Church deacon busted for trying to have sex with teen he met on Grindr: officials

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Post

January 22, 2021

By Rebecca Rosenberg

A church deacon was busted this week for trying to have sex with a 14-year-old boy he met on the gay hook-up site Grindr, officials said.

It turns out that Rogelio Vega, 50, of Maspeth, Queens, was actually chatting up an undercover detective posing as a youngster, according to prosecutors.

“This defendant by all outward appearances is a church-going family man,” said Queens DA Melinda Katz. “Sadly, the real person under the sheep’s clothing is an alleged sexual predator who sought out a teenage boy to fulfill his needs.”

Vega, a deacon with Saint Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Woodside, allegedly began using the app Grindr in July 2020 to communicate with the undercover who he thought was an underage boy. The married father of four allegedly asked the “child” to send him nude pictures and shared several photos of his genitals with him.

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