Friday, November 26, 2010

Youth Pastor Anthony Martinez arrested

A youth pastor from that Santa Maria de la Paz out of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has been arrested for sexual crimes against a child. Youth pastor Anthony Martinez was arrested for raping a teen boy. A second victim has also been identified.

According to police Edge Youth Minister Anthony Martinez, 34, used alcohol and bribes to get close to his two alleged victims. Police said both were 15-year-old boys.

Investigators said Martinez met one victim through the church's youth program. After inviting the boy to his home several times, promising alcoholic drinks, Martinez talked the teen boy into masturbating with him as they watched a "Girls Gone Wild" video.

That last paragraph give me the creeps.

It looks like Santa Maria de la Paz took precautions.

Ortega y Ortiz said Martinez started working with the youth program four or five years ago, and that he had passed a criminal background check and went through an archdiocese program at the time concerning the protection of children.

Father Adam Ortega y Ortiz is the pastor at Santa Maria de la Paz. He seem genuinely interested in protecting the children at his church. I wonder if here is more a church can do in situations like this? What is reasonable here? Do youth pastors need to go through a yearly psychological test?