Lowell Husband and Wife Pastors Guilty in Rape, Assault

By Lisa Redmond
Lowell Sun
December 17, 2015

http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_29267750/lowell-husband-and-wife-pastors-guilty-rape-assault


Oscar Sanchez, the pastor of a small local church, was convicted of repeatedly molesting and raping a girl for years while his wife and co-pastor, Luisa Osario-Sanchez, was found guilty of abusing the child and allowing the sexual assaults to continue.

After a four-day trial in Lowell Superior Court, a jury found Sanchez, 35, of Lowell, guilty of: aggravated child rape (four counts), rape of a child by force (four counts), rape (two counts), and one count each of indecent assault and battery on a person under 14, indecent assault and battery on a person over 14, and reckless endangerment of a child, according to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.

The jury found him not guilty of one count of rape.

Osario-Sanchez, 43, of Lowell, was convicted of assault and battery and reckless endangerment of a child. She was cleared of assault with intent to murder.

Sentencing of the couple is scheduled for Jan. 15.

During the trial, the victim, now 19, testified that the sexual abuse began when she was 6. She testified that Oscar Sanchez would come to her bed at night and molest her under the guise of praying with her. The victim lived with the couple.

The couple's Facebook pages listed them, as of 2014, as co-pastors of The Church of God The Holy Branch on Loring Street in Lowell.

Over a 10-year period those assaults turned into rape, the victim testified. She told the jury that Osario-Sanchez would assault her due to jealously, instead of protecting the girl.

The victim testified that she never told anyone because she was young and didn't have a "moral compass" that would tell her what was happening was wrong. As she got older and rebelled against the assaults, she testified she was taken out of Lowell schools and sent to restrictive religious schools, subjected to an exorcism and then handed over to state Department of Children and Families.

Defense attorneys Debra Dewitt, representing Oscar Sanchez, and Jeanne Earley, representing Luisa Osario-Sanchez, argued that the allegations were stories contrived by a troubled teen who rebelled against a strict, religious upbringing.

Follow Lisa Redmond on Tout and Twitter@lredmond13_lisa.

Contact: lredmond@lowellsun.com