Conservative Babylon

Charged: Pascual Ignacio Espinoza II, 38, minister at what is believed to be Hispanic Church of God, Pryor, Oklahoma (and who appears to be the son of the church’s founding pastor), and hospice chaplain, with “one count of peeping tom with photographic or electronic equipment,” two counts of second-degree burglary, computer fraud and downloading obscene material, according to media reports. Espinoza is accused of spying on his estranged wife, who filed for divorce last year, with a hidden camera (attached to a wireless router) in her bedroom for more than a year, accumulating some 1,500 video clips showing her undressing, sleeping, etc. Story: Fox 23, July 2, 2012; KOTV, July 2, 2012; Mayes County Paper, July 2, 2012

Sentencing rescheduled again: Denis Lyons, 78, retired Roman Catholic priest, formerly of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Costa Mesa, California, convicted in March of repeatedly sexually molesting a seven-year-old boy inside the church during the mid-1990s; for August 10, 2012. Story: Conservative Babylon, March 12, 2012; Conservative Babylon, March 24, 2012; Conservative Babylon, May 30, 2012

Preliminary pre-trial hearing set: Christopher Raymond Olague, 39, pastor, Refuge Southland Church, Buena Park, California, and American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) coach, for August 7, 2012. Arrested in November, 2011, Olague, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, is accused of picking up an eight-year-old girl “from her home under the pretense of taking her to play with one of his children,” and “instead driving the victim to a grocery store parking lot and molesting her.” When the girl “began to cry and asked to be taken home, Olague is accused of giving her $40 and instructing her not to tell the police.” The girl “immediately told her mother about the sexual assault, and the victim’s mother contacted the Huntington Beach Police Department (HBPD). Olague was arrested that day by HPBD and posted $100,000 bail while the investigation was ongoing. During the subsequent investigation, HBPD discovered thousands of images of child pornography on the defendant’s computer. Olague is accused of possessing graphic, sexually-explicit child pornography images, including of [sic] a 6-year-old female relative.”

Charged: Lawrence Patrick, 65, music teacher, St. Rose of Lima Catholic School, Houston, Texas, with three counts of indecency with a child. Patrick is accused of molesting one of his students, an eight-year-old girl. Story: Chron.com, July 3, 2012

Trial to begin: Oscar D. Perez Perez, 69, pastor, Iglesia Antigua Católica, Laguna Hills, California, “for sexually assaulting five young parishioner boys in his Lake Forest apartment,” reports the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Perez “is charged with 22 felony counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14, four felony counts of lewd acts on a child, and faces sentencing enhancement allegations for lewd acts against multiple victims. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 330 years to life in state prison. Opening statements are expected to begin … Tuesday, July 3, 2012 …

“Perez is accused of representing himself as an Apostolic pastor and bishop at Iglesia Antigua, a church that rented space at St. George’s Episcopalian Church in Laguna Hills. Perez is accused of meeting his five victims through the church and gaining their trust by befriending their families and having the boys assist with church services.

“Between 2007 and 2011, Perez is accused of sexually assaulting the five victims on one or more occasions beginning when the boys were 9 to 15 years old. All of the sexual assaults occurred while the victims were visiting or sleeping over at the defendant’s apartment. …

“The defendant was arrested and charged for the first two victims in September 2011. Based on continued investigation and media coverage, OCSD discovered John Does #3, #4, and #5, and Perez was charged by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for the additional sex crimes in January 2012.”

Accused: Johannes “Jo” Thomas Seoka, bishop, Diocese of Pretoria, Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and president, South African Council of Churches, “of assaulting a priest-in-training,” Albert Wright, in the early hours of June 29th “after accusing him of leaking confidential church documents,” reports Sowetan Live, which adds that the bishop “has been at loggerheads with church members for some time. In May, the church members took Seoka to court after he had suspended church activities. … It is claimed Seoka used R500,000 of the diocese’s funds to pay for his mortgage bond. He is also accused of misappropriating R162,000 to fund his legal representation against a church dean.”

Virtue Online reprints an unsourced letter from a “distressed” St. Alban’s parishioner “who feels that it is in the interest of all of us who love our Church to know of the latest developments in the mockery to God that is the Diocese of Pretoria. … They called in the Verger Albert Wright and started to accuse him of leaking documents to the ‘trouble-makers’ at Cathedral. During the course of the interrogation, the Bishop called him into another office and physically assaulted him in an effort to beat a confession out of him, only stopping when the police officer rushed in to find out why Albert was screaming. … We are shocked that in spite of all this, Seoka had the audacity to arrive at the Cathedral (unannounced) to preach the Word and preside over the Eucharist yesterday. We have long questioned this man’s fitness for the office of Bishop and now have confirmation thereof. Perhaps when he is arrested and appears in Court, the church will finally wake up to the fact of a monster in our midst. I will forward to you, a letter which the late Dean LL Ngewu wrote to Seoka and which led to his persecution and death. …”

The writer is referring to Lubabalo Livingstone Ngewu, dean of the Cathedral of St. Alban the Martyr, who died in February after an unspecified illness, after Seoka — accusing Ngewu of undermining the bishop’s authority — had suspended him from his position and barred him from services at the cathedral, further deepning divisions within the already-fractured diocese. (In his eulogy for Ngewu, Revd. Prof. Barney Pityana referred obliquely to Seoka’s ongoing alleged indiscretions; e.g.: “I can say confidently that Fr Lubabalo took seriously the oath of canonical obedience that we all subscribe to. It is important for us to recognize the authority of the bishop, to honour the office he occupies, and the dignity of the person in the office at all times. In return bishops must earn our respect by their spiritual manner and practice, their care of those in trouble, their respect of others even where they may differ profoundly, to be an embodiment of love, especially towards the clergy, and their willingness to listen to an alternative point of view. A bishop does not become bishop merely by his exercise of power, or in the function of discipline, but by being gentle, loving, caring and merciful, fair and just, caring less about his own sense of esteem, but the faith and witness of the church. Obedience must therefore be tampered with conscience. … Canonical Obedience has moral and theological effect only to the extent that the actions of the bishop are compatible with the teachings of the church, and display the will of God [Romans 12:2]. … At times, therefore, dis-obedience becomes obedience.”) Story: IOL, February 15, 2012; IOL, May 28, 2012; Sowetan Live, July 3, 2012; Virtue Online, July 3, 2012

Status hearing set: Bill Vandergraph, 74, former pastor, Full Gospel Pentecostal Church, Alto Pass, Illinois; former president/director, Friends of the Cross, a.k.a. Friends of the Bald Knob Cross (an organization to restore a decrepit, 111-foot-tall Christian cross, funded in part by state taxpayers); former Union County school bus driver; and former foster parent to “dozens” of children; for July 10, 2012. Vandergraph was arrested in 2010 and charged with raping one of his foster children, a four-year-old girl. Story: The Southern, July 15, 2010; Daily Herald, July 17, 2010; The Southern, July 17, 2010; WPSD, August 13, 2010; Southeast Missourian, July 1, 2012. See also: Rob Sherman News, July 17, 2010

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