“This year I am continually amazed at what people do in the name of religion. Sorry, my hands are tied. Lawyers did what lawyers do. Jane Does, the world listened to you. The family members who left her should be ashamed. (Naasón Joaquín García) is a sexual predator.”
Judge Ronald S. Coen used those words on Wednesday (06/08) before lowering his tone to read Church leader La Luz del Mundo’s sentence: 16 years and 8 months in prison, as the defendant’s lawyers agreed with the California attorney General’s Office, in exchange for pleading guilty to three of the 19 counts he was facing.
The Jane Does a judicial pseudonym for the women who came together to denounce the selfproclaimed “Apostle of Jesus Christ” and on whose testimony the criminal case that ended up not going to trial was based still seated hugged and began to cry.
A guard ushered Joaquín García through the side door of California Superior Court in Los Angeles.
The rest of the room was uncomfortably quiet.
It was not the end of the trial that many in the room had hoped for, which began on June 3, 2019 with the arrest of Joaquín García and one of his assistants, Susana Medina Oaxaca, at Los Angeles Airport.
Everyone speaking at Wednesday’s hearing had asked the judge to hand down the maximum sentence allowed by law. They faced a life sentence or multiple consecutive life sentences.
“Judge, I ask you to hear my voice, that of my fellow survivors. This man and this church are far more dangerous than you can imagine. They have destroyed hundreds of lives and will continue to do so. I beg you with all my heart, because please, please, please extend your sentence to the extreme. Do this to set an example to save other victims.”
This was the request of Jane Doe 5, the last to make the appeal, repeated by different voices but with similar arguments. With that she ended her intervention, in which she spoke at length of “seven years of abuse”.
“My rapist, my tormentor”
“The abuse started slowly,” said the longhaired, pinkclad young woman.
“I was 21 years old but world naïve, Virgo. I had a friend who only kissed because everything else was forbidden. I was told that I had been chosen by Naasón for an additional blessing.”
It was the first time she had to wear lingerie for the church leader.
The situation quickly escalated, the young woman said, and soon the day came when the “scammers” of the church — as she calls them — asked her to give Joaquín García a gift. It was customary for the faithful to honor their leader, but this time it had to be “the most precious thing she had”: her virginity.
“I remember wondering why I had such a negative physical reaction when what was happening to me was so wonderful. But I never consented to having sex with you, nor would I have in a million years if it hadn’t been for the brainwashing “what they did to us,” she said, turning to her “rapist, Executioner,” even though the judge had warned her not to talk to him all the time.
2 of 2 Naasón Joaquín García — Photo: Getty Images via BBC
Naasón Joaquín García — Photo: Getty Images via BBC
The prosecutors listened with bowed heads. Defense attorney Alan Jackson looked at her head at times, the judge squinted at the accused.
She went on to describe the scene in which she lost her virginity to what she believed to be God on earth. It was violent, he said.
“There was blood everywhere. You and your scammers knew it was a horrible experience for me. You got two to grab me so I wouldn’t run away. Do you think that’s approval?”
She explained that Joaquín García used her as a sex slave for years and, when not, made her his personal maid.
“I was told that cleaning his bathroom was a blessing.”
One day she was sent to Mexico to marry “a complete stranger”.
“I felt like cattle sold.”
And in this country things got even more distorted.
“They kidnapped me, detained me 24 hours a day with their private guard. I was afraid. I thought they were going to kill me,” she said.
She said she went to the US Embassy to get help.
“His power is so great in Jalisco — the Mexican state where La Luz del Mundo was born and where his headquarters are located, known as the Hermosa Provincia in Guadalajara — that even the FBI had a hard time getting me out of there. Because I’m an American citizen, because if I wasn’t I don’t know what would have happened.”
“When I was rescued, I thought I was safe, my suffering was over. But it was just beginning.”
In a firm voice, she recounted how she started receiving death threats from members of La Luz del Mundo and how everyone distanced themselves from her.
“They started saying we were whores and that’s what we wanted. Your lawyers used our trauma against us.”
These traumas led her to see therapists.
“But I was told that they were not prepared to handle such complex cases.”
She ended up in a psychiatric facility.
“It’s my daughter that makes me follow her. He took everything from me. He is the antichrist.”
It wasn’t the only time during the hearing that that word was used to describe him. They also called him a “pedophile,” “rapist,” “criminal,” and “predator.”
