Fifty-three-year-old Pastor Victor Hernandez-Pineda has pleaded not guilty to 16 charges involving the sexual abuse of four victims in Contra Costa County Court on Jan. 17, according to KGO-TV‘s Dan Noyes.
Prosecutors have charged him with 16 criminal counts, including several counts of forcible rape of a child under 14, forcible rape of a person over 14, lewd act upon child and child molestation.
Hernandez-Pineda is pastor of Iglesia Pentecostes Momiento De Gloria Church in Richmond in the East Bay area.
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“He said that I was his ‘friend.’ He said that I was his ‘right-hand man.’ But, when I found out, he made me so angry,” he said.
Karen Ciuffuentes alleges that Hernandez-Pineda sexually abused her five times over a three-year span. She recalled the pastor would pose as a family member to take her out of school and bring her to hotels to abuse her sexually.
In an interview with KGO, she recalls the first time he took her to a hotel near her school.
“And at that moment, I told him that I didn’t feel safe,” she told KGO, adding that she resisted because he was married, much older and her pastor. “I didn’t feel good and that we shouldn’t do it. But, he made me do it.”
The 21-year-old hopes that Hernandez-Pineda goes to jail.
“I don’t feel safe. He could harm me because I’m asking for help,” she said. “And he could find out and harm me. What he did was wrong. It’s not right, and I want the police to act.”
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Cifuentes’ mother, Sonia Gonzalez, told KGO that it was difficult for her to believe what her daughter told her about the sexual abuse.
“It was difficult. My daughter was very small. I thought it was my fault for confiding in him. We went to that church searching for love, searching for help, and we found it. But, in the end, we were damaged,” she said.
The family has since left the church and doesn’t plan to return.
“When I found out from my daughter’s lips what had happened to her, I felt like grabbing him and making him disappear. But, I also understood that doing it with my own hands would get me into trouble,” Pablo Cifuentes said.
Instead of retaliating, the father filed a report with the Richmond Police Department. However, he didn’t hear back from the police, so he contacted Noyes and the KGO I-Team.
Other victims have come forward with additional sexual assault claims against Hernandez-Pineda.
Joseline Alvarez, 16, came forward claiming that she was touched in a sexual manner against her will in November when the pastor requested a private meeting with her in a room upstairs in the church.
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She added that the pastor tried to kiss her, which made her feel uncomfortable, prompting her to leave the church building.
“I just didn’t know what to think because, like, he’s a pastor; like, why would he do that to me?” she said.
Alvarez’s mother feels torn apart and has also left the church.
“It worried me a lot because I felt that something worse was going to happen to her. I got angry. I got very upset because he is a pastor. That’s not right what he did,” the mother said.
Hernandez-Pineda’s church once averaged roughly 150 congregants on an average Sunday for his religious services. But with multiple sexual assault allegations, church attendance has dwindled.
* Original Article:
https://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-charged-with-raping-14-year-old-church-elders-daughter.html
