Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Sunland, California, USA · 2008

United States: Baptist pastor sentenced to 32 years for abusing two congregant girls

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pastor of a Spanish-language Baptist congregation

Organization

Iglesia Bautista Reformada, Sunland

Spiritual nexus

Both victims were girls of the congregation the defendant pastored.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2008-08-07 · conviction on 11 counts; appeal largely affirmed

    Los Angeles County Superior Court; California Court of Appeal. Joseph Gary Torres, pastor of the Iglesia Bautista Reformada in Sunland, was convicted on eleven counts of sexually abusing two girls who were congregants of his church between 2000 and 2006, and sentenced to 32 years and 4 months. The appellate court reversed one count but affirmed the judgment, remanding only for resentencing.

Appellate history

  1. 2009 · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • pastoral authority over girls of his congregation across multi-year periods

Primary record

Sources

official police release verdict and sentencing report LAPD newsroom release, with Contra Costa Times court reporting of the 2008 sentence.

Police release and press reporting of the arrest, conviction and sentence.

Related record

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