BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News
BY: Lou Michel
The mother of a 6-year-old girl molested by an elder at a West Side church calls the crime more than just a criminal act.
It was a breach of trust in a spiritual setting.
Abel Poloche gained the confidence of her and other church members, the mother said, in part because he once worked as a doctor in Venezuela and conducted himself in a caring manner at the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Vermont Street, especially when working with the children.
Poloche, 61, was sentenced earlier this summer in Erie County Court to six months in jail after pleading guilty to felony attempted sexual abuse of the girl in a computer room at the church as she sat on his lap.
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