By Joe Meyer
Columbia Tribune [Colombia MO]
February 27, 2007
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Feb/20070226News051.asp
A former Columbia minister was sentenced to serve 14 years in prison for sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl who attended his church services in Columbia.
Roberto Edgar Lopez, 37, of Monett pleaded guilty to second-degree statutory sodomy and second-degree statutory rape. Boone County Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton sentenced him to consecutive 7-year sentences.
"I'm going to pay for what I did," Lopez told Hamilton during a brief testimony.
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| Lopez |
Lopez, whose jury trial was set for this morning, said he accepted the prosecutor's plea bargain to avoid additional charges in the case.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Nicole Gorovsky said she added a third charge of endangering the welfare of a child, but that charge was dropped when Lopez pleaded guilty.
In cases that involve sexual abuse against children, a plea bargain is sometimes the best option to protect the underage victim from having to testify at trial, Gorovsky said.
"There is that balancing act," she said. "We're willing to go to trial in the interest of justice, but we want to protect her as much as possible. And in that balancing act, we came up with the plea that we did."
Public Defender Michael Coles, who represented Lopez, declined to comment about the case this morning.
Columbia police received a complaint last July after the victim's mother found suspicious instant messages on her home computer. The messages indicated that her daughter had been corresponding with Lopez.
The victim's father, who lives out of state, also reported finding similar instant messages on his computer, which his daughter used during her visits with him.
Lopez had been minister of Iglesia Metodista Unida Hispana, a Spanish initiative supported by Fairview United Methodist Church in Columbia. Last summer, Lopez was transferred to Monett to start a Spanish-speaking United Methodist Church there.
Reach Joe Meyer at (573) 815-1718 or jmeyer@tribmail.com.
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