Ex-pastor Sentenced in Child Sex Abuse Case

By Brian Rogers
Houston Chronicle
January 6, 2015

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Ex-pastor-sentenced-in-child-sex-abuse-case-5996923.php

A former pastor at a southwest Harris County church was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for sexual contact with an 8-year-old girl.

Romulo Jimenez, 69, was charged in 2013 with continuous sexual abuse of a child after the girl told authorities Jimenez inappropriately touched her at Centro Christiano Vida Nueva at 8811 Synott when Jimenez was a pastor.

The girl told investigators Jimenez took her into his office at the church, laid her on the desk, rubbed her legs, lowered her pants and underwear and kissed her, according to court records.

On another occasion, she told investigators, Jimenez made her sit on his lap in his parked car in the church parking lot while he kissed her.

The girl told her parents that she had been assaulted after a witness saw Jimenez coming out of a church bathroom late one night. Inside the restroom, the criminal complaint states, the witness saw the girl with her pants and underwear down. The witness said Jimenez told her he had been helping the girl go to the bathroom. When the woman asked the girl what had happened, the girl did not respond.

The witness told the girl's parents about what she had seen. The child later told her parents Jimenez had twice touched her inappropriately.

Jimenez's wife told officials that when the girl's parents confronted Jimenez about their daughter's accusations, he did not deny the allegations and confessed his mistake, according to the complaint.

State District Judge Vanessa Velasquez sentenced Jimenez after a pre-sentence investigation. He pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault.