Ex-deacon convicted, faces term of 14 years

NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Robert Gavin

Albany

First, Angel Garcia lost his congregation.

Now he’s lost his freedom.

Garcia, 61, who was defrocked as a deacon in 2010 for child molestation allegations, was convicted on Thursday of two counts of sexual abuse for victimizing a 6-year-old girl in 2003.

Each of the sex abuse counts could land the one-time deacon at the Church of the Holy Family on Central Avenue in prison for up to 7 years.

The trial was not related to the allegation that Garcia sexually abused a minor in the early 1990s before his ordination as a deacon. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which found reasonable grounds to believe the earlier allegations, defrocked Garcia.

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