California's Top Prosecutor Believes There Are More Victims of Child Sex Abuse in Mexican Church

By Stefanie Dazio and John Antczak
NBC 7 News
June 7, 2019

https://nbcpalmsprings.com/2019/06/07/californias-top-prosecutor-believes-there-are-more-victims-of-child-sex-abuse-in-mexican-church/

California's Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, said Thursday at a press conference that he believes there are more victims of child sex abuse than those listed in charges against the leader of Mexico-based megachurch La Luz del Mundo and several followers.

California's top prosecutor said Thursday that he believes there are more victims of child sex abuse than those listed in charges against the leader of Mexico-based megachurch La Luz del Mundo and several followers.

"It would be hard to believe that, based on the information that we're collecting, that it's only these four individuals," Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at a press conference, urging any victims to come forward.

La Luz del Mundo leader Naason Joaquin Garcia and two co-defendants were arrested in California this week and a fourth remains at large. They face a 26-count felony complaint that alleges crimes including child rape, statutory rape, molestation, human trafficking, child pornography and extortion.

Church officials have denounced the charges as slander and defamation and said Joaquin Garcia remains the spiritual leader of La Luz del Mundo, which claims more than 5 million members worldwide.

Garcia's legal team is expected to speak Friday at a 10 a.m. news conference in Los Angeles.

"He is the epitome of love and care and respect," Jack Freeman, a minister in San Bernadino and the church's United States spokesman, said Thursday outside a temple in East Los Angeles. "Everything that he does and teaches and he stands for goes against these allegations."

Freeman also decried Becerra's remarks as "immature and unnecessary for a man of that position.