CALIFORNIA
Appeal-Democrat
October 11, 2013
By Monica Vaughan/A-D Reporter
The Catholic priest charged with misdemeanor sexual battery and child molestation while visiting from Colombia was found not guilty by a jury on Friday afternoon in Sutter County Superior Court.
“When I first got this case, I was concerned about it because it was a Roman Catholic priest charged with molestation,” said defense attorney Markus Dombois. “What I said in the beginning of this case was this was a witch hunt, and this girl had imagined these things.”
Prosecutors argued that the Rev. Julio Cesar Guarin-Sosa used his position of power with the church and a 16-year-old girl’s confidence issues to take advantage of her while they were alone in her bedroom, kissing her multiple times on her face, sticking his tongue in her mouth, holding her tight and “sucking” or “nibbling” on her nose.
“He knew she had low self-esteem, and he took advantage of that,” said prosecutor Anu Chopra in her closing arguments on Friday.
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