NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 07, 2016
Five months after a suspended priest admitted to a reporter that he had a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old boy in 2003, the alleged victim filed a criminal complaint against the clergyman in municipal court Wednesday, saying prosecutors have been slow to act in the case.
The accuser — Max Rojas Ramirez, now 28 — said his sexual assault complaint is intended to speed a resolution in authorities’ investigation of the Rev. Manuel Gallo Espinoza, who has been sought for questioning by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office.
“I want him to be charged,” Ramirez said before filing the complaint Wednesday afternoon in Plainfield Municipal Court. “I want justice to be served. It’s been a long time, and nothing has happened.”
The Rev. Manuel Gallo Espinoza, seen in social media photos (top), fled the country in 2003 after a 15-year-old boy accused him of rape. At bottom is a copy of the visa he received when he returned to the United States to work as a teacher.
Because the charge is an indictable offense, a Superior Court judge must find probable cause to support it before issuing an arrest warrant. Ramirez said a hearing on the issue had been tentatively set for Feb. 1. The prosecutor’s office, which has not brought its own charges, declined to comment on the complaint.
New Jersey lawmakers abolished the statute of limitations on sexual assault in 1996.
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