Five girls have a accused youth pastor Alberto Rodriquez of molestation. Three of the girls are his foster daughters. a judge found sufficient evidence to take pastor Rodriquez to trial.The abuse allegedly happened at home and at the Valley West Christian Center. A sixth victim has also been identified.
In each of the cases, the girls described trusting Rodriguez like a father and being assaulted while doing innocent things like watching cartoons or playing video games.
Rodriquez has a criminal record. He was convicted of a felony in 1985. Yet he was still allowed to participate as a foster parent and allowed to act as a youth pastor. The thing about background checks is that you must actually do a background check in order for it to be effective. I’ve noticed a trend in these cases where a pastor will say something similar sounding yet deniable. In this case, they “fingerprinted” Rodriquez. Is fingerprinting doing a background check? Reporters drive me crazy – ask the question. Was a background check performed? What service did you use? What were the results? Can you release them to the public?
Pastor Roger Leach says, "Before we hire any type of staff person they have to go through fingerprinting. And we always check references. So he did go through fingerprinting and he passed."
Maybe everyone hoped for the good in Alberto Rodriguez.
Pastor Lance Leach says, "As far as Christians go, and you look at the deeds that people do, what he's been accused of is not what we would desire a Christian be known as."
So reading through the doublespeak we know this – nothing.
