      OpinionIvan Douglas Hicks

    • One year later: Some musings on post-COVID culture and social ethics

      OpinionDavid Gushee, Senior Columnist

    • Why vote to fund something you won’t ever use?

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • Matter-of-fact statements about Scripture aren’t always the gospel truth

      OpinionJordan Conley

    • Black History Month: Remembering, waiting, watching

      OpinionWendell Griffen

    • Canada labels Uyghur repression ‘genocide,’ but that’s not as exemplary as you might think

      OpinionRay Mwareya

    • About disfellowshipping churches based on the ‘clear’ teaching of Scripture

      OpinionDalen Jackson

    • What the SBC should learn from the Ravi Zacharias tragedy

      OpinionChrista Brown

    • The Black church and the salvation of the world

      OpinionPaul Robeson Ford

    • St. Benedict and a two-fold path for the church In America

      OpinionH. Stephen Shoemaker

    • What if we cared about Black History Month as much as Lent?

      OpinionRick Pidcock

    • Prophecy is obedient imagination

      OpinionAlan Bean

    • Dave Ramsey’s new crusade: Ending COVID-19 mask orders

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Conditions deteriorating in Myanmar, Baptist doctor says

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Prison Fellowship Sells Colson’s Campus to Alliance Defending Freedom

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • At ancient city of Ur, Pope Francis makes heartfelt appeal for fraternity of faiths

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Lawmaker pushes for 3rd time to make Bible the state book of Tennessee

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A Third Of Gen Z Doesn’t Trust People Of Other Religions, But They’re Willing To Try

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Faith Leaders Urge Missouri Not to Create “Rush Limbaugh Day”

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Brian Houston apologizes for Hillsong NYC’s ‘failings,’ promises whistleblower policy

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Myanmar’s Christian refugees hold anti-coup protest in India

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Tanzania’s President Focused on Prayer as Coronavirus Cases Climbed

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • After Ravi Zacharias report, Christians examine how to avoid ‘betrayal blindness’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Why a Catholic journalist is urging the church to engage Black Lives Matter

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Texas church helps mosque damaged after snowstorm

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Vaccinated for virus, Jimmy Carter and wife back in church

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Black Church Group Offers Its Best Shot at Closing Vaccine Gap

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Man who played Duke Chapel bells for 50 years dies

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Ravi Zacharias’s Denomination Revokes Ordination

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Disinformation Fuels A White Evangelical Movement. It Led 1 Virginia Pastor To Quit

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Southern Baptists divided over politics, race, LGBTQ policy

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Rush Limbaugh, who shaped conservative Christian politics on the radio, has died

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Dallas faith groups help shelter homeless Texans during deep freeze

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • SBU Trustees Reverse Some Tenure/Promotion Denials

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • U.S. Supreme Court sides with Alabama death row inmate, declines to lift stay of execution over state’s refusal to allow clergy in chamber

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Survey: Black Americans attend church and pray more often

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How Christian Bookstores Survived 2020

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2021 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS