Thursday, July 14, 2011

Youth pastor Enrique Alcaraz arrested

Former this and former that… I read these words and instantly know I’ve got another pedopastor on my hands. The press are always careful to explain the current state of the accused’s employment. It does not matter if the accused was a youth pastor the day before the story broke. If they were fired or resigned, they are classified as a “former this and former that.” It breaks my heart. The real story is that the accused was dealing with children up until the time of his arrest. Why don’t they write about that?

Take youth pastor EnriqueAlcarazEnrique Alcaraz. When the police came for him on child pornography charges, was he working as a youth pastor? If I read this article, we only know he was a youth minister at an Ovid-area church. This article shows me his photo and tells me Alcaraz was 45 at the time of his arrest. This articles adds info about his church and service on a local school board.

Alcaraz, known by some neighbors as "Rick", was elected to the Ovid-Elsie School Board last year and was a youth minister for the Church of the Living Word in Ovid. He resigned both positions in March. Neighbors also told WILX that Alcaraz appeared to be a foster parent.

Piecing the story together requires a lot of reading. I never get the whole story and I rarely get the story right. For example, police did not arrest Alcaraz, he turned himself in. I would have missed that important piece of information in half the articles I read.

What did Alcaraz do?

…Alcaraz sent nude photographs to one child and received nude photographs from another child. …Alcaraz used fake names on Facebook and Yahoo to contact minors, including Matt James, Mary Parker and Brad Merritt.

Prosecutors filed heavy charges.

…the Clinton County Prosecutor charged him with child sexually abusive activity, distributing or promoting child sexually abusive material and possession of child sexually abusive material, according to a state police news release.

Church of the Living Word is a biker friendly church. I guess that makes them hip and relevant. Bikers do that. The church website has nothing posted on the case.

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mikespeir's avatar

mikespeir · 721 weeks ago

Maybe this means he knew he had a problem and wanted help. On the other hand, maybe it means he knew somebody else was about to turn him in and thought he might get off lighter this way.
2 replies · active 702 weeks ago
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deepthroat's avatar

deepthroat · 719 weeks ago

you are right he did want help. this i know
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thetruth's avatar

thetruth · 702 weeks ago

this is prob rick, deepthroat??
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thetruth's avatar

thetruth · 702 weeks ago

He was employed until the FBI came to the church, and showed them the evidence. The church immediatley fired him. I am not a member of the church, but do know for sure that they were not involved, nor tried to cover it up. The FBI was finalizing thier case when he turned himself in.
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dose-of-reality 's avatar

dose-of-reality · 701 weeks ago

he already knew what was coming, i don't know what or why he did these things, what he did by placing himself in such position in the community, and in the lives of the youth he ministered to, he did more damage to those people who relied and looked up to him, that is what makes me sick that he abused that trust that people had in him
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c smith's avatar

c smith · 671 weeks ago

I am not in any way excusing him, in fact, as he me down as ex in-law, he let me down hughly, but i believe both he and my ex-husband grew up in an environment which caused them to be damaged. Their mother died, their father was an alcoholic, their older sisters self-absorbed, and an older brother sexually abused them. It is horrible what he did but for the grace of God who could say what any of us would do? We are asked by God to be compassionate. I totally understand anyone who is disgusted, I am too, but, i think we should pray for recovery from the damage inflicted on him.
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what-a-sicko's avatar

what-a-sicko · 632 weeks ago

he clearly hasn't learned anything. every week in the prison he inappropriately 'rubs' on his morbidly obese children while they stuff their faces with junk food to likely mask the pain and shame they feel. and has had several inappropriate 'relations' with young male inmates - so much so that he was recently moved to a different unit for the most disgusting of pedophiles. and he walks around like he was wronged. it's disgusting.

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