NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, July 5,2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790,314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
It’s heartbreaking that a fugitive child molesting New Jersey minister has apparently assaulted another youngster while his church colleagues do little or nothing to help law enforcement catch him or help warn other church members about him.
[NJ.com]
According to NJ.com, “Rev. Gregorio Martinez, a former Jersey City resident who grew up in the Dominican Republic, was convicted in February 2015 of molesting a 13-year-old boy he knew from his Union City church. He also is charged with sexually assaulting or attempting to sexually assault three young adults, ages 18 and 19.”
We call on the Assembly of United Christian Churches, a Pentecostal denomination based in the Bronx, to immediately suspend Martinez’s preacher’s license. We call on Pedro Matamoros, Enrique Osorio, Jessenia Zarate, and every church official and member – in New Jersey and Nicaragua – to use social media, church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements to warn others about Martinez and beg witnesses, victims and whistleblowers to contact secular authorities immediately. And we call on friends and family of Paula and Kelvin Martinez to step up efforts to persuade them to share what they know or suspect about Rev. Martinez with law enforcement.
We applaud Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez for pursuing Martinez and hope she and her staff will never give up this quest. We urge Suarez and Jersey City police to do all they can to charge someone with ignoring or concealing Martinez’ crimes (or obstructing justice, witness tampering, victim intimidation, evidence destruction or similar crime.) We also applaud Wilson Melendez and his youth minister, Jonathan Olavarria, who believed the victim and helped him report to law enforcement. Most of all, of course, we admire and appreciate the courage of the victim himself. We are grateful he found the strength to contact police and help prosecutors.
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