SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
The Press-Enterprise
12:34 AM PST on Tuesday, December 28, 2004
By JOHN F. BERRY / The Press-Enterprise
SAN BERNARDINO - A jury found a San Bernardino pastor not guilty of one charge of lewd acts on a child Monday and could not reach a decision on the other, court officials said.
John Pepe Molia, 69, was arrested in 2002 and charged with the molestation of two underage sisters from his First Assembly of God Church congregation in San Bernardino.
"My client maintained his innocence throughout," Rajan Maline, Molia's attorney, said Monday. "The jury saw it his way."
Deputy District Attorney Jane Templeton was on vacation when the jury returned Monday.
Her boss, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Dwight Moore, said Monday that he is unsure whether the district attorney's office will retry the charge that resulted in a hung jury. Moore said jurors voted 7-5 in favor of guilt on that charge.