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	Local Pastor Found Guilty of Molesting 6-Year-Old Boy in His Church By Marlena Hartz Avalanche-Journal August 16, 2007 http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/081607/loc_081607038.shtml A Lubbock jury on Wednesday found a local pastor guilty of molesting a young boy who attended his church. Royce Jimenez, pastor of the Light of the World Christian Center, was found guilty on four of six counts of indecency with a child. He had pleaded not guilty on all counts. Prosecutors said Jimenez molested a 6-year-old boy on numerous occasions in early 2006. The boy's parents were loyal attenders of the congregation Jimenez led, according to testimony from witnesses. They viewed Jimenez as a mentor and a trusted friend, prosecutors said. The pastor picked the boy up from school more than once and molested him in his car, as well as at a local veteran's clinic, prosecutors said. The young boy, who testified in this week's trial, alerted his father to the abuse. His father confronted Jimenez regarding the abuse on three separate occasions and secretly recorded their conversations. Prosecutors used the tapes as evidence in the trial. "Just don't bring anybody else into this matter. ... They will put me in jail. ... Nothing is going to be fixed if we take it outside, ... if we go outside the scriptures," Jimenez said on the tape. The boy's former teacher, Denise Johnson, testified Wednesday the boy's grades dropped around the time of the alleged sexual abuse, which occurred from January through March 2006, according to testimony. "He wasn't (the boy) that I knew. He wasn't quite as bubbly and happy as I had seen him in the past," said Johnson, who taught the boy in the first grade. A former director of the day care center at the Light of the World Christian Center, Lesa Keltz, testified that Jimenez visited the day care center daily. She also said he routinely brought the children candy and other gifts. Relatives of Jimenez who attended his trial this week declined to comment for this story. The boy's parents also declined to comment. Jimenez, who will be sentenced today, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. To comment on this story: Contact: marlena.hartz@lubbockonline.com or 766-8753, james.gallagher@lubbockonline.com or 766-8706.
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