MASSACHUSETTS
Lowell Sun
By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.com
UPDATED: 12/11/2015
LOWELL — After allegedly enduring years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of local church pastors Oscar Sanchez and Luisa Osorio-Sanchez, the victim testified that when she rebelled, she was beaten, choked and subjected to an exorcism.
“They thought I was possessed. They held me down and performed some sort of exorcism on me,” the victim, now 19, testified during the husband and wife joint trial in Lowell Superior Court on Wednesday.
As of 2014, Oscar Sanchez, 35, and Luisa Osario-Sanchez, 43, both of Lowell, were listed on their Facebook pages as co-pastors of The Church of God The Holy Branch on Loring Street in Lowell.
The victim lived with the couple.
Oscar Sanchez has been held on $100,000 cash bail for the past year, after pleading not guilty to charges of: statutory rape of a child (two counts), child rape with force (four counts), rape (three counts), indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 (two counts), attempted murder, and reckless endangerment of a child.
Luisa Osario-Sanchez, who has been free on $15,000 cash bail, has been charged with: assault to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, and reckless endangerment of a child.
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