Mexican megachurch leader gets more than 16 years for abuse

[Judi Lynn]

3. 'You betrayed us': Mexican megachurch leader given nearly 17 years in US prison for child sex abuse

JUNE 09, 2022
PUBLISHED AT 1:28 AM

LOS ANGELES — The head of a Mexico-based evangelical megachurch that claims about five million followers worldwide was sentenced on Wednesday (June 8) in a Los Angeles courtroom to 16 years and eight months in prison for sexually abusing three girls.

Naason Joaquin Garcia, leader and self-styled apostle of the Guadalajara-based church La Luz del Mundo (Light of the World), pleaded guilty last Friday to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and performing a lewd act on a child.

Garcia, 53, entered his plea three days before he had been due to stand trial on 23 felony counts of sex crimes against children, including multiple charges of rape, conspiracy to engage in human trafficking and child pornography.

. . .

Several of his accusers, each identified in court only as Jane Doe and who are now young adults, decried the plea agreement as too lenient, saying they were not consulted in the deal that Garcia reached with the California attorney general's office.

More:
https://www.asiaone.com/world/you-betrayed-us-mexican-megachurch-leader-given-nearly-17-years-us-prison-child-sex-abuse