And even “uncle”. It was Jane Doe 4, the first of the five, to speak. Dressed in pink too, she couldn’t stop stroking her pregnant belly.
“Naasón, my rapist, my tormentor, is my uncle,” he said.
During sex you told me to call you uncle which was sexy. Well, here, does it still sound like that to you? You’ve known me since I was born, you’ve seen me grow. You shall protect me. But you chose to take advantage of me. me. It was your choice, not mine. I just surrendered.”
“Naasón and this church have ruined my life, every aspect of it,” he said in a sentence echoed by other “survivors” of the leader of La Luz del Mundo, as they call themselves.
“I gave my life to serve him. I was vulnerable and naive and he took advantage of that. Said I was his property. He used me over and over again. I was raped and abused, day after day, year after year.”
“Remember that time…?” Jane Doe 4 continued, describing situations such as when they said they immobilized her on the floor so she couldn’t resist sex, when they forced her, “until she had to throw up”. , or as she screamed and cried at the abuse and other members of La Luz del Mundo laughed.
“Remember when you told me to bring my sister? ‘She’s only 14,’ I replied. ‘You should have brought her to me sooner,’ you told me.”
“In case you forgot, I’m here to remind you.”
He said he was taking the opportunity to speak his truth something the plea deal didn’t allow as there was no trial and to make the public understand that “it was impossible to say no to the Apostle”.
“It was tantamount to saying, ‘I have no faith,’ which means dying in Hell.”
“We were indoctrinated to believe that,” said Jane Doe 2 in her speech, who wore a light blue dress and a nose ring.
“Naasón, I’m talking to you: you destroyed me. You destroyed my life, you changed my perception of reality. You are a coward. We want the world to know what a terrible monster you are.”
“Many pastors are pedophiles”
“This has been going on for over 100 years and it has to stop. Many pastors are pedophiles. It’s disgusting and sad. I thought church was a safe place for me, but it was my worst nightmare,” added Jane Doe 2.
And he pointed to Alba Monsalvo López: “My pastor’s wife who tried to convince me that everything is fine and that she is still protecting Naasón.”
Jane Doe 3, nervous and in tears, said similar words to Alondra Ocampo, who was a codefendant in the case, pleaded guilty to four counts in October 2020 and is awaiting sentencing.
During the hearing, the role of other members of La Luz del Mundo came to light, such as Abner Nicolás Menchaca Tristán, who was present in the back row of the room, wearing a mask.
As a pastor and member of the socalled Bishops’ Council, he was responsible for transmitting the message to the community after the agreement reached with the public prosecutor’s office on Friday. Jane Doe 4 got the room to listen to him.
Jane Doe 1 did not speak during the hearing, but a statement she had written was read. “Naasón, you are a disgrace to humanity,” was one of his sentences.
“Mom, I can’t be here”
After describing Naasón’s abuse and how he stole her childhood and made her drop out of school, Jane Doe 3 recalled the day he was arrested at the Los Angeles airport.
“My mother woke me up to go to church with her and pray for my rapist, my tormentor. They all cried, screamed and prayed for Naasón. My mother started it too. I know her actions were the result of brainwashing, but she felt no pain for me, her daughter,” he explained.
“I told her, ‘Mom, I can’t be here, I have to go to school.’ I will never forget that moment. She didn’t even look at me.”
The mother of another victim spoke during the hearing. “What did I do to make you rape my daughter?” she said to Joaquín García, who still didn’t move after hours of sitting.
Other family members also asked to speak. The message was read by Jane Doe 2’s brother “our world has turned upside down” and by Jane Doe 3’s mother “because of you (Naasón), my daughter wanted to kill herself several times.”
Addressing those in attendance, Jane Doe 4’s husband said: “When this is over and everyone goes home to their loved ones I will stay with my wife and watch as she breaks down and picks up her pieces one by one.”
All rejected the settlement reached by Joaquín García’s attorneys with prosecutors, despite statements by California Assistant Attorney General Patricia Fusco, who opened the session:
“No punishment will ever erase what they went through. They were extraordinarily brave. They will be scarred for the rest of their lives and we know it, but we hope this deal helps them The Justice Department hopes they have a happy life.
From then on, the decision had already been made, as the judge said.
The journalists present did the math: 16 years and 8 months. “He’s been in prison for three years now and how long will he stay out if he’s well behaved?” one of them asked.