GAINESVILLE (FL)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
September 11, 2025
By Liz Lykins
A prominent Florida Assemblies of God (AG) pastor, who allegedly has left a stream of unreported child sex abuse cases in his wake, has finally been charged by police.
Mark Vega, the senior pastor at Ignite Life Center church in Gainesville, “intentionally endeavored” to hide multiple reports of child abuse, according to a sworn complaint filed with the Gainesville police department.
Under Florida law, anyone who suspects child abuse is required to report this to authorities. And certain professionals, including those who rely “on spiritual means for healing,” must provide their names when reporting.
Police charged Vega, 55, with the third-degree felony on Aug. 20, according to Alachua County Circuit Court records.
Vega, who has yet to be taken into custody, is an influential AG leader who has been praised within the denomination as a pastor to emulate.
Vega previously served as the district youth director for the Florida Multicultural District, a regional AG body, according to his website. He has also served as the chaplain for the New York Yankees, where he cultivated a relationship with Hall of Fame pitcher Mariano Rivera.
The charges against Vega follow after a cascade of abuse allegations.
Since 2024, the Fort Lauderdale firm Horowitz Law has filed five lawsuits on behalf of victims. They all lodge similar allegations of sexual abuse cover-up at a school and youth camp run by the church.
Jessica Arbour, an attorney at Horowitz, said her clients are encouraged to see law enforcement is “taking their allegations seriously” by arresting Vega.
“Child sexual abuse happens not just because of abusers, but also because of systemic failures that make the abusers feel that it is safe to abuse kids,” Arbour said in a statement to The Roys Report (TRR). “Anyone who endangers children needs to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Kids deserve to be safe.”
Arbour added that the lawsuits against the church and Florida Multicultural District “allege a pattern and practice of ignoring — and in some cases actively covering up — information that should have been reported to police.”
TRR reached out to Ignite Life Center and Florida Multicultural District for comment but did not hear back prior to publication.
The Assemblies of God’s national office said in a statement that it “takes matters of this nature seriously” and that it has “a well-established process to address them.”
Since 2023, three youth leaders at Vega’s church, including the senior pastor’s son, Christian Vargas, have been charged with sexually abusing minors during church activities. Some of the allegations involve an isolated area on the second floor of the church where it was common knowledge that teen sexual activity took place.
Throughout this mountain of criminal charges and lawsuits against church leaders, Vega continues to preach. He last preached on Aug. 31, according to a video posted on Facebook.
Abuse allegations rise against Hemenez
According to the sworn complaint, Vega started receiving reports of abuse in 2019, but he repeatedly tried to handle the allegations internally rather than report them to police.
The first incident occurred during a 2019 bus ride for Ignite’s “School of Ministry” when Gabriel Hemenez, then a 26-year-old student at the school, sexually assaulted another 22-year-old student on the bus.
When the victim informed church leaders — including Vega — of the incident, leaders did not discipline Hemenez, even though Hemenez eventually confessed to the assault. The victim ultimately left the school to avoid further encounters with his attacker.
In 2021, Hemenez served as a youth leader for a kids’ summer internship program at the church where he was routinely left alone to watch over 25-30 boys while they slept.
Hemenez assaulted four boys ages 9-16 over the summer, the complaint said, starting with grabbing the genitals of a 16-year-old boy, “V.B.,” in broad daylight as he left the bathroom.
A year later, V.B. told church leaders about the assault. By this time, Hemenez had relocated to another church in Orlando where he still had access to children.
Vega reportedly assured V.B. that he would report Hemenez’s alleged assaults to authorities but failed to do so.
A few months later, V.B. learned that Hemenez had assaulted three more boys during the same summer program V.B. attended. V.B. passed on this information to church leaders, but Vega allegedly failed to report what occurred.
In 2023, another pastor at Ignite finally informed police of the allegations against Hemenez.
Hemenez was then arrested that year for abusing four boys at the 2021 program, the complaint said.
In March 2024, Hemenez pleaded no contest to two counts of lewd molestation of a child under the age of 17. He was sentenced to five years in prison, followed by eight years of probation, WUFT 89.1, an NPR affiliate, reported.
Hemenez is currently awaiting trial on three additional charges of lewd and lascivious molestation by an offender 18 or older filed this July.
Pastor Vega’s son accused of abuse
The complaint also said that four girls informed church leaders that they were pressured into having sex with Christian Vargas on church property. Often it would take place in a secluded area on an upper floor known as “the furnace.” This was a place “well known” by church leadership for illicit sexual activity among teenagers.
Once, Vargas turned a security camera near “the furnace” to face the wall, instead of the area. A security staff member noticed the turned camera and reported it to Vega, but the senior pastor did nothing about the suspicious incident.
One of the girls said she was forced into having sex with both Vargas and Noel Cruz, an adult youth leader at the church and the son of Jose “Joey” Cruz, an associate Ignite pastor.
When the parents of this girl discovered Cruz and Vargas’s abuses in November 2022, they informed Vega and other church leaders, who told them they needed to begin a “process of restoration” to help the girl, Vargas, and Cruz find forgiveness. This “restoration” instead resulted in Vargas and Cruz harassing the girl.
Months later, the parents met with Vega a second time and told Vega the restoration had turned into bullying. The parents reported that Vega was “intimidating” during this meeting and questioned the parents on whether they really wanted to get the authorities involved.
Vega also argued that going to the police could “ruin” his and his family’s lives, adding that the church had already restored Vargas and Cruz. It was not until the brother of one of the alleged victims reached out to police in February 2023 that arrests began.
Vargas, who was arrested in July 2023, has pleaded not guilty to lewd battery while he awaits further hearings in his case, according to WCJB-TV Ch. 20, an ABC affiliate.
Cruz was arrested in February 2024 and sentenced to three years’ probation in January 2025, Gainesville Public Information Services reported. His father resigned his position at the church upon his son’s arrest, according to WCJB.
Lawsuit after lawsuit lodged against Ignite
In all, five lawsuits have been filed against the church and the regional AG district.
Three of the suits have been settled so far, according to Mainstreet Daily News. Filed in March 2024, these lawsuits were filed by three victims against Hemenez.
The terms of the settlements have not been disclosed.
Two additional lawsuits were filed this past July 2025 against Ignite, according to court records, all involving the summer program where certain adults allegedly preyed on young campers.
One suit involved another victim of Hemenez; a 10-year-old boy who attended a 2021 summer camp at the urging of pastors at his church: Refuge of Hope in New Rochelle, New York, pastored by Clara Rivera, wife of pitcher Mario Rivera.
“(The church) had actual or constructive notice that Hemenez had a sexual interest in children and that he used his position as a leader and employee of Ignite Life Center to groom and sexually abuse church members prior to (the boy’s) abuse,” the lawsuit says.
Another said that a 10-year-old victim, who was also from the Riveras’ church, was abused by an older female camper during a 2018 summer program at Ignite. TRR has previously reported on a related lawsuit against the Riveras, which was filed in January.
It too says that Clara Rivera encouraged the victim to attend the camp. When something seemed amiss at the camp, the girl’s mother asked the Riveras to investigate. According to the lawsuit, the Riveras discovered the disturbing information during a visit to the camp but chose to squelch it.
Instead, the couple pressured the girl to keep silent about the abuse she was suffering, and church leaders assured the mother that her daughter was fine, the lawsuit says.
The mother of this victim said in a statement that she filed the lawsuit because the Ignite Life Center “failed” her family.
“I trusted what was promised to me by them – that she would be safe and supervised by responsible adults,” she said. “Instead, my 10-year-old daughter was hurt and changed forever.”