Police see rise in molesting of immigrant kids
CHURCH CLOSES AFTER PRIEST IS ARRESTED
By Leslie Griffy
Mercury News
Article Launched: 04/28/2008 01:34:52 AM PDT



When the 16-year-old boy first laid out how he had allegedly been molested by the family's priest, the story came spilling out.

According to court documents, the boy told his father that Pastor Gustavo Antonio Lanzas showed him pornographic images on a laptop computer during their weekly meetings - one of many the priest had with young boys at Iglesia Cristiana Luz y Verdad, Spanish for the Christian Church of Light and Truth.

Lanzas began molesting the boy at age 13, and the priest kept a drawer filled with condoms in his office desk, the boy told his father.

The boy isn't the only suspected victim. San Jose police say they have identified six possible victims. And they want to talk to several other families.

Lanzas, 64, sits in Santa Clara County Jail, where he is being held without bail. He faces 12 felony counts of lewd acts with a minor and showing harmful material to a child, and more charges may be added, prosecutor Jim Demertzis said.

The church where people once gathered to pray - and where Lanzas headed youth groups - was being packed up last week. A mover said he was told to take everything from the low-slung building tucked in an industrial neighborhood to storage.

"It's just a really complex, confusing dynamic to people who aren't even victims but happened to go to the church," said Deputy District Attorney Michael Fletcher.

Officials from the Aiello Drive church could not be reached for comment on the move or the case.

Police say that their investigation may be hampered because some of Lanzas' suspected victims from the South San Jose church might be worried about their or their parents' immigration status. It's a new trend for molesters, activists say.

"He found the most vulnerable kids he could," said Joelle Casteix of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "Predators hit populations of kids that are worried about their parents' immigration status or kids who are afraid of their parents. These are the kids who might be more willing to keep a secret."

Paul Noboa, Lanzas' attorney, did not return phone calls this week. Messages left at Lanzas' home for his family weren't returned. He is scheduled to enter a plea in May.

The allegations came pouring out from a 16-year-old after his father asked him why his behavior had changed, according to court documents.

After his son told of the alleged molestations, his father called a friend who also attended Iglesia Cristiana Luz y Verdad. That man talked to his teenage son who told a similar story, according to documents. Police believe they've located four other potential victims, Thomas said. And they still want to interview teens who had contact with Lanzas, the church's sole pastor for about 20 years.

Both boys said that Lanzas bought them gifts at the end of the visits - a BB gun for one, an iPod for the other.

It's common behavior for molesters, experts said.

"The kids begin to feel complicit" because they have accepted gifts, said Joey Piscitelli, the Northwest director of SNAP.

Piscitelli and Casteix said their group is beginning to see more and more cases involving young people who are immigrants or who are the children of immigrants.

"We are seeing a lot of that now because predators think that immigrant kids are better targets because they believe the kids already live with a code of silence," he said.

Thomas noted that it is always hard to get children to come forward with allegations of sexual abuse, because of embarrassment and fear. But the department doesn't want crime victims to let their immigration status get in the way of them reporting a crime.

"We don't care about their legal status," Thomas said. "The main thing, for us, is that they are a victim of a crime."




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Contact Leslie Griffy at lgriffy@mercurynews.com.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_9081381