{"id":223257,"date":"2019-07-16T23:05:03","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T03:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=223257"},"modified":"2019-07-16T23:05:03","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T03:05:03","slug":"no-bail-for-mexican-megachurch-leader-in-child-rape-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/16\/no-bail-for-mexican-megachurch-leader-in-child-rape-case\/","title":{"rendered":"No bail for Mexican megachurch leader in child rape case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Law enforcement officers who testified at the bail hearing Monday said $5 million had been raised by numerous people for Garcia’s defence \u2014 10% of his previous $50 million bail. Defendants who can post 10% of their bail typically are released pending further court actions. (Shutterstock Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 The leader of Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo was ordered held without bail Tuesday on charges of child rape and human trafficking after a historically high $50 million bail was set earlier in the case.<\/p>\n

Naason Joaquin Garcia is a danger to the community and a flight risk, Superior Court Judge David Fields ruled.<\/p>\n

Garcia’s attorneys said they plan to appeal the decision, arguing that the judge didn’t allow them to present witnesses or consider alternative house arrest measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not fair,\u201d lawyer Allen Sawyer said after the hearing.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officers who testified at the bail hearing Monday said $5 million had been raised by numerous people for Garcia’s defence \u2014 10% of his previous $50 million bail. Defendants who can post 10% of their bail typically are released pending further court actions.<\/p>\n

Garcia and two co-defendants were arrested last month. They pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing three girls and a woman in LA County. Officials have said they are continuing to investigate the case and more victims may be involved.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors added three new charges of child pornography against Garcia on Monday in an amended complaint.<\/p>\n

A visibly upset Fields called the allegations \u201cdisturbing\u201d and said he found that the victims \u201cdetailed\u201d descriptions to be corroborated by the electronic evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture violence is substantially likely,\u201d Fields said. \u201cThis is a man who preyed on young girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge said he found it \u201cparticularly disturbing\u201d that the victims were allegedly told they would be going against God if they didn’t acquiesce to Garcia \u2014 who is considered the church’s apostle \u2014 and his sexual demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cReligion was used against these girls,\u201d Fields said.<\/p>\n

Garcia’s attorneys raised a theory of conspiracy, in which they alleged a complaining witness had tried to frame their client, as well as evidence manipulation.<\/p>\n

Fields dismissed their theories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t find this is a high-tech frame job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Police are still going through thousands of photos and videos; what they have already reviewed allegedly includes sexual images of persons believed to be minors, as well as sexual assaults in video footage.<\/p>\n

Garcia and co-defendants Susana Medina Oaxaca and Alondra Ocampo are due back in courtAug. 2<\/p>\n

Ocampo’s bail was held Tuesday at $25 million, while Oaxaca was earlier freed on $150,000 bail but is under house arrest with GPS monitoring.<\/p>\n

A fourth person, Azalea Rangel Melendez, remains at large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 The leader of Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo was ordered held without bail Tuesday on charges …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":161725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-stefanie-dazio","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223257"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223259,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223257\/revisions\/223259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}