NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance
By John M. Annese/Staten Island Advance
on March 13, 2014
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A “spiritual reader” from Port Richmond is accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl by rubbing her body with raw steak and molesting her during a supposed ritual to ward off evil spirits.
Rafael Paulino, 42, conducted what he described to detectives as a “spiritual cleansing” inside an apartment on Scribner Avenue in New Brighton, authorities allege.
Paulino, who lives on Bryson Avenue, has a business card with the name Omi Chango’, an image of Christ, and the words “priest” and “spiritual leader” printed on it, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the case.
The source couldn’t say if “Omi Chango'” was meant to be an assumed name, or a reference to “Chango,” a deity worshiped by followers of Santeria.
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