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	Priest Is Guilty in Sex Abuse Father Fernando Lopez Is Convicted of Molesting Three Teenage Males between 2001 and 2004 By Natasha Lee Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles CA] March 17, 2005 A Roman Catholic priest, formerly serving at a Koreatown church, was found guilty Wednesday of molesting three teenagers he met through parish functions between 2001 and 2004. Father Fernando Lopez, 41, who was an associate pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle parish, was convicted of charges involving three males, ages 14, 16, and 19 at the time the incidents occurred, said prosecutor Darci Johnson of the Los Angeles County district attorney's Sex Crimes Division. The incidents occurred mostly in church facilities and in cars. Lopez was convicted of four counts of felony lewd acts with a child, one felony count of sexual battery by restraint, two misdemeanor counts of child molestation and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery. Lopez, who is scheduled for sentencing on April 22, could face more than eight years combined in state prison and county jail, Johnson said. Johnson said she was particularly pleased with the outcome of the trial "because the victims had the faith and strength to come forward and they were, of course, vindicated by the verdict. They had the chance to stand up and say, 'You did this to me, and I'm not going to stay silent anymore.' " Lopez, a Colombian citizen, was on a temporary assignment at the church from his home diocese in Tivoli, Italy, said Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Lopez was suspended from his church duties last July, after one of the victims approached church officials with allegations against him, Tamberg said. Church officials immediately contacted police and worked with them to locate the two other victims, he said.
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