Judge Refuses to Dismiss Charges of La Luz Del Mundo Leader Naason Joaquin Garcia

23 counts, Including Child Rape

The story of The La Luz Del Mundo is hair raising in its treatment of children and all members, generationally.  It started when Sochil Martin an L.A. resident brought charges against several church leaders in 2019. The church is based in Mexico but has locations in 50 nations. One Pentacostal church location which Martin is a member of is in East L.A.

First here is the latest.

Via City News Service Today, May 2, 2022, LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A judge refused today to dismiss sex-related charges against the leader of a Mexico-based evangelical megachurch who is awaiting trial in connection with crimes allegedly committed in Southern California.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Marcus agreed that the California Attorney General's Office should have turned over some evidence to Naason Joaquin Garcia's attorneys before an August 2020 hearing in which he was ordered to stand trial, but found that the defense had “not met the materiality requirement'' for the case to be dismissed.

Garcia -- the 52-year-old leader of La Luz del Mundo or Light of the World -- has been behind bars since June 2019.

He is awaiting trial June 6 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.Garcia's attorneys have indicated that they plan to appeal the ruling, according to the statement.

Garcia was ordered in August 2020 to stand trial on 23 felony counts, including forcible rape of a minor, forcible oral copulation of a person under 18, unlawful sexual intercourse, lewd act on a child, extortion, conspiracy and possession of child pornography.

Co-defendant Susana Oaxaca, 27, is charged with one felony count each of forcible oral copulation of a person under 18 and oral copulation of a person under 18. She is free on bond.

A third defendant, Alondra Ocampo, 39, pleaded guilty to four counts and is awaiting sentencing.

The three were initially charged in June 2019, but a state appeals court panel ordered the case to be dismissed in April 2020.

The appellate court panel found that Garcia did not waive his right to a timely hearing to determine if there was sufficient evidence to require him to stand trial and that the hearing was not held within that time.

The Attorney General's Office subsequently refiled the case, which alleges that the crimes occurred in Southern California between June 2015 and June 2019.

Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen found sufficient evidence in August 2020 to allow the case against Garcia and Oaxaca to proceed to trial.

State prosecutors alleged in the complaint that Ocampo told a group of minor girls that they were going against God if they went against any desires or wishes of ``the Apostle'' -- Garcia.

The Guadalajara-based Pentecostal sect has branches in 50 nations and claims more than a million members worldwide.

According to KTLA's Marissa Wenz, Feb 13, 2020, attorneys for García have alleged he is being discriminated against because of his race and religion. Ken Rosenfeld, one of his lawyers, previously defended the megachurch as “not a cult.”

Sochil Martin, a Los Angeles-area native, said she was forced into repeated sexual abuse beginning at the age of 9 at the hands of members including Naasón Joaquín García — the church leader who last year pleaded not guilty to felony charges of child rape and human trafficking. He remains jailed in L.A. as he awaits trial.

Martin, 33, alleges García, and his co-conspirators have victimized hundreds, if not thousands, of children.

The federal lawsuit states he and the church are guilty of not just abuse and the forced, unpaid labor of its members but violations of the RICO Act as a criminal enterprise. It appears to be the first civil litigation of its kind against the church.

Defendants named in the suit include high-ranking church officials such as family members of García and his wife.

“I was born in the inner circle of La Luz Del Mundo and raised to be the property of the apostle, Samuel Joaquin, and his son after, Naasón,” Martin told reporters Thursday. “I come forward today because it has to stop.”

Martin was born in 1986 in Monterey Park. She was raised in the La Luz Del Mundo church in East L.A., and for more than 20 years, she suffered escalating abuse including rape and severe beatings, according to the lawsuit.

She said young girls were taught “to dance for and touch the apostles” before being forced into “more horrific sexual acts.” Her mother and aunt, who raised her, allegedly went through the same pattern of abuse as children.

“And they can never say, ‘no’,” she said. “Their parents, community and parishioners teach them that God wants this.”

LA Times Feb. 15, 2020 states the lawsuit goes beyond the allegations in the criminal complaint, detailing what attorneys describe as an institutionalized culture of abuse and exploitation that primed church members to turn over their money, labor and children to church leaders, whom members are taught to regard as God’s messengers on Earth.

“There are various dimensions to this case. It’s a human rights case. It’s a case about the sexual abuse of children,” said attorney Josh Robbins, a former federal prosecutor. “But it is also a case about organized crime. ... And it’s been happening right here in our backyard.”

Sources: KTLA, City News Service

Photo: KTLA

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