Police see rise in molesting of immigrant kids

Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | April 29, 2008

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