A former Orange County pastor will spend a long time behind bars after he used his trusted place as a religious chief to molest women as younger as 4 over the course of eight years, in line with authorities.
Carlos Ramirez Valdez, 61, assaulted three youngsters in locations equivalent to a church basement, his van and a yard shed, in line with the Orange County district lawyer’s workplace.
Prosecutors say he met the victims whereas he was church chief at Iglesia De Dios Ebenezer in Santa Ana and was employed as a pastor at one other Santa Ana church, Worldwide Mission Church USA, earlier than he was arrested in 2021.
His abuses befell from 2012 to 2019, prosecutors stated.
One woman was molested by Valdez for seven years, beginning when she was simply 4 years previous, prosecutors stated. Valdez was accused of repeatedly assaulting the woman in a church basement and in his van.
She in the end reported the abuse to a faculty counselor.
In 2020, one other woman got here ahead to police in Backyard Grove and reported that Valdez had sexually abused her in 2014 and 2015 when he supplied to provide her a trip house from church, prosecutors stated. She was 9 years previous on the time of the abuse.
A 3rd sufferer reported instructed Riverside police in 2020 that Valdez had repeatedly sexually assaulted her in a yard shed for eight months when she was 7 and eight years previous, prosecutors stated.
Valdez was convicted this summer season of 11 felony counts of lewd acts with a minor underneath 14 and three felony counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration of a kid 10 or youthful, prosecutors stated. He was sentenced Friday to 45 years to life in jail.
Investigators shared a few of the ways they are saying Valdez used to lure his victims into weak locations throughout testimony at his preliminary listening to, in line with Metropolis Information Service. He instructed one sufferer to come back into his van as a result of he wanted to comb her hair or required assist with one thing, authorities stated, after which would proceed to molest her.
He was additionally accused of displaying one of many victims an grownup movie whereas he assaulted her at his Riverside house, in line with Metropolis Information Service.
“Church buildings ought to be secure sanctuaries not searching grounds for little one molesters,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer stated in a press release. “These younger women have been subjected to unimaginable abuse by somebody ready of belief. The sexual exploitation of youngsters won’t ever be acceptable, and predators might be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the regulation.”
