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  Jury Finds Newburgh Ex-Pastor Guilty in Child Sex Abuse Case

By Oliver Mackson
Times-Herald Record
February 05, 2010

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100205/BIZ/100209702/-1/NEWS

GOSHEN (NY) -- An Orange County Court jury deliberated for about two and a half hours Friday before convicting a former Newburgh pastor of all 10 charges against him, in a case of sexual abuse of three boys he met through his church.

Humberto Cruz, 39, who lives on Broadway in the City of Newburgh, was convicted of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and first-degree criminal sexual act, felonies, as well as eight misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Cruz was stripped of his volunteer teaching duties at Iglesia de Dios in Newburgh after city police arrested him last year.

All three boys testified against Cruz during the trial, which began on Tuesday. One of them said he was sodomized by Cruz as many as 150 times between 2005 and 2006. Cruzz, too, testified, and flatly denied the charges

Judge Nicholas DeRosa sent Cruz to the Orange County Jail without bail, pending sentencing on April 14. Assistant District Attorney Julie Mohl could seek up to 25 years in prison for Cruz.

In closing arguments Friday, she told the jury that "the defendant did not pray with these boys. He preyed on them."

 
 

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