Sex offender arrested working at anti-gay activist’s coffee shop
Michael Frediani, 38, was arrested on Thursday, Jan. 13 for failing to register as a Level 2 sex offender in Springfield, Mass., according to The Republican.
The New York transplant had been working as "volunteer manager" of Holy Grounds Coffee, a coffee shop that offers free coffee to Commerce High School students -- located one block away from the school.
Rev. Scott Lively, owner of Holy Grounds, spoke at a 2009 seminar on exposing the "homosexual agenda" in Uganda, and is heard in a YouTube video saying, "The gay movement is evil institution that its goal [sic] is to defeat the marriage-based society."
City and school officials have expressed concerns about the coffee shop and its effect on local young people.
According to The Republican, Frediani had been living in the apartment above the coffee shop prior to his arrest. He told The Republican that he was a "minister of Jesus."
Frediani was convicted of sexual abuse in the first degree and aggravated sexual abuse in the second degree in New York in 1996. The charges relate to what was called "deviate sexual intercourse," and the victim was a 10-year-old girl.
According to The Republican, Frediani told their reporter, "I talk to all the kids. We have a place that is safe. ...The presence of God is here right now. I invite God to touch them and he does."