Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established San Jose, California, USA · 2006

United States: 2×2 worker Ruben Mata convicted — 36 years to life — for abusing boys of host families

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

itinerant minister ('worker') of the nameless 2×2 sect

Organization

'Two by Twos' / 'The Truth' (nameless sect)

Spiritual nexus

The same canonical 2×2 nexus as Severud and Mousseau: a homeless itinerant minister lodged inside member families' homes as an act of faith, with the families' total spiritual trust.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2006-11-01 · jury conviction and sentence; died in custody

    Santa Clara County Superior Court, California, USA. Ruben Mata, a longtime 2×2 travelling worker reported to have abused dozens of boys across his ministry, was convicted by a Santa Clara County jury in November 2006 on counts including forcible lewd acts on a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child under fourteen, and sentenced in January 2007 to 36 years to life. Court records give the case number as CC628419, filed 4 May 2006, with bail denied and no parole available. He died in prison on 2 October 2007.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • the sect's practice of housing workers in member families' homes
  • spiritual standing over host families across decades of ministry

Primary record

Sources

national news agency investigative and conviction report Rebecca Boone, 'Survivors seek a reckoning as FBI investigates child sex abuse in little-known Christian sect', Associated Press, 16 Dec. 2024.

AP investigation confirming Mata's 2006 conviction and death in a California prison.

documentation archive court record compilation 2x2ministry.org case-documentation page for Ruben Mata, archived 14 Aug. 2019.

Documentation-site compilation of the court record, retrieved via the Wayback Machine (paired with the AP anchor; index use).

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