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Cleveland pastor accused of raping children rejects plea deal

By Cory Shaffer
Cleveland.com
December 01, 2015

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/12/cleveland_pastor_accused_of_ra.html

Ubaldo Ocasio, center, rejected a plea deal Tuesday that would have put him in prison for 29 years. Ocasio, a former Cleveland pastor, is accused of sexually abusing four of his child parishioners. If convicted, he faces a possible sentence of 205 years to life.
Photo by Cory Shaffer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A former Cleveland pastor accused of sexually abusing four children in his parish rejected a plea deal Tuesday that would have put him in prison for nearly three decades.

Ubaldo Ocasio, 52, chose instead to fight multiple charges of rape, kidnapping, gross sexual imposition and sexual battery that could send him to prison for 205 years to life if convicted on all counts.

"He's maintaining his innocence," Ocasio's attorney, Jaye Schlachet, told cleveland.com after the hearing.

His trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday afternoon.

Ocasio is accused of raping and abusing the girls, who were between the ages of 9 and 16 while he was the pastor at a small church on Clark Avenue. 

Prosecutors first charged Ocasio in February with raping one child, but as Cleveland police and prosecutors continued investigating Ocasio, more children came forward as victims, prosecutors said.

In September, a grand jury charged Ocasio with 30 counts, accusing him of being a sexually violent predator and sexually abusing four girls.

Ocasio used his position as pastor to gain the trust of the girls and their parents, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor John Colan said. Ocasio convinced the parents that he was babysitting the children at the church, Colan said, and would drive to their homes and pick them up in the church's van.  

Some of the abuse contained in the indictment took place in the church's basement, Colan said.

Prosecutors offered to drop several charges against Ocasio if he pleaded guilty before the trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

More than two hours after the trial was supposed to begin, and after a handcuffed Ocasio met privately with his family, Schlachet stood up and told Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold that Ocasio was taking his case to trial.

Saffold asked Ocasio several times if he was aware he faced life in prison if he didn't accept the plea deal. Speaking through a Spanish language interpreter, he said he did.




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