SAN DIEGO (CA)
Union-Tribune [San Diego CA]
June 6, 2024
By Teri Figueroa
Prosecutors allege that a Victory Outreach pastor was informed that a church choir leader may have assaulted a teen girl in 2021 but did not report it to authorities, as state law requires
A South Bay pastor pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge that he failed to report suspected sexual abuse of a teen girl by a church choir leader.
The case marks the first time that San Diego County prosecutors have charged someone in connection with an alleged failure to report abuse, as the law requires of people such as teachers, social workers, clergy members and several others.
The pastor of Victory Outreach in San Ysidro, Eric Manuel Merino, 43, faces up to six months in custody and a $1,000 fine if convicted of the sole count.
Asked for comment, Merino’s attorney Brian Carter said in an email that his client is “troubled” by the accusation that he failed to report the incident and said Merino fully cooperated with authorities investigating the underlying incident of abuse. Carter said Merino is “confident that he wholly adhered to all mandatory reporting obligations as provided by law regarding members of the clergy.”
“These clergy members are tasked with the vital role of maintaining trust and confidence while counseling churchgoers in a pastoral capacity on sensitive religious matters that are not always black and white,” Carter said.
The attorney said his client “does not condone the underlying conduct” that prompted the initial investigation.
No one from the church immediately responded to a request for comment.
According to the District Attorney’s Office, the case stems from a 2021 incident in which a church choir leader assaulted a 15-year-old church member. The leader, Rafael Valentin Magana, was arrested last summer.
According to San Diego police, the teenager had attended a baby shower at the home of a church member on Nov. 6, 2021. Police alleged that as Magana was driving the girl home afterward, he detoured, parked and sexually assaulted her.
Police said that due to “a confluence of factors,” the girl did not report the assault to police until March 2023. When she did, sex crimes detectives immediately started their investigation.
Magana was arrested in August and remains jailed. In April, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of a lewd act on a child 14 or 15 years old. Now 28 years old, Magana faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced later this month and also will be required to register as a sex offender, the District Attorney’s Office said.
Prosecutors said the abuse was reported to Merino, “triggering his legal duty to notify law enforcement or child welfare services. However, Merino failed to do so.” The office did not say who reported the abuse to him or how it was conveyed.
Under California’s Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, members of the clergy are mandatory reporters. However, there are exceptions for “penitential communication,” which under the law is a communication intended to be in confidence and includes but is not limited to sacramental confession.
San Diego attorney Irwin Zalkin is not involved in or familiar with this case, but he and his firm have represented victims in several civil cases involving allegations of abuse at institutions such as schools or churches.
Zalkin said Thursday that in his experience, the clergy takes “a very broad view” of what it considers protected penitential communication. “We run into this a lot in clergy cases,” he said. Zalkin argues the law is “very narrow,” essentially calling for the communication to be a form of a confession to the clergy member.
He said that while he has seen cases in which prosecutors charged someone for failing their duty to report, it’s rare.
District Attorney Summer Stephan said in statement it’s “critical” that incidents of abuse “don’t fall through the cracks,” and that those with the duty to report come forward.
“Following the law of mandated reporting can potentially protect another child from being sexually abused by the perpetrator,” Stephan said.
The law requires that a mandatory reporter come forward to law enforcement or child protective services immediately and submit a written report within 36 hours.
In 2019, the District Attorney’s Office created the Student Safety in School Systems Task Force, where people can directly contact prosecutors and investigators with a specific concern about abuse in school — although it is not a mechanism for mandated reporters to file a formal report of abuse. An office spokesperson said the task force has reviewed “numerous allegations” since then, but this is the first time the District Attorney’s Office has filed a criminal case alleging a failure to report